My "Shelter-in-Place" Place

I am fully in my new home. And every time I walk through the door, I smile and say hello to my new surroundings. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to make this move, and I know without a doubt that I made the right decision in leaving a place that was exactly what I needed when I was facing a bad time in my life. I truly believe each step that I've made over the last three years has been guided by a force way bigger than I am or ever will be.

It's a bit uncanny how quickly all of this happened. I started looking for a place in December, thinking my lease would be up at the end of May and it might take three or four months to actually find the house I wanted, get the loan in place, and move. I had already spent some time looking at houses online, knowing approximately what my top end needed to be for me to feel comfortable with a mortgage. I knew the small towns I wanted to check out, too, so I spent a couple of days making a list of houses I wanted to look at.

I think I looked at ten or eleven houses altogether, and I knew without a doubt when I walked into this place that it was THE house for me. I've not once thought otherwise. If anything, when I think about the other houses, including the one I wanted to make an offer on but couldn't because someone else beat me to it, they didn't bring out the happy in me the way this place did the first time I walked through the door.

Living area looking back towards
dining room and hall to back
bedrooms.
The creaky hardwood floors. The beautiful original woodwork. The large windows letting in tons of light all day long. The big closets. The full basement where I can store my bikes. The fireplace that needs some TLC. The screened-in front porch. The garage with the leaning chimney I need to knock over.

I simply love this house.

And when Funny Delightful Son came over last week for the first time, when he walked in and stood in the dining room, his big smile told me he, too, loves this place. He marveled at all the same things I did when I first walked through during the open house. After checking out the bedrooms, the bath, and the basement, he looked at me and said, "This is so much nicer than I had imagined from what you had described." I'm pretty sure he said something to that effect three or four times. Now, Funny Delightful Son is planning to come stay with me for a while and help with some of the things I'd like to work on during the summer. Like painting the house. I am so stoked to paint.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marigolds

Image
The smell of marigolds isn't completely pleasant. It's not completely offensive either. It's somewhere in between. It's a smell all its own. Hours after my hands have moved their long stems, cupped the blooms in wonder, I have to pause what I'm doing -- making the bed, vacuuming the house, hanging up clothes that had been unceremoniously dropped on the bedroom floor -- when the faint whiff of marigold drifts up to remind me of my time with them. Marigolds are just lovely. Whenever I see a marigold or smell a marigold, I'm taken back to my childhood. To a movie that for some reason became a part of who I am. I was only eight when the movie came out, but I remember having a very strong reaction to it, and every summer when I plant marigolds, I think of that movie: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds. I try to watch it at least once a year, and since the marigolds I planted this summer are blooming, I thought the time is perfect to watch the movie
Read more

Profoundly Sad Today and I Don't Know Why

Image
I'm right at the edge today, fearing I might step off if the just-right reason shows up. What the just-right reason is, I don't know, but I guess if I end up dissolving into the tears that seem to be threatening, I'll know then. I'm trying to be analytical about the feeling pressing against the back of my eyes and through my nasal passages, hoping that analysis will help the feeling go away. It's not really working. Sleep eluded me most of the night. Once or twice a month I have a night sleep just won't come. I go to bed tired, but after an hour or two of sleep, I'm wide awake. Tossing, mostly onto my back and my left side. I don't sleep on my right side since my vertigo incident. I actually prefer my right but I'm afraid I'll trigger another bout of dizziness. Sleep laughed at me and slithered off to bathe someone else in dreamland. I'm pretty sure lack of sleep is part of today's slipping into sadness. That and thoughts of Ado. I miss h
Read more

Night Sky

Image
I had dinner with friends last evening. In their screened-in patio overlooking a wooded backyard leading to a creek. The air cooled significantly as the sky darkened, and at one moment we all enjoyed watching an owl that had taken perch on a tree limb near the creek. While a movie played, we chatted and ate ice pops. I'm pretty sure mine was grapefruit. At least that's what I'm going with.  Not long after the movie ended, I made my way home, which wasn't far. Just a couple of blocks. Cicada, cricket, and frog song drifted on the cool air, and when I looked up, I saw a clear sky full of stars. We've not had a clear night in some time. I stopped in the middle of the street to take in the scene. When I finally arrived home I decided to try and get some night sky photos, something I've never done before. I had no idea what I was doing. I spent twenty minutes or so on the front porch, swaying in my hammock swing as I read an article about astrophotography. What lens
Read more