Lessons from HGTV

Poor Jeff. During our engagement, I insisted on watching bridal shows thinking I would learn something from the crazy antics on Bridezillas or pick up valuable decorating tips from My Fair Wedding with David Tutera. Now that we are married, I have become a huge HGTV junkie. The only difference this time around is that Jeff is equally as hooked as I am. Our DVR is filled with episodes of House Hunters and Property Virgins, and we dream of the day when Sandra Rinomato will help us find our first home.

These shows have not only made us think about what "must haves" we want in our first home, but have helped us put together a list of things to say when looking. Here are a few of my favorites:

• "Great natural light!" This is pretty important for us, considering our natural light right now is blocked by buildings or comes from street posts and tail lights.

• Wife to her husband: "This is a huge closet, but where will your things go?" I am pretty sure Jeff has more clothes than I do, but I do have more shoes and tons of t-shirts from my college/sorority days, so I will use this line anyways.

• "This would make a great man cave/space/room." In some instances, the wife disagrees and will say it is the perfect craft room. Luckily for Jeff, I do not craft.

• "I love the open floor concept." This is great. I can pretend to be busy in the kitchen while Jeff watches WWE Raw on Monday nights and steal glances without him knowing I am actually interested.

Watching endless hours of HGTV goes hand-in-hand with another favorite past-time of mine: online house shopping. I usually shop for homes in the Dallas area because we can get a lot more bang for our buck than in New York/New Jersey/Connecticut, and Jeff does not have to worry about me making an impulse purchase. However, I came across a house the other day that made me want to pack up our apartment and grab the first flight to Dallas (if only it were that easy).

I love the vintage charm with the modern updates in this house. And that backyard is amazing - perfect for entertaining! Jeff has some issues with my dream home, though. He is not a fan of the front of the house and doesn't appreciate custom built-ins as much as I do. But we both agree that it has great natural light, or at least from what we can see in the photos....

While we dream of having a larger kitchen or a bathroom big enough for the both of us to fit in comfortably, we are pretty happy with our one-bedroom apartment. Painting made a world of a difference, although the process was a pain in the butt. There were holes that needed to be covered up, and we are not exactly the most talented painters. I am sure HGTV has a show or two to help with these kinds of problems, but we painted the apartment during my bridal show phase. The finished product is not perfect, but it made our apartment feel more like home.

And yes, I did most of the painting while Jeff documented the whole thing. I am bad, but he is TERRIBLE!