I am now officially house hunting.

I have moved out of the pre-house hunting phase and into the drudgery of having to get up early every single bloody Saturday morning to buy the paper and hit the property inspection trail. Getting emailed lists of properties, emailing agents for inspection times, referring to the street directory to pinpoint locations of possible properties.

I have moved beyond �I don�t quite have enough of a deposit yet� to �I have pre-approval from the bank�. Well, several banks, and the range of the amounts I�ve been pre-approved to borrow is somewhat stunning in its width and breadth, but apparently that is normal.

I am quickly figuring out what I do want, what I don�t want, and what I can live with in the name of getting this process over with. I want a two bedroom apartment or unit with built in robes in at least one bedroom, a bathroom that includes a bath, a decent sized living room � preferably that the front door doesn�t open directly into � and a balcony. I will sacrifice the robes if the bedrooms are big enough. I will let go of the balcony if the living room is big enough. If the place is at the top end of my price range I want decent fittings in the kitchen and bathroom because it will be some time before I can do anything to change them. If at the bottom end of my range then that won�t matter too much and I�ll probably be happier to rip out stuff I don�t like and replace it before I even move in.

I both hope it doesn�t take too long and am afraid it�ll happen to fast. I know that either way my hand is going to be shaking severely when I go to write out that deposit cheque. I am rather comforted to see that chunk of cash sitting in the bank earning interest, even though I�m getting a little desperate to have my own place.

And I am getting a little desperate. Though, surprisingly enough, as time goes on that desperation is getting less and less about being thoroughly sick of living in share houses, and more and more about just having my own space to do with as I wish. To paint and carpet as I want. To finally be able to buy all the furniture I keep putting off buying because I don�t want to purchase any big-ticket items for fear they won�t fit wherever I eventually buy.

For a couple of years now I have been buying interior design magazines � I�m totally addicted to British Elle Decoration � to get ideas and to balance out the fashion magazines. The vague theory being that while Vogue may inspire me to keep buying shoes, the deco magazines would remind me about my home owning goal and make me save more towards it, thus tempering the shoe buying. This theory has been successfully applied only up to a point, I am willing to admit.

Anyway, I�ve been tearing pages out of the deco magazines and throwing them in a drawer for some time. Yesterday, now that I�m fully on track for property ownership, I pulled the stack of clippings out of the drawer and started creating a scrapbook of images and pieces of furniture that may actually be applicable to my future home. I threw the more fantastic-win-the-lottery pictures back in the drawer.

Starting to put together the scrapbook was the fun part of the weekend�s apartment hunting, even if I was doing it while watching my football team capitulate entirely and end its start of the season winning run. So many colours, styles and possibilities, and most of them within the realms of possibility in the medium future if not right away. It�s exciting.

It�s also clear that as soon as I actually buy something and get off the house hunting treadmill, I�ll no doubt hop straight on to the furniture hunting merry-go-round. All my Saturdays will continue to be taken up by inspecting and being disappointed either with price or appearance.

But at least with furniture shopping I�ll still get to sleep in.