I can't sleep. My brain won't shut off. I had caffeine in the afternoon, and I also took a nap earlier this evening, so I'm sitting here eating a piece of peanut butter toast and drinking chocolate Soymilk.
I think I am getting nervous about this house we're buying. I mean, this is HUGE in my life, ya know? I've never owned a house before...not ever...so this is scary. The way the economy is right now, is this a good idea? Are we rushing things before we're absolutely financially ready? What if we can never re-sell it? What if we do things to fix it up but the "ROI," (return on investment) is nothing because the house is too big and won't sell later on? Where the HELL am I going to PUT all the FURNITURE that we've got?! How am I going to keep this damned huge place CLEAN?! I won't remember where anything IS...
I just typed up a 6 paged "Furniture Placement" list, going room by room of what we've got, and where I want it to be moved to, with each specific room in the new house listed. I told Pete I would cancel my Mother's Day weekend trip to Ocean City so that I could help with doing this stuff, (he's hiring movers to take everything over there and unload it, but they won't know WHERE TO PUT THE STUFF)!! So when I thought of this, I panicked a little, because HELL NO I don't want to have to come home from a fun weekend away only to move everything around into the various rooms, upstairs and basement. What's the point in that?! It would be a waste of money to pay for movers when WE would have to move everything all over again.
I took a look at our currently packed garage full of stuff, and thought, "where the HELL is all this going to go when we move?!" So that's where my brain went, and the stubborn damned thing wouldn't leave it alone to let me sleep. I'm one of those annoying "both sides of the brain" type of people...that is, some people are more "left brained," and some are more "right brained," but I'm one of those people who use both sides of my brain equally, all the time. I'm also ambidextrous. Weird, huh?
So, I have an artistic side, (my mother-in-law, and my mom AND Pete all think I would be a great actress but I've never been in a play or anything like that in my life so I disagree), and I have a practical-minded, overcompensating "control" side, where I want to be sure to direct these movers on how I want it. I already KNOW that they'll screw something up somehow, or break something, etc., sure, that's to be expected...it goes with the territory of moving. But, if I have this list, AND draw a diagram of the rooms at the new house, and where I want the furniture placed, maybe (JUST MAYBE) they'll get it right.
My goal: To make this move our LAST, and most EFFICIENT and SMOOTHEST move possible. I want to keep that house sparkling clean, at all times, I want to keep it UNcluttered as much as possible, and I want to make it look nice with paint and possibly wall paper, too. I love interior design, so I'm going to take my time with this place, and make it exactly the way I've always envisioned my house to be.
Most of my life, I have always thought of myself as a "Mary Tyler Moore" type of chick...that is, I would get a cool job as a journalist in some big city and live alone in a sweet little cottage-style house with my dog and of course, the cliche'd obligatory white picket fence. I'd toss my hat up in the air, and live a happy, peaceful life as a single, independent woman, facing the world head-on.
Sooooo....things haven't really turned out the way I'd always envisioned....I got hitched...don't really know why, even now. But, I did it, and so here I am, married to Pete, and he's buying me a house. Not a little sweet cottage style bungalow type of house, but a HUGE 8 room, sprawling 3 story house with a back porch, 3 car garage, huge flat yard and a BARN. Here's a photo of it...
But this really doesn't do it justice. This is just the view of it from the street.
Here is a better one of the front of the house, which actually faces the neighbor's house...* for some reason it won't insert here in this paragraph, so it's at the end of this blog entry to you instead...*
The people who owned it before us are the only people to ever live in it...they bought it in 1971, and the guy was a builder, so he added on to it, and they lived there until they died (which was recently). Their daughter lives next door, and is the one in charge of the estate (along with her siblings). Yeah, this photo makes me wonder how much heat is escaping out of the roof...snow ON the roof is good, but snow MELTED on the roof is NOT good because the insulation is either in need of being re-done, or the shingles are shot. This kind of thing scares the hell out of me, how much would THAT cost?!! But you can see, it has a back porch (far left), a bay window just below the balcony in one of the bedrooms upstairs, the front entrance door is just to the right of the bay window, there's a little garden with a statue of Mother Mary in the corner, and the room with all the skinny windows is a huge family room. Above it is the master bedroom, which is also huge. There's another captured bedroom & bathroom upstairs too.
