$pent Millennial

Dear Reader,

We are going to love it.

At least for this weekend.

Along with Fixer Upper and other HGTV shows, Jesse and I have been watching a lot of Love It or List It recently.

If you’re not familiar, Love It or List It follows couples and families whose homes are no longer working for them. They bring in both a realtor and a designer. The realtor searches for potential new homes while the designer renovates the one they already have. Each professional works with a wishlist and a budget, and at the end the homeowners must decide: do they love their newly renovated home enough to stay, or will they list it and move into one of the new options?

The show consistently features couples with budgets that make me blink twice, and they often act like spoiled children while making demands of both the designer and the realtor.

And yet… we still enjoy it.

I have enjoyed these shows since childhood, but lately watching these shows hits a little closer to home. What started as casual “practice” house shopping has quickly turned into something more real. We’ve moved from browsing listings for fun to actually submitting offers.

And in our still-competitive seller’s market, that shift has been… discouraging.

It is very easy to slip into a scarcity mindset when you’re looking at homes in your price range. What once felt like a fun exercise in imagining the future can quickly turn into stress, comparison, and disappointment—especially when homes seem priced well beyond what you feel they’re worth.

Recently, we looked at another house where I found myself wondering: Do I actually like this house… or do I just like that it’s in our price range? Can I see ourselves fitting here.. or am I forcing a fit? 

That question stopped me in my tracks.

When something that should feel exciting starts feeling overwhelming, it can become all-consuming. It’s easy to start making decisions from a place of pressure instead of clarity.

And that’s not how I want to make a decision as big as buying a home.

So instead of just “sleeping on it,” Jesse and I decided to take a real break. We created a weekend challenge to help us clear our heads & shift our mindset around house hunting. From Friday through Sunday, we will not look at listings, open Zillow links, talk about houses, or even think about home buying.

If we succeed, we’ll treat ourselves to breakfast at our favorite local diner.

(I’m choosing to believe writing this post doesn’t count against the challenge. I made the rule, after all.)

So for this weekend, with home buying officially off the table, we’re focusing on all the things we love about our current little home—our rented apartment.

There were no dramatic renovations to make us love it more. No magical in-unit laundry installation to solve one of our biggest annoyances.

But I’ve been spending the weekend leaning into the things I genuinely love about this space and putting a little TLC into caring for it.

I’ve been swapping in spring bedding, pulling out lighter mugs, and shifting our decor toward the season ahead.

And I’ve been savoring the everyday moments that make this place feel like home.

Things like:

• Taking a morning walk downtown, picking up a seasonal chai latte, and strolling along the nature path while listening to a true crime podcast
  
• Cooking in my kitchen—which, while not perfect, works beautifully for the way I actually cook
  
• Sitting in my little coffee nook in our cozy dining room
  
• Watching our dog stretch out in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and sliding door that overlook the courtyard
  
• Waking up in the middle of a thunderstorm and realizing I don’t have to worry about roof leaks, foundation cracks, or property damage
  
• Appreciating that our housing costs sit comfortably within the percentage of our budget we’ve intentionally set aside for them
  
• Prepping the balcony for spring—seed shopping and planning another hopeful attempt at container gardening
  
• Looking forward to the mornings when I’ll soon be able to sit outside with a cup of coffee before work

In the next couple of weeks, we’ll need to decide whether to sign our lease again.

And before making that decision, it feels important to pause and really appreciate what we have here—especially at the price point we’ve managed to secure.

We may still keep looking for a home.

Maybe seriously.
Maybe casually.

But this weekend has reminded me that home isn’t just the next thing we’re chasing.

Sometimes it’s the place we’re already in—if we slow down enough to notice it.

Until next week, take care,

Everett