The Backstory...

I'm one of those crazy home-obsessed types. You know, the kind that spends most evenings scanning decorating magazines, has a huge file system full of clippings relating to all things home, and draws out floor-plans on cocktail napkins. It's gotten so bad that after I visit someone else's home, I spend the next week redecorating and remodeling it in my head.
We love old homes, and like most design nuts we could never even imagine living in a cookie-cutter suburban home. The kind of home you can't tell from your neighbor's, the ones with absolutely no style or personality, the home we joked about and ridiculed. And yet, here we are living in and slowly developing a little respect (and possibly even some love) for our little generic tract home.
Where did it all go wrong, you ask? It's hard to say. We sure had a good start. Our first home was an adorable little 1920's 1 1/2 story with original hardwood floors and charming rounded doorways. Next, we moved to a great 100-year-old farmhouse that had been "uniquely" remodeled by its previous owners. We spent 3 years undoing their mark on the house and bringing back it's charm. It was the perfect house, but it was in a very un-perfect location (busy road, 'cross from a biker bar, in Kenosha of all places) so it was clear we could not stay.
When the time came to move closer to work we were excited to look at all the adorable older homes in the 'burb I work in. Our excitement quickly faded when we realized that to get one (even the lowliest fixer-upper), we would have to spend 3-4 times what we were selling our current home for and would be getting 1/4 of the space. So economics forced us into our current situation, but we are finding out there actually are some benefits to a 1990's tract home and maybe, if we work really hard, we could actually come to love this place.