Good morning. Hello there, friend. How are you today? It is Thursday. I am off.
I suppose it is time to tell you that we bought the house next door. About a month ago, we — well, the whole neighborhood — got an email from our next door neighbors saying that they were moving out and selling their house and to let them know if we knew anyone interested. We got in touch with them immediately and asked if they were interested in doing an off-market transaction, but they said no, sorry, that they already had a realtor, and that it was private to that realtor for the next five days (it was sunday) and that it would be shown to the public on Saturday and Sunday, with an open house on Sunday, and they would take the best offer they got by Monday.
So we went and looked at it, and really got an idea of how close it was to Janet’s house, and that it wasn’t actually all that big. And then for the next five days, Me, Emma and Janet all vascillated about whether or not we wanted it. It wasn’t super rational, it had more to do with the land than the house on it. But in the end, we all decided that we did want it. We called our old realtor and had her look at it too and she gave us the unwelcome news that it was probably underpriced, that despite what you hear in the paper the market was still pretty active, and that this would get a bunch of bids. Which was very stressful, and made us realize we were going to have to bid more if we wanted it. So we sucked it up and made an attractive offer. And we won. Later, when I talked to the neighbors they said that there were other bids higher than our initial off-market offer, and I get the sense that we won in the end by very little. I also get the sense if it were a tie, then neighborly kindless woulda kicked in and they would have let us have it.
And then, just yesterday, as we were signing the final paperwork and I could see what the proceeds were to them, to their realtor, to our realtor, I could see that they would have actually made about $2k more if they had just sold it to us before they ever hired the realtor. So that was all a wash, except we subsidized a few realtors but hey, people gotta eat.
Anyway, now we own another house. We are not sure why, exactly, but I am very, very excited. I’ve not had a moment of buyer’s regret across this entire month we had to wait to close, and I’m very excited about it. Emma’s excitement has slightly tempered as she grasps with the extra work maintaining a second house will be. While I look forward to his work. You can draw your own conclusions about which one of us has the more realistic outlook on that topic.
I’m excited because I can get rid of that stupid storage unit, that cost $99 a month when I first bought it, but they have methodically increased the rent over and over to the point where it is now $250 a month. I am going to start getting everything out of it today and I’m very excited about that.
I’m excited because it has an entire commercial office, handicap accesible, separate entrance, totall up to code, that we coudl rent out, turn into an apartment, or, fingers crossed, a recording studio.
I’m excited because it has its own well, which are hella hard to get these days. It can run off of county water or its own water source which is very exciting.
I’m excited because it has a backup generator. I would prefer more batteries like our house, but I’m excited the thing can be completely off grid. It does not have solar yet but we’ll get there.
I’m excited because Emma has said I can have the garage and it’s going to be a gardening area and workshop and I finally buy a few larger power tools.
I’m excited because, eventually, I can build a greenhouse there, there is a perfect site and it faces south in a way we do not have on our lot without cutting down treese glorious tees.
I’m excited because we have double the amount of woods we own and we can extend the trail along the pond for the neighbors to roam.
And I’m excited for friends to come visit.
And I’m excited because the stock market sucks and I am glad my money is now sitting in the ground next to me. It was a very large chunk of our assets to buy this thing, but I figure if we have some emergency that requires cash, we can get a HELOC then, but hopefully if all goes well we can just avoid this insane interest rates and depressing, schitzophrenic stock market for a few years.
There’s work to be done. It’s in decent shape but not exactly our style. It’s a real dilemma how much to bother doing in the short term. We are still coming to terms with this absurd, hasty decision.
This is, of course, a lunatic decision, and a patently privileged one, and I recognize all that. I suspect at some point our more rational heads will prevail and the living portion and the office portion will get rented out at non-evil rates to visiting nurses and therapists and the like, I’ll keep the garage, and we’ll get to enjoy the land and it will seem like a more responsible thing to do.
Our realtor took a picture of Jane and I when we took posession of the place but she hasn’t sent it yet. But I do have this picture of the weird ruin on the property, which seems to be some ancient mysterious pizza oven from the original homestead. No idea.
Update on Tricia Cothom’s motives on switching from the Democratic party to the Republcian party yesterday. The current theory seems to incude an element of just… being butthurt:
Our friend Jussi arrived late last night. I haven’t seen her yet. I’m very excited. Some combination of us are going to see the Church tonight.
It’s late, I slept in, it’s almost nine. Got ten minutes till I gotta get Jane out of bed. Days off rule.
Oh! And Jane actually went to sleep properly last night. We had been hyping Jussi’s arrival — Jane is so excited to see her — and told her she couldn’t keep pulling that once Jussi got here. But we meant tonight not last night. Did she just start being good early? Is she over it? Unclear. She also did not do it to Grammy the night before at Grammy sleepover. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.
Mix of old and new today. Inspiral Carpets and Elevator Drops for Jussi. Darling Buds for my college girlfriend because I was thinking of her yesterday. Reindeer Section because they came on in the Truck the other day and they are so good. Chris Connelley cuz he’s reissuing his second album (not this one). Single Gun Theory needs a remaster but man that is such a good record. Can because the drummer in a video I watched yesterday had a Can shirt on and now I want one. The rest is new. I should have gone and seen Tennis in Saxapahaw that was a mistake.
Okay sorry for the brevity but you know what? When you have days off, you should sleep in! Sleeping in! Still great!
CONGRATS on the new property! can't wait to see more