Le Votre Nuveau Lieu Redux (Blogophilia 51.13)

It’s been a wild week. A couple of weeks ago, I agreed to sell my house (really the lot) to a developer for an insane amount of money. He had been after me for years. I’d been reluctant because I’ve been here for more than 30 years and the neighborhood is so convenient. But in the last 10 years it has changed from small asbestos sided Cape Cod shacks occupied by Hippie rejects to Million Dollar McMansions with Keeping Up With the Jones’ Yuppies.

At the time my price was accepted, all my wife and I knew was roughly where we wanted to go and how much money we wanted to spend. Also, the new house needed to be all on one level because we are older with a couple medical conditions, too old to climb Jacob’s ladder.

The contract on the current house closes in mid March with a clause to allow us 30 days afterward to move. We didn’t think it would be a problem to find another house, but…

The first four we requested a showings got put under contract before we could get appointments Shrug. The market is insane, so that is to be expected. The next two were nice enough, but literally in the shade of a freeway. The next one looked good and we put in a cash offer for almost his list price. He refused because he would have to wait until the current house closed.

It turned out we dodged a bullet because next door is a large Airbnb. I found that out when I went out there to check on some things. I was met with a traffic jam that spread out all over the block. It was a large wedding with Bridesmaids all looking like Big Birds in their yellow dresses. One of those where the reception table dares you to have just one.

Would I have to put up with that every weekend? Just, no.

I think that house is still out there.

Finally, last Thursday I got a call from one of my wife’s co-workers. A relative is a real estate agent and a house came into her office that worked for us. A small white ranch house a mile from my wife’s job. The current owners had outgrown it, but had put a lot of love into the project.

We saw it Saturday and put an offer in. There were several competitors, but we won. We finished due diligence yesterday and there are a few things to clean up and we will trade the disaster of a 80s kitchen for a fully renovated open dream design. Just the thought of being able to move around without bumping into each other is heavenly. We’ll leave cookies on the island and I’ll try to take just one.

And I’ll fail. That’s what happens when you are in the clouds.

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Topic-Jonathan Harvey

Pic-Diana Jillian

Pic Guesses: Jacob’s Ladder (in blog), Dreamland (in blog) In the clouds (in blog) Pink, Comfort. Heavenly (in blog)