diff --git a/lib/homesick.rb b/lib/homesick.rb
index 6e9da4f..a0fa207 100644
--- a/lib/homesick.rb
+++ b/lib/homesick.rb
@@ -54,11 +54,9 @@ class Homesick < Thor
 
   desc "list", "List cloned castles"
   def list
-    inside repos_dir do
-      Pathname.glob('*') do |home|
-        inside home do
-          say_status home, `git config remote.origin.url`, :cyan
-        end
+    Pathname.glob(repos_dir + "*") do |castle|
+      Dir.chdir castle do # so we can call git config from the right contxt
+        say_status castle.basename.to_s, `git config remote.origin.url`.chomp, :cyan
       end
     end
   end
@@ -67,11 +65,11 @@ class Homesick < Thor
   no_tasks do
     # class method, so it's convenient to stub out during tests
     def self.user_dir
-      @user_dir ||= Pathname.new('~').expand_path
+      @user_dir ||= Pathname.new(ENV['HOME'] || '~').expand_path
     end
 
     def self.repos_dir
-      @repos_dir ||= Pathname.new('~/.homesick/repos').expand_path
+      @repos_dir ||= user_dir.join('.homesick', 'repos').expand_path
     end
 
     def repos_dir
diff --git a/spec/homesick_spec.rb b/spec/homesick_spec.rb
index 9cdba4d..39247e3 100644
--- a/spec/homesick_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/homesick_spec.rb
@@ -30,4 +30,24 @@ describe Homesick do
       @homesick.clone "wfarr/dotfiles"
     end
   end
+
+  describe "list" do
+
+    # FIXME only passes in isolation. need to setup data a bit better
+    xit "should say each castle in the castle directory" do
+      @user_dir.directory '.homesick/repos' do |repos_dir|
+        repos_dir.directory 'zomg' do |zomg|
+          Dir.chdir do
+            system "git init >/dev/null 2>&1"
+            system "git remote add origin git://github.com/technicalpickles/zomg.git >/dev/null 2>&1"
+          end
+        end
+      end
+
+      @homesick.should_receive(:say_status).with("zomg", "git://github.com/technicalpickles/zomg.git", :cyan)
+
+      @homesick.list
+    end
+
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 821d9ba..57ef7c8 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Spec::Runner.configure do |config|
 
   config.before do
     @user_dir = create_construct
-    Homesick.stub!(:user_dir).and_return(@user_dir)
+    ENV['HOME'] = @user_dir.to_s
   end
 
   config.after do