Our second move in an year happened earlier this month. Like the first move, I was reluctant to move. For the first move, I had to leave our family home that I had lived in some version of for 27 years. That was hard physically (so much stuff) and emotionally (so many memories). For the second move, I left behind compound life (I had always wanted to be a homesteader of sorts). I loved the Chicken Creek Compound, but it only worked for me. The husband couldn’t commute from there, and one of my kiddos refused to visit or call it home. I also didn’t realize the culture of downtown apartment life. Let’s just say it is not where you want your husband of over 20 years living solo.
This spring I convinced the husband, along with our financial planner, to take out loans for the super expensive college tuition for our youngest kiddo and set out to find us a “live together house” on the water. It was not easy, but I have always been good at doing hard things, so after lots of Reator.com searching and weekends of driving to different areas, I found us a place. But this live together house was in a “real” neighborhood with HOA rules and a house on one side that is so close you can see into their house from ours. My desire to get the husband out of the downtown life was stronger than my hatred of HOA rules, so I dug deep and tried to figure out how to be a real grown up and live in a real neighborhood.
For self care, I requested a privacy screen of trees and plants along our shared fence line, I put stained glassed art in the bedroom windows, and got some frost paint for the all glass front door. Those first few weeks, I honestly felt like a feral cat of sorts being domesticated. It all felt so strange and different from Wild Azalea Lane, and definitely different from the Chicken Creek Compound. Going from 7 acres to a little over 1 acre was a big change. I was also worried about the pups – would they have enough space to run around and get their Zoomies out, would Appa Bear bark at everyone in the neighborhood and be labeled a nuisance?
But guess what…. I am actually liking the neighborhood life. I am learning to use yard waste bags (vs throwing in the woods), and our HOA approved our privacy screen and the much needed dock sail for the palest person in the family (me). Our very close neighbors also have a Bernedoodle and her name is Bailey… what are the odds? And while Appa Bear does bark at the male neighbor, their mini poodle barks at everything. The water views on a tidal creek are simply breathtaking. Because it’s a tidal creek, the water changes constantly. And the birds… so many “new to me” birds to learn about. There are a ton of blue birds in the woods next to our house, so I gifted myself a very nice blue bird house for the back yard. While I was mowing the tiny front yard with my snazzy new electric lawn mower, I discovered a left behind tree swing which I converted into a sittin’ spot for Nana. I can visualize her sitting in that swing whistling to herself while sipping on a Diet Pepsi.
I guess the moral of this story is that change is not always bad, and even some feral things can become domesticated in the right place. We are calling this our forever home.