Impossible as it seems, we have moved from an extraordinary swap home to one of the most exquisite I have ever seen, particularly up close. It would be difficult to top the Napa house we had. For instance, the photo at the top of this column is of the exchangers' cat, Amelia. She is perfection in feline form, as you can clearly see. Her affectionate presence greatly enhanced our swap experience.
This vacation is leading me to believe that home exchange is the best thing ever. First we were in a beautiful house on top of Northern California's most picturesque hill. We had amazing views of live oaks, green and slightly dusty amidst golden grass. It was just two miles from downtown Napa but felt completely rural.
This led to one of the minor hassles of home exchange: having to be a responsible adult. With the swappers' permission we had visitors for a few days. Our dear friends, a married couple who recently moved to LA, drove up to spend time with us. One evening as we chatted outside on the redwood deck the folks from LA noticed an outdoor fireplace. They were eager to make a cozy fire. Having lived in California for over a decade I was not as excited as the newcomers from Chicago to combine fire with parched Northern California meadows.
I'm sure it would have been absolutely fine to have a fire in the small fireplace which was clearly designed for that purpose. But as a home exchanger I had to be hyper-vigilant, treating the swappers' house with more care than I would show to my own place in a similar circumstance.
Basically, my home exchange code of conduct boils down to this: if something happened, could a neutral observer rationally ask "What were they thinking?" I could have set a fire outdoors in Northern California during the worst wildfire season in living memory. But if the swappers' house had burned down, could someone ask of my actions "What was she thinking?" When it got chilly we got blankets from our friends' car instead.
If you use my home I hope you will ask yourself the same question before, say, playing whiffle ball in my kitchen. Thanks.
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