Kim Jeffries Loves House Hunters

By Venus Zine Staff
Published: August 24th, 2010 | 11:30am

You know you've reached a certain stage in life when your TV is constantly tuned to HGTV. But without near-constant repeats of real estate programs like House Hunters and its globally inclined sister show House Hunters International, how else is a budget-conscious, apartment-bound girl (whose best view consists largely of a cement wall) supposed to see the world and live vicariously through others?

Each episode of House Hunters introduces viewers to some restless souls looking for a new home—sometimes the stars are looking for a bigger space to fit a family that's outgrown its current digs, other times the show features a wealthy world traveler searching for an exotic vacation villa. Whether the budget is microscopically small or astronomically big, the show introduces viewers to creative ways of relating to their surroundings. It's hard not to be drawn to the stunningly restored 19th-century Napa Valley farmhouses that multimillionaires make their vacation homes—or to the (admittedly shoebox) flats that for $150,000 can get an expat a full-time home on the Amalfi Coast of Italy.

It's also occasionally gratifying to watch nit-picky house hunters complain about things like paint color and light fixtures—easy things to change when you don't need permission from a landlord—and miss the bigger picture of good bones and spot-on location. It makes me feel like I know a thing or two about home ownership as I sit in my rented living room looking wistfully at the parking-garage wall out the window.

Kim Jeffries is Venus Zine's On the Verge Editor.