From the acclaimed author and columnist: a laugh-out-loud journey into the world of real estateâthe true story of one womanâs âimperfect life lived among imperfect housesâ and her quest for the four perfect walls to call home.
After an itinerant suburban childhood and countless moves as a grown-upâfrom New York City to Lincoln, Nebraska; from the Midwest to the West Coast and backâMeghan Daum was living in Los Angeles, single and in her mid-thirties, and devoting obscene amounts of time not to her writing career or her dating life but to the pursuit of property: scouring Craigslist, visiting open houses, fantasizing about finding the right place for the right price. Finally, near the height of the real estate bubble, she succumbed, depleting her lifeâs savings to buy a 900-square-foot bungalow, with a garage that âbore a close resemblance to the ruins of Pompeiiâ and plumbing that âdated back to the Coolidge administration.â
From her motherâs decorating manias to her own âhidden roomâ dreams, Daum explores the perils and pleasures of believing that only a house can make you whole. With delicious wit and a keen eye for the absurd, she has given us a pitch-perfect, irresistible tale of playing a lifelong game of house.