House Flipper Fantasy

H and I flip houses. We find real estate a fascinating affair. It took me a bit, but I can get just as a excited as he can when it comes down to it. I love the idea of picking out cabinets, flooring, and paint for a house that I will never live in. Seeing how a putrid piece of property shakily standing on its last leg can almost overnight come together into something beautiful makes me proud.

We really think of it as a service we are doing for the community not just a job. A beautification of sorts. Though sometimes we get obsessed. We talk about houses and various properties continuously. What's the deal with this one or that one? Have you heard back from the so and so. What contractor are we going with for the bathrooms and so on. I swear one day we will find we talk only in "house speak".

At night we watch the Home and Garden channel learning, absorbing and alternately yelling at the screen as someone does something incredibly dumb during a flip.

We brush our teeth and discuss over mouthfuls of foamy spit how to landscape a property.

We peruse the paper over Sunday brunch and talk about drywall.

I would not be surprised if one day we find ourselves furtively whispering into each others ears, "oak cabinets...yeah.. teak floors, oooh baby you know how I love backsplash tiling..."

It's like a disease. I often wonder this as I watch other house flippers on TV if they have become such a product of their environment and jobs. I fear we are becoming like people abducted by the planet HGTV and Designed to Sell.