The Pretty Package

So - my husband and I are looking to buy a house considering we can get a good deal right now. Well, it's been awhile since I've actually looked inside "used" homes. Let me explain - it's common around here to build a new house from scratch instead of buying someone else's old, stinky, used house. That's pretty much the mentality here - everything must be new, shiny and perfect!

Anyway, we pull up to this beautiful house that could easily pass for a giant size dollhouse. The inside was perfect and immaculate. Portraits of two beautiful little girls hung all over the walls - their bedrooms decorated in adorable pastel colors and cutesy, girly decorations. Two little princesses who still believed in fairy tales.


"Wow! What a cute family," I thought to myself, "they must be selling in order to buy a bigger house and expand their family."

Then Reality Hit!

Realtor: "Oh!! Now I know what the problem is in this house," she exclaimed as she walked ahead of us into the master bedroom.

Me: "What? Is there a dead body in there?" I said half jokingly

Realtor: "Not Yet"

Me: Laughing nervously, but slowing my steps as I hesitated by the doorway

Realtor: "She's gone!"

Me: "Who's gone?" now almost in a panic about what she found - a ghost? a demon? an old creepy lady in a rocking chair????!!!!! AAAHHH!

Realtor: "The wife, she's gone," as she points out the lack of women's clothes in the master closet and no feminine products in the bathroom. "See, this was her sink," as she opened the cabinet below to reveal nothing but makeup remnants and a few forgotten hair ties. "See the furniture in this bedroom? I bet she took all the good furniture. This looks like it was his as a child, probably got it from his parents house."

Me: "Oh, right..." as I glanced out the window, revealing a tiny playhouse in the backyard. A perfect miniature version of the main house, now with weeds growing up around it.

So is life in the surburbs. Often a very pretty package with a lot of heartbreak inside.