Home is Where You Make It

We had a really nice visit with the family back home. It was surreal being there and imagining that place being my every day home again. I haven't really lived there since I left for college 12 years ago and its changed a little here and there but the heart of it remains the same.

The snow hit hard a few days before we got there (24in) but by the time we got there the power was back up and the roads were clear and dry with only a few hairy moments on hill/mountain tops on the interstate. We had a really swell visit. There were a few missing family members this year, but thats ok, we survived. Lilly did great on the trip up and back but her sleeping in between was all over the place. Which means our sleeping was all over the place. Coffee saved my ass this week.

We spent a few hours on Sunday driving around a few neighborhoods, just browsing, where we ID'd homes for sale on the internets. The one thing that we noticed was how all over the board the streets were in terms of property value. You could have a house worth about $250K on the same street as a house worth under 100K. Thats a wide range. So our goal will be find a house that isn't the best house on any given street, but above average. Because the end game is re-sale baby! Oh, and it'll be hard to get used to everything being on a fucking hill! Soooooo not used to that here. Hills and hills and fucking hills. Four wheel drive, here we come.

I was a bit afraid that the snow would scare off my husband from the idea. But he's still game and so am I. I've already started making a mental