OK, this isn’t an excuse—there’s no need to make an excuse for not having done something that you do for fun, right?—but let me just say that when you own a home, you have less time for idleness than you do when you rent.
Actually, I suppose it’s that you have more responsibilities—you can still be idle and lazy, but it feels a bit irresponsible. We’ve owned our home for about six weeks now and have lived in it for about four. I still spend massive amounts of time watching television (more than ever, in fact, damn you, TiVo, for surfacing the good stuff) and reading and working and all that, but I also do things like clean the house and work in the garden (very little, but more than I’ve ever done in my life—not hard since I’ve never done anything in a garden except sit, drink, chat, and read). I also spend a lot of time thinking about the house—pondering purchases and room layouts and what could be improved.
I've always had a rather casual approach to house-cleaning, but now I want to keep the place dust-free and tidy because I actually want visitors. After years of subtly discouraging stop-bys (it’s nothing personal, I’m just rather hermitic by nature), these days I find myself looking for excuses to get people to come by. Part of it is showing off, but it’s not just that—it just feels like a nice place to hang out. I’m considering buying drinks that I don’t care for—for my visitors, don’t you know. When I’m at the store, I think about having things on hand that I could serve up if someone stopped by.
