diff --git a/src/mu-runtime.c b/src/mu-runtime.c
index e21e38d1..8a5496d0 100644
--- a/src/mu-runtime.c
+++ b/src/mu-runtime.c
@@ -52,10 +52,10 @@ static void runtime_free (void);
 static gboolean
 mu_dir_is_readable_and_writable (const char* muhome)
 {
-	if (mu_util_check_dir(muhome, TRUE, TRUE))
+	if (mu_util_create_dir_maybe (muhome))
 		return TRUE;
-
-	g_warning ("'%s' is not a read/writable directory", muhome);
+	
+	g_warning ("cannot use '%s' as a mu homedir", muhome);
 	g_warning ("use --muhome= to set a different one");
 	
 	return FALSE;
diff --git a/src/mu-util.c b/src/mu-util.c
index d23fe6d0..11698224 100644
--- a/src/mu-util.c
+++ b/src/mu-util.c
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-/* 
+/*
+**   
 ** Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Dirk-Jan C. Binnema <djcb@djcbsoftware.nl>
 **
 ** This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -207,10 +208,10 @@ mu_util_create_dir_maybe (const gchar *path)
 	if (stat (path, &statbuf) == 0) {
 		if ((!S_ISDIR(statbuf.st_mode)) ||
 		    (access (path, W_OK|R_OK) != 0)) {
-			g_warning ("not a rw-directory: %s", path);
+			g_warning ("not a read-writable directory: %s", path);
 			return FALSE;
 		}
-	}		
+	}	
 		
 	if (g_mkdir_with_parents (path, 0700) != 0) {
 		g_warning ("failed to create %s: %s",