On the main floor, when you walk through the door, there's a huge dining room & kitchen area, all in one space, with a large closet, a huge pantry and tons of brand new cupboards everywhere. The appliances are new, all stainless steel too...it's pretty swanky. Then there's a smaller living room where the bay window is, and a fireplace...then on the other side of the kitchen (the center of the home), is a bedroom and bathroom for my mother-in-law, plus a smaller sitting room next to her bedroom, a stackable washer & dryer laundry area, and that leads into the family room. The owners are leaving us the pool table...it's also got a topper as a ping pong table. They're leaving us their super long dining room table as well. (Too heavy to move I suppose). That's fine with me.
So, there you have it. We are signing the papers next week, on Friday...if everything goes right. Today, our realtor sent over the list of items that the home inspector found, which need fixing or updating. Pete has asked that they fix the tiny gas leak in the basement, but if they cut the price a bit, we'll do the other stuff ourselves. I don't see how they could say "no" to that deal, especially since we're buying the house with CASH, (yeah, can you believe it?! I'm freaking OUT...I've never seen that much money change hands in my entire LIFE)...
I told Pete today, after watching Obama's speech about how he's going to reduce the deficit in 12 years by 4 billion dollars, simply by raising taxes on the rich---"It's hard for me to be a liberal Democrat when you make more money in one year than I ever did in my entire LIFE." He just chuckled. But, it's true, how can I face my friends, (most of whom are either middle class or lower?) when I feel guilty as hell living in such a huge house like this? How come I get to be in a house this size, when my sister has outgrown her house with 2 adults and 2 boys...and my best friend lives in a tiny house with 5 teenagers, a 2 year old baby, 5 dogs, and a deadbeat husband who doesn't work? Ya know what I mean? THEY should be in a house this big.
I come from a small town in Michigan, remember, and lived most of my years in a tiny, 3 bedroom ranch house. No upstairs. No basement. One bathroom. Five people. Then, I spent most of my adult years in DC living in my friend David's townhouse basement apartment. So, I'm USED TO smaller houses, and cramped spaces...this house is massive...my mom even said, "HOLY SHIT" when she saw it for the first time. Now, I'm sure compared to YOUR house, Stephen, this is probably small potatoes. But, to ME, this is beyond all my imaginings of my "someday" home.
Not to mention the two-story BARN out in the backyard, that we can make into a guest house, and/or dungeon play party space, or whatever we decide to do with it!! I mean, it's like having TWO houses!!
Pinch me...I must have fallen asleep, I must be dreaming...I still can't believe we're moving into this place. I've started packing, but it's surreal, ya know? It doesn't feel real yet. It doesn't feel like it's OUR house, it feels like we're going to be staying at somebody else's house for awhile, as guests. I am even beginning to miss the place we're currently living in!! I look around with a slight sadness, at how fun our rehearsal dinner was here on the wrap-around deck, and in the large sloped yard last summer...at how much we enjoyed cooking out on the grill and sitting on our front porch, in our gliding bench, listening to the birds, and seeing nothing but trees all around us.
SIGH. Anyway, holy CRAP it's nearly 4:30 already. I'd better try and go to bed, or I'll be a zombie tomorrow. Luckily the only thing on my agenda for the day is to take Florence's cat to the groomer and the vet in the afternoon. Other than that, it's packing packing packing...and more packing.
Well, someday I hope to invite you over for coffee, or lemonade, and a nice heaping plate of MOI. I'll be sure to send you an invitation to our house warming party! *wink*
Love, Rebecca
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