Confession
I have a new addiction. It’s a mix of curiosity and greed. It’s time-consuming and has not yet led to any concrete results. It’s funda.nl.
Funda.nl is managed by the Dutch association of estate agents. I’m looking for a house in Amsterdam, and this is one of the sites that helps me look. It’s incredibly addictive, not only because it features many terrific, though expensive houses, but also because it allows you to look inside other people’s living rooms. The photos of the interior are the first thing I click on. Never mind such details as the size, the prize, the monthly costs - what does it look like? Sometimes it’s hard to look past the inhabitant’s clutter in a photo, and sometimes I just love a wooden floor, a door handle, or a kitchen cupboard, and am ready to buy the entire apartment because of it. Ah, the virtual house hunt…
3 Responses to “Confession”
Leave a Reply
Now reading
Just finished reading
Mmm… Electronic voyeurism…
In San Francisco (one of many cities) there is a lot of home staging for houses on the market, Professionals are literally homemakers and “play house” to make it feel cozy and comfy so that buyers can visualize living in the house with all the accessories. Mostly, the furnishings are more like nightmares, than dreamhomes, but still fun to see. The Ikea vignettes are especially fun to “live in”. Sometime in the near future, I’d like to make myself at home and invite a friend to have lunch with me in one of the kitchens. a little irreverent reverse reality tv.
You know, you might be on to something there! Apart from the nightmare hyper-real furnishings and the fake smell of freshly-baked bread, what these professional homemakers need is actors who “play house” while potential buyers come to visit. Not the true inhabitants of the house, of course, but people who resemble the archetype of the cosy housewife, the daughter doing her homework in the study, the elderly couple enjoying the sun in the garden. I think we should set up an agency!