One Hundred Dollars a Month

Continued from Season 10 – The Letter – Part 1

And so, we talked about it.

First of all, who would send a homeowner a letter asking if they were interested in selling their home just one year after they had bought it?

We basically came up with two types of people.

• A scammer.
• Someone who was truly interested in buying a specific home.

My gut feeling was that it was an actual heartfelt letter and the people who wrote it were sincere.

So, given the little info we had from the letter, we did some research to see if the people who wrote the letter were really in fact who they said they were. And… they were.

And so we asked ourselves if we could really see ourselves moving. 

• Wasn’t this supposed to be our forever home?
• What are the odds that someone totally out of the blue would send us a letter asking to buy our home and it actually all worked out? I mean really, what were the odds?
• Did we really want to give up the best neighbors on the planet earth {and I’m not just talking one or two neighbors here, but I mean an entire street full of them}?
• Where would we move to?

We loved the house. We loved the little town it was in and we loved the neighbors. Those were the reasons to stay.

And then we asked ourselves why we would want to move.

HH: Would you really want to move?

Mavis: {Big shrug} I’m always up for an adventure.

HH: I thought this was your dream home?

Mavis: You know, I think dreams change. Was moving anytime soon on the radar? No. Do I think this whole thing is really going to pan out? Probably not. But I’d rather go through the steps to find out then to always wonder what if. Or more importantly, why did we get a letter in the first place. What was the point of it all? Was getting a letter like that a sign? Maybe the universe is trying to tell us something.

For me, it was all about THE BUGS. And the simple fact that I love a good old fashioned adventure. Plus these people in the picture, the ones that sent us the nice letter and a photo of their family and who wanted to buy our house… I liked them. I knew it from the moment I saw the handwriting on the envelope. I just knew. I knew they belonged in this neighborhood as much as we did.

Before moving to New England, I had pretty much lived in the suburbs of the PNW all my life. And while I’ve had enough grey skies, overcast/gloomy mornings and PNW rain to last a lifetime, I don’t recall ever having a problem with bugs preventing me from doing any sort of gardening before.

But here in New England? Whoa Nelly! Maybe I just have sweet skin, or maybe I just have a low tolerance for all things that bite. I don’t know. But being eaten alive by bugs all the time was starting to suck the joy out of gardening for me. Like BIG TIME.

As for the HH, the fact that mowing the lawn took 3 hours was becoming less and less appealing to him {I think we all know he should have bought a riding mower!}.  😉 And the idea of spending any of his free time to work on any sort of house project, {or paying someone else to} suddenly had zero appeal to him.

So if buying the {what we thought was the forever home} taught us anything, it taught us what we didn’t want to do:

1. Deal with copious amounts of bugs.
2. Spend time on home and garden projects {him, not me}

And so, without really giving it much thought, we emailed the couple back and said that yes, we would consider selling them our home.

They were shocked.

And so back and forth we went for about 10 days communicating via email. Each day the HH and I spent a ridiculous amount of time searching real estate listings for a new home to buy.

We looked, and looked and looked. And during that 10 day period couldn’t find a single property that peaked our interest. And so we wrote them back, and basically said that we had jumped the gun, and we just were not ready to sell our house and I apologized.

They were bummed. I was bummed. And the HH was relieved that he wasn’t going to have to move again.

***********

But the funny thing was, all summer long, I had a feeling they’d circle back around again. Because that’s what you do when you really want something. You wait. And you hope. And you just cross your fingers that things will work themselves out somehow.

So I did the only thing I could do. I carried on. And I planted a giant pumpkin patch in the back garden instead of a ton of vegetables to sell at the vegetable stand because I knew in my heart of hearts…. that by the time fall rolled around, my house wasn’t going to be mine anymore and those sweet little kids in the family photo were going to need a pumpkin patch.

And I also knew that given some more time to think about it, the HH would change his mind. 😉

And then towards the end of summer, we got another email from the same couple who wanted to buy our house.

And yada yada yada, this time around we were ready to sell. Even though we didn’t have a house {or even a town} picked out yet, we at least had a general 30 mile area that we both liked and that was good enough for us to take the leap.

Even if we had to rent for a bit until the right place came along. We were ready.

***********

I’ve had this blog for over 10 years now, and what started out with plan to write about my kitchen compost has dramatically changed over the years. Sometimes this little blog of mine feels more like a tv sitcom, you know, a little like Seinfield, a show about nothing in particular. Yet here we all are, in season 10 of filming and the writers are now coming up with ridiculous plot lines, just to keep things interesting.

Theme for season 10 : Follow Your Instincts

Main character: Mavis Butterfield

Time of Year: Spring. Late April 2019 to be exact.

Setting: The ground has thawed and spring chores are in full swing. It’s crunch time though, this is New England after all and there’s really only about a six week period to get the outdoor projects done before BLACK FLY season hits and working outside will require a mosquito net if you live in a wooded area. If you live in the country, or anywhere near water, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Plot: After surviving her first year in the woods of New England, {which included learning the local slang, a snow storm, discovering ticks, trips to the er for tick bites, a poison ivy rash, a dog being diagnosed with Addison’s disease, trash picking at the local recycle center, a few too many lunch dates at lobster shacks, house guests, and an arts and crafts project that got out of control, Mavis Butterfield, receives a mysterious letter in the mail.

And action….

Mavis is sitting on the couch watching Downton Abby for the 100 millionth time and working on one of her rugs when her husband comes inside the house with a stack of mail and hands it to her. Mavis sifts through the mail, discarding everything but a single #10 white envelope. She examines the letter thoughtfully, but does not open it.

Dialogue:

Mavis: Someone wants to buy our house!

HH: What?

Mavis: Someone wants to buy our house.

HH: What are you talking about?

Mavis: Look at the envelope. Who do we know in XYZ? Look at the ink. It’s bright blue, like the kind of a bright blue pen that comes in a multi pack of fine tip markers they sell at Costco, or a scrap-booking store. And who addresses a letter to “Homeowner” anymore? Plus it has a real stamp. If it was bulk mail, or a mass mailing or something printed from a computer it wouldn’t look like this.

HH: What!? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.

Mavis: I can tell by the thickness of the paper. And it feels like it has a photograph in it. And that the note was written on card stock.

HH: Whatever. Are you going to open it?

Mavis: In a minute. I want to finish this flower.

Mavis finally finishes pulling the wool strips through her rug and with the HH looking on and not sure to make of the whole situation, Mavis opens the envelope, takes one look at the photograph and starts to smile in astonishment.

Mavis: I wonder if being a clairvoyant is part of the whole INTJ personality trait?

HH: What!? WHO IS THAT? Who are those people?

Mavis: I have no idea. Let me read the note.

HH: WHO is that?

Mavis hands the HH a photograph.

Mavis: They bookmarked our house a year and a half ago when it was for sale because they thought they might be moving to the area at some point. They love our house and basically want to know if we would be interested in selling them our home.

HH: WHAT?

Mavis: Do you want to move?

***********