David Adam Edelstein wrote about a yard design project today, and it really increased my already strong interest in actually owning a house. I’m not planning to buy any time soon (certainly not this year, and probably not next), but I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about it lately. I think something must be wrong with me when reading about someone doing hard labor for no pay makes me want to go spend many, many thousands of dollars to be able to do the same.

In June, I will have been living in the same apartment for four years. That’s a lot longer than I expected to be here! It’s a great place in a very convenient location, and I think the rent is ok considering it’s in Belltown. My girlfriend lives in the same building, which is ridiculously cool. And I’m happy here. But there are things I can’t do that I wish I could.

I would really like to be able to put up a DirecTV dish like we had at my senior year house in Oregon and avoid the evil cable company. But my apartment faces the wrong direction, is on the ground floor and all of my exposed outside areas are accessible by anyone strolling by on the sidewalk. Similar issues prevent me from putting up any other kinds of antennas. I hate having to pay more than 10% of my rent every month just to have a safe place to park my car. I constantly am wanting to make improvements to my place, but I don’t want to throw money into a rented apartment. And I really wish I had a nice yard with a nice lawn and a back porch where I could sit, relax and fire up the grill.

I get severe pangs of jealousy when I see someone else abusing their bodies and driving themselves to exhaustion doing yard improvments. What has happened to me? Am I turning into a suburbanite? It’s getting a bit scary…