I have been watching a number of these home improvement type shows of late, and I am the first to admit that what they do is absolutely amazing and magnificent.
My concern however; relates to whether what they are doing is necessary and the effect that this has on the psyche of the general population. In other words, these shows have the effect of ramping up our expectations to an unreasonable level. After all, do we all need to live in such luxury to be happy?
I don't know about you, but I would answer this question with a definite 'no'. I live in a modest house where two of my children share a bedroom. I don't think this is a bad thing even though it goes against the trend of bigger and bigger houses (I actually had someone come into my house and point out to me that there house was bigger than mine!). In fact, I suspect it will do the two of them good.
My rationale is simple - I could get a bigger house tomorrow or perhaps put on an extension, but that would make my mortgage bigger which would in turn increase stress and mean that I have less money to do things with the family.
Also, no matter how big my house is, we all tend to gather in the same few rooms most of the time, and after all, isn't this what a family should do - spend time together!
As such, I am going to keep my renovations realistic. A bit of painting here and there, perhaps some new curtains and some time making the garden nice. More importantly, we will take the odd family holiday and I should be able to retire sometime before I'm 90!!
What do you think? Am I going mad?