Needless to say it's been a while. I didn't even bother to look at the date of the last one. All I know is that I
wrote it when I was living in NY and I'm no longer living in NY and I haven't lived in NY for the last 7 months (to the day) so it's been a while.
As I just mentioned, I no longer live in NY. My dear husband moved me to the Midwest because he received a well-paying job offer that he couldn't pass up. In fact I'd physically harm him if he DID pass it up because the serious amount of dough they were throwing at him meant that I could still devote time "doing my own thang" which amounts to writing to earn my keep. Which I really appreciate. I always knew I was making the right decision when I married for money.
So last May we flew out dupas out to MN to go house hunting. Yes it had to be a house because once you own a house going back to an apartment or even a townhouse isn't something that you want to do. In fact, I told him that if we can't buy a house right away then I would stay in da 'Cuse until we could. We're here so needless to say we found a house.
We wanted land. We didn't want to hear our neighbor's kids chanting for their breakfast every Sunday morning. We didn't want to walk from one side of the yard to the other with under 10 steps. Oh...and the house had to be younger than 85 years old. As much as we loved Betty Bungalow, we were sick of her shit breaking down. It was time to upgrade.
As I do with everything in my life, I found this house online in November of 2008. It was way out of our price range but I kept an eye on it anyway. Jeff loved the look of it too so that was an extra plus. Would I have bought it without his approval? Of course. All we had to do was sell Betty Bungalow. OK...this was going to be a treat. An old house with a struggling roof, an ancient furnace, cheapy appliances in the ghetto. Ya...I was worried. I priced it as low as I can go without coming out upside down. Eighteen hours later we had a full asking price offer in hand. That was easy.
So about the MN house. I thought for sure it would be gone by the time we were able to purchase in May. But in fact, it wasn't. It was priced too high so over the course of those 6 months the price dropped by $40k. We came to MN at the end of May, spent one day looking at 8 houses...this being the 5th. We walked in and looked at each other and smiled. It has 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths and a little over 5 fairly wooded acres. Oh...it was advertised as a "hobby farm" because there's tons of landscaping, a massive garden and a small vineyard. Yes...as in grapes that get stomped on to make wine. We were farmers, I think not. But how hard can it be to throw some seeds in the ground, right?
The following day we visited another 5 or 6 houses "just to make sure". Which we were. That's why we made an offer of full asking price that 2nd night. They accepted a few hours later and the following day (Memorial Day) we had the inspection. Crazy fast, huh? Ya...I don't screw around.
Now it was time for logistics. Syracuse peeps wanted to move into the house in early July and we couldn't close on the MN house until early August. So what do we do for those 3 wks? Pile everything into a POD and move in with Mom and Dad, of course.
That endeavor was surprisingly painless! I think everyone (OK, Mom and I) were on our best behavior and with lots of tongue biting, smiles and walking away, everyone made it out unscathed. Jeff drove Fiona Focus with Simon (looong story...it was too hot to fly Simon and mishikraz DOES NOT take 20 hour road trips) and I flew. And at the risk of sounding corny and dramatic, I cried for the first half hour of the flight. As much as I hated Syracuse, I was leaving the only home I've ever known. I was leaving life-long friends, my aging Grandmother, my Grandfather's grave which I visited frequently and of course, my parents and sister. It was hard. And it continued to be hard for the first couple of months. I went back in November for my 30th birthday and it was nice. And strangely enough, once I returned from that trip, this finally started to feel like my home.
So after 7 months, we're starting to "make it our own" by painting some rooms. I set up my office and I love it. It's my own little sanctuary where I'm (thankfully) getting some more work. We're nearing the end of our first winter here, which contrary to popular belief, the cold really isn't THAT bad. We're preparing for the Spring thaw and getting (somewhat) excited about planting the garden. Jeff's parents are excited to come down for that and I'm excited to have some help and for someone to show me the ropes because I'm pretty clueless. In fact (this is a true story) I was completely shocked that vegetable seeds that you plant in the ground are the same seeds that come out of the vegetable you eat. As in the little seeds in the tomatoes are saved and dried to plant next year. Now I consider myself to be an intelligent girl. For most things at least. I completely recognize that that is ludicrous.
We're not sure about the vines. We'd love to keep them but the previous owner cut them too much last season so they were completely useless sticks last harvest. We're *hoping* they come back on their own but realize the reality may be much harder. I'm not even sure how deep to plant a damn bean seed, I don't know if I can handle vegetation as sensitive and temperamental as grapevines.
Of course, as with any house, there are things we don't like, such as the sounds of traffic are much louder than we remember. It's not the "sanctuary" we were hoping for. But it's a step in the right direction and we're looking into options to cut down on the noise and to create a more impenetrable barrier for both the noise and our neighbors who again, seem closer than they did before.
There are also some trees to remove and a pond/swamp thing in the middle of the yard that may be converted to an inground swimming pool. If we ever have about $30k to burn.
We're here. We're healthy and we're learning. That's all that counts I suppose.
And to think I haven't even touched on what I'm up to in my personal/professional life. Until next time...
