On Sundays, I drive about 45 minutes north to spend time with my family. We go to church, eat a relaxed lunch at our favorite Chinese restraunt, and hang out while I do laundry. It's especially nice as they have a large screen TV, and we rent a lot of movies.

But our new hobby (and one that even Mr. Bunny Slippers has joined in on once) is looking at model homes. My parents have been wanting to remodel their house for awhile, so they go under the pretense of looking for decorating ideas. But I've always loved open houses and house hunting even when it was just for pretend. When I was little, we used to go on walks as a family and I would beg and plead to go into any open house we came across. I would march straight to the master suite, and announce "this is going to be MY room." Now, it's more of a drag to really look for a house as everything is still SO over priced in Los Angeles. This past weekend, I saw some sad $1.6MM houses with rather scary bathrooms that hadn't been redone since the 60's. (And no, of course that isn't in my price range.)

But there is something about the model homes with their uniform exteriors, shiny new floors and appliances, and postage stamp backyards that I find really enjoyable. I even enjoy the fake family pictures they put on the mantles. And they always set up the most divine vignettes for reading. It's like an invitation to use your imagination.

There's also a certain fun to choosing your favorite model and features. "Heavens no, I'll have to take the 'Tuscany' model - I simply can't deal with that funny shaped balcony on the 'Palo Verdes.'" "We'll need to get the tile upgrades. This won't do at all." I could do this every weekend. And I don't ever feel sad that I can't really live there... there's usually something weird about the community (bad location, houses too close together, tiny yards) that makes it not entirely ideal. It comes just close enough to set the stage for some first class daydreaming.