Today’s prompt asks: What does your ideal community look like? How is it organized, and how is community life structured? What values does the community share?

I think I prefer the term “idyll” instead of “ideal” for this one. Though they sound the same, these are two completely different words. I looked it up because I don’t trust my memory. Idyll means simple, charming, or rustic while ideal means a standard of perfection or excellence.

See? Idyll describes me. That’s why my blog is called A Simple Life? Or An Idyllic Life? Which sounds better? Nah I think I’ll stick with A Simple Life since I thought of it first.

So back to the prompt.

Have I mention I enjoy watching House Hunter? I enjoy that show because watching people looking at houses is a way of traveling for me. I get to see different parts of the country and all the variety of neighborhoods.

The ones I really enjoy are those that are located in the old neighborhoods on the east coast. You know, the kind of neighborhoods that survived the wars of Early U.S? The ones with houses that are easily a-hundred-years-old? The ones with large trees shading the front yards and the back yard is either small or enormous?

I mostly like the historic charm and the unique characters of each home. As well as that, it’s got plenty of trees. I like trees and plants. They help the neighborhood to not look so bare.

There’s a neighborhood that’s like that about 45 minutes from me. It’s in a city call Sugar House. Most of the houses are built either in the early 1900’s or prior to that. So it cannot be torn down and rebuilt.

From the outside, these houses looked battered. Tree roots sprout randomly in the front yard while wild grass grow just about everywhere not to mention the houses are horrifically expensive. A small house can easily go up to 500K.

When we were looking at houses about 6 years ago, we were looking at this area. I kind of enjoyed this area but mom complained the houses were too small, too expensive, and too battered. I thought it was pretty cozy and unique if I was the only one living here but mom was right. With us bickering all the time, there’s no way a small house can suit us. So we went away from the city.

Looking at those houses got me dreaming. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a nice little cottage or rambler all to myself?