Some people don't have an easy time imagining something different than it currently is. I've always had a pretty easy time of it, so it surprised me when my gi

Some people don't have an easy time imagining something different than it currently is. I've always had a pretty easy time of it, so it surprised me when my girlfriend (now wife!) told me she had to see a shirt to know if she liked it or not. I stared at the picture, dumbfounded. But apparently pictures don't really do things justice for her, and she can't do it. Likewise, when we're designing a layout for a room, she has to see it before she can really appreciate it, whereas I can see it in my mind and be perfectly happy that I know what it'll look like. We've been house-hunting lately, and the ugly houses with horrible wallpaper or gaudy colors everywhere are really hard to envision without them. Even I'm having trouble with it, but she can't see that first picture without exclaiming about how horrible it is. And there's one other reason: We're trading up houses, and there's a ton of expenses and things to get done. If the house needs a lot of work, like carpets, painting, new kitchen, etc, that means we need somewhere to live while it gets done, or go without a kitchen/etc until it's done. That means holding onto 2 mortgages for a while, which is crazy expensive. (You get it back later, but it's a nightmare until then.) Picking a house that's already what you want is a lot easier, and a house has to be pretty cheap to make that tradeoff. For the record, it looks like we're going to put the work in. But only the minimum to move in, and then have to do a lot of it over time as we live there. It's a pretty daunting propostion.