Is there a link between home improvement and emptiness?

Wow I was floored when I read a recent article by Jennifer Moses of the Christian Science Monitor, that suggested that there may indeed be a link between inner shortcomings and Americans obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to constantly updating and decorating our homes.

Jennifer suggest:

Our real estate agent tells us that the problem is two-fold. First, the bathrooms haven't been updated since the '90s. Second, the kitchen doesn't have slate counters.

She also concedes that the economy isn't as robust as it could be – and even if it were, she says, young people want all the latest.

But, really, do counters matter that much to people? Could this obsession with home improvement represent some deeper emptiness within us?

I am not, of course, unbiased in all this, as I happen to think that our Baton Rouge home is about as to-die-for as they come. But our agent is right about the kitchen and the baths. They do not sport any of the kind of up-to-date ultra-in interior accountrements now in high demand. Things like marble countertops and glassed-in cabinets; Sub-Zero refrigerators and built-in wine coolers; "Tuscan farmhouse" distressed-wood built-ins and antiqued pressed-tin ceilings and restored cast-iron claw-footed bathtubs and Tiffany-inspired wall sconces and recessed lighting and ecofriendly designer closets and natural stone toilets and kitchen drawers outfitted with built-in molded cutlery holders. Full article here.

It's always easy to point to the middle aged man, going through a mid life crisis and relate it to his need buy a sports car. But what about the 30 something husband and wife that maintain feelings of inadequacies simply because their appliances are not Viking while their neighbors are?