The House that Kris Built

You know summer is approaching when the revolving doors of Casa Madison start to swing. My buddy Kevin came out for a few days last week. He's been here before, but this was the first time without his girlfriend. He's been considering making a move out west, so I took him around, checked out possible places he'd like to work and took a look at an apartment advertised on Craigslist. All in all we had a good visit, but I don't think he's going to move out here, mostly for the same reasons I keep thinking about settling somewhere else - it's too bloody expensive!

I go back and forth on this quite a bit. I love living in walking distance to great restaurants, pubs, the markets. I would like to be closer to a beach (any beach) and hiking trails. Those are still a bit of a drive for me, but not so far a drive that it's not worth going for just an hour. Which I do, probably once a week. If I were to move to an area with cheaper rent, that puts me a lot farther away from that kind of stuff, which is pretty much the whole reason I live out here in the first place.

I also really do love my living arrangement in this house. It's ridiculously expensive, but the benefits are the community. I probably eat dinner with my landlord 3 or 4 times a week. We barbecue, he watches my dogs if I'm going to be gone for the night, we're friends. And when you move to a city where you don't really know anyone else, that's pretty important.

The downsides are there is absolutely zero privacy. My office, where I'm sitting right now & where I would like to be doing cam shows, has a window that looks onto the pathway that all of my neighbors walk past. Constantly. With their children. Window closed, drapes shut, they can hear everything clear as a bell. Inside the house is just as bad. I usually wait until I'm the only one here before I even attempt shooting pictures so that I don't get busted.

Now that I'm a bit more established here, I probably could handle living elsewhere and just coming over to hang out once in a while. But after living like this, I think I'd be looking for another house where I get to live with a bunch of people who look out for each other. Is this the new urban family? Without all the guilt and yelling? *grin*