Ernest Hemingway’s House

I love houses, but I don’t ever think about owning one. I mean, not really. As a single person who isn’t the least bit handy, and who has always lived in rentals or a parsonage I just don’t think I’m up to home ownership either financially or practically. There are many homes for which I have a special emotional fondness and I love pretty architecture and interior design. But I’ve never had a huge choice in where I was going to live so I’m no good with those house hunting shows on HGTV. I just say, “That place is perfectly nice! Get THAT one!” I don’t understand why people are so picky about houses. I feel like you can make just about any space pretty great if you decorate it in a way that expresses you. To me, a house is a place that you set up so that it’s home and then you live there. You don’t go to Home Depot every weekend and have an eternal list of home improvement projects.  You get it how you like it, and you live. Maybe I would be different if I had a house and any home improvement skills.

Anyway, today I finally understood that sensation that people get when they find THEIR house. I found MY dream house down here in Key West, Florida. Oh, how I want this house. With these tiles and many of these furnishings. This is MY house! I would give anything to have this house! Except there’s a problem: it’s called Reality.

It’s the Ernest Hemingway house. So even if I meet a sugar daddy who will buy the house for me and then keep it staffed full time so that I can spend a few weeks a year there, it’s just not very likely that the Ernest Hemingway Museum people and the Key West community would be down with that plan.

It was hard to visit my house today and have all these TOURISTS all over it. SHEESH.

Here’s a bunch of photos. Please say only nice things, as I would have chosen pretty much every detail to be exactly the same if it really was my house, down to the Spanish birthing stools in the bedroom and bathroom, and the lace-wrapped chandelier in the bedroom. I would also have forty-four cats, all with six toes. The close-up is of Olivia de Haviland. That’s the cat’s name. I don’t know the other darling’s names.

Click on the photos to see the full image. Welcome to my dream house.

2 Replies to “Ernest Hemingway’s House”

  1. Thanks for the memories. That house is one of my fondest memories of a trip to Key West five-or-so years ago. Amazing place.

  2. I love it! So sorry about those darn tourists.

    And I love what you say about HGTV house hunting shows. Whenever my sister and I are visiting our mother at the same time, we watch a ton of those. My mom has always loved houses and my sister is looking to buy her first condo. I will be renting / parsonaging for at least another few years, so I just can’t get as worked up about whether or not a place has undermounted sinks.

    Although, if Hemingway’s house has those, I am REALLY interested in a timeshare.

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