Since We Last Spoke…
I know I’ve not been doing a good job of keeping up with my blog. It is not that I have not had the time (I do seem to manage to have time for other things), but I sure have been in a funk. Winter has just been dragging along, which means I haven’t been able to be outside much, and work has been stressful and not so much fun.
Then, right after the first of March, our current landlord informed us that he was selling our beautiful townhouse and that we would have to move. That threw me into a complete tailspin that took several days to recover from. I couldn’t sleep or eat, and was just going through the motions, while I was completely distracted in going about finding a new place to live. All along, he’d been telling us we were awesome tenants, and that he was very happy continuing to have the house as a rental. So his decision came out of the blue, and I reacted poorly.
There were all the usual worries – money, how would we find a place quickly in a market that was extremely tight due to last year’s flooding, moving Katie to a new school midyear. In those first few days I didn’t have a lot of information, either, which certainly did not help. As the first week progressed, we were assured that we would not have to move until the first of May, that he would be giving us some money to help us move, and that he was sorry he had to sell. We actually did find a place to move within that first week, although we didn’t sign the leas until last week. The price is a bit more than we’re paying here, but it is manageable. And in the ensuing three weeks, the townhouse was put on the market, shown a handful of times, and sold.
Much of my time has been spent keeping the house spotless, and shooing everyone out for the showings. We have been packing, as well, taking down about half of our odds and ends and knicknacks so the house doesn’t look so cluttered. Last weekend I packed 80% of the clothes in Klown’s closet. The man has a lot of clothes. This will continue until we move, which isn’t for another month.
It’s also spring. Well, as much spring as we manage to get here. Still cold, still getting snow, although it melts fast. I paid my dues for my plot at the community garden and it’s time to be getting things in the ground. This takes a lot of work, and a lot of time. I am not opposed to hard work, and do it often. But the time is a little harder to come by. Within the next two weeks I need to get potatoes in, and peas, and lettuce and kale. I’ve already started squash, pumpkin, and cucumber seed in the house, along with basil and parsley. All are sprouted and doing well. I have also put in some of my workshare hours already, to get them out of the way.
Our new house has a wonderful yard and garden space. The house itself is large, but weirdly laid out, and I think it’s going to get some getting used to. It is also all electric, something I’ve never had to deal with. Should be an interesting learning curve for me, with electric heat and hot water instead of gas. We will, for the first time since moving to Colorado, have a two-car garage. The yard is huge, which means I can have a fire pit and patio and outdoor eating space again. The owners are an older couple, and seem to be decent landlords. We are now in the phase of being anxious to move, even though it will still be another month. I think it’s more “let’s get this over with” than anything else.
I have now had to give my long-range plans a hard look. I had anticipated living in the townhouse until retirement, or close to it, then would be buying a house to get me through retirement. But in less than three years in Colorado, this will be our third move. I tend to put down roots, and the constant moving is killing me. I love the townhouse. It is beautiful and in a good neighborhood and everything I wanted. I had anticipated being here a very long time. And while the new house is decent, and I’ll make it ours for as long as we are there, I don’t want to be in a position of having our housing be out of our control ever again. For now, I’m looking toward the future and will be planning to buy within 3-5 years. I’m already thinking about what I want in a house I will be retiring to. Once The Perfect Child is no longer under our roof (and we are not in a hurry to get her out of here), I can start making serious plans about what I want in a house, versus how much I am willing to pay.
Transitions are hard. Change is hard, no matter how good it is. I know there are things I haven’t liked about the townhouse – the kitchen being prime among them, the trouble with the HOA being second. But it has been a lovely house, and I will miss our fireplace and not having to cut the grass, and being able to bike to my garden plot down the street.
You give and you get, I suppose. And I just have to keep reminding myself that change is good.
