Why I can't go on Houzz anymore

I really like my house. No, I'm not head over heels in love with it; it's not on an ocean or in the mountains, it's not a mid-century modern work of art or an 1890s painted lady, it doesn't have nooks and crannies, a butlers pantry or a winding staircase. It's just a suburban, 1970s split level with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths that is an 8-minute walk to the train station that was in our price range -- therefore, making it perfect.

Over the last 9 years this house has sucked our bank account dry. It's the Money Pit minus the fountain of the boy taking a pee. When the kids head off to college, saddled with loans because we cared more about replacing drafty 40 year old windows than a 529, we'll burn rubber down the street with the For Sale sign out front. Where we'll go is anyone's guess but it won't be a place where -20 windchill is in the nightly forecast, that's for sure.

In the meanwhile, I try to find more ways to liquidate our bank account by getting design ideas from Houzz, pouring through incredible home designs and vistas that seem almost unreal. It's eye candy, escapism for the interior-ally challenged. It's just picture after picture of gorgeousness - people who definitely have more cash flow and talent than the average person (or at least me).

Sigh. So I have to quit dreaming and finding change in the couch to pay for my next home improvement project and love the "Home" I have created with my husband & 2 kids because ...

We will never have a bedroom with an amazing view, unless you count my neighbors shed and kids swimming in a paddling pool a VIEW.

We will never have a shed cleaner than my house, and without bugs, mice & dirt. It is a shed after all.

Our kids don't make hipster cool art. And it isn't going on our backsplash.

Our office space is not this inspiring, feng shui'd, or jaw-dropping. In fact, we don't even have one.

I will never have a laundry chute

Wait! Does this count?

Nor will I have that carefree effortless design cool - "What? That QA? Oh I just found it lying in a garbage on my way home from Pilates. I have a knack for finding cool treasures like this." GAG!

And last but not least, we will never have an outdoor shower (or at least my neighbors hope we won't)

So Houzz, unless you show me a house with dirty socks on the floor, kids toys scattered in every crevice, and a couch with a pillow barricade so the cats don't scratch it at night, I must bid adieu. Farewell fond friend.