I was originally going to title this post “Take the Money and Run,” but when I thought about what I really wanted to say, I realized I was wanting to talk more about the present and the future than revisiting the past. I mentioned in an earlier post about the fact that we had sold our house, were sweating out the due diligence process and had been waiting – somewhat impatiently – to get the green light to move, and eventually to actually close the sale. Well, that’s all done now. We sent about half of our stuff to storage on May 22, moved the important stuff – cameras, computers, the bed and a little bit of furniture 🙂 – into an apartment on May 23, spent the 23rd and 24th unpacking most of what we brought, then immediately headed off to Belhaven, our favorite little town on the coast, for Memorial Day weekend. We then spent evenings this past week and this just-past weekend getting the rest of the odds and ends squared away. I got my printer hooked up and working this morning – it fortunately seems to have survived the move with no ill effects. I have some pictures to hang, but that will be about it.
We closed the sale on the 30th, so now we are houseless, but not homeless. We had lived in our house for 17 years. That’s an eternity for some people, and is the longest we have ever lived in one place. And we haven’t lived in an apartment since 1984. I think one of the lessons learned from the selling and moving process is that that is way too long to stay in one place. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff, and the older a house gets the more money it takes to keep it up. And that’s money that I would rather spend on things other than house maintenance.
Our current plan is to move into a new condo early this fall. It is currently in the very early construction stages – as in there isn’t even a road to it yet. But we visited the site this morning, and there are curbs now where there was just a hint of road only a week ago. The lot is graded and staked out, so we’re thinking that as soon as the road is paved we’ll start seeing forms go up for the footers. That’s pretty exciting – building our own place from the ground up. We’re not physically building it of course, but we picked the floor plan, chose the options and got to put our “signature” on it. All very exciting.
In the mean time, what to do? We think we’re going to like this little break quite a bit. A few months where the only things we need to think about are the necessities. Sure, we need to get up and go to work every day. We need to plan meals and get our exercise. But other than that? No boxes, no inspections and no appraisals. Almost worry free! Most everyone we know tells us that we’ll get tired of apartment living very quickly, and that we won’t be able to wait to get into our condo. But I don’t know. Part of us thinks we could get used to the “footloose and fancy free” lifestyle for a few years, maybe longer. Who says we need to own a house? Only the people who have a vested interest in selling us one! Throwing my money away on rent? How about throwing it away on interest instead? Take your pick and pay The Man. Conventional wisdom isn’t necessarily conventional or wise, I say.
We have every intention of going through with the condo purchase as planned. But we’re going to use this little bit of free time to consider all of our options. And that includes deciding whether or not we want to be tied to owning a house that we have to sell again, or if we just like the idea of giving 60 days notice, loading up the truck and moving somewhere else. There’s a certain appeal to that idea that tells me that I shouldn’t dismiss it out of hand. So we’ll see.
So what does all of this have to do with photography? Probably not a whole lot, except that for the next few months I expect to have a lot more time to spend wandering around with my camera. And I plan to have plenty of time to start writing for my blog again. And we’ll probably travel a little bit, maybe a lot. And that sounds like something that I can really look forward to.
Tom, IMO, there’s wisdom in what you say and there’s certainly an attractiveness to being untethered, so to speak. Times change, people change and situations change so why shouldn’t locations be free to change as well. The concept of home ownership as a good retirement investment may be gone forever and since multi-generational families no longer share a family home there may be very little reason to own a home…especially if tax reform does away with the home ownership interest deductions.
Bonnie and I, in discussing our own retirement/future both acknowledge it may not be based at our current location.
Nice group of wall/texture photos from Washington!
Thanks, Earl. So often, we (as in people in general) do things because “it’s always been done that way” or “that’s just what you do” without really considering “what do I want, what works for me?” And while the financial discussion is probably the most important, there needs to be an examination of the intangibles. Owning a place – maintenance free or not – carries certain obligations and burdens that we may decide we’d just as soon do without.
The next time we get together I hope to have a follow up discussion on this topic!
Thanks for the comments on the photos. Washington is just a good place for wandering around, and there is always something to point a camera at.
I must say that I would not like to be in your shoes. I don’t like thinking about those kinds of things. I’m very much a day-to-day kind of guy and I know that this attitude of mine will come and bite me some day. Anyway what I did want to say is that I find your photo of the Belhaven Sunset absolutely gorgeous. I’ve been shooting a lot of blur lately which means I’ve been taking a lot of failed shots but it is quite wonderful when a shot works. Yours is perfect to me. Nice to know we’ll be seeing more of your work in the near future.
All the best with your plans Tom.
Thanks, Cedric. Your recent blur photos actually helped convince me to keep the tripod at home and use the blur. You are correct that they are hard to get right. I got this one and one other out of several dozen attempts. The hardest part for me is keeping the horizon consistent during the exposure so it doesn’t get to fuzzy. Level is good too, but that is easier to fix. 🙂
This is actually the kind of discussion that Kathy & enjoy having. The interesting part is that we have not had an opportunity to have the “buy or not buy” discussion for years, and we just want to make sure we examine the options before we just blindly jump to the next step. It’s all good, and the decision we reach will be one we are happy with!
Love that sunset image!! I’m glad the selling process is final and you two can live a bit more relaxed. I’ve not owned a home now for the past 20 years. There are times I wish I had one and have a vegetable garden. But I do not want to deal with yard work, painting a house and shoveling snow (that’s a Colorado thing). I’ve lived in this condo now for 12 years and have enjoyed the neighbors for those 12 years. At my roots is a nomadic person, so living full time in an RV stirs all sorts of emotion within me or just traveling by car or motorcycle. In the past owning a home was primarily a way to sustain ourselves: farming, gardening, chickens. Not so much the case anymore. In fact some own homes to keep up with the neighbors. And, some own homes and probably shouldn’t. Whoops, got me rambling again. 🙂
Thanks, Monte! And feel free to ramble on all you’d like – you are welcome here! 🙂
This has been a very interesting time, and as we see it in the rearview mirror our feelings have tempered a bit. There does seem to be a bit of a nomadic streak to us, but as long as we’re working I think we’ll be looking to stay put for a little while. But after that…look out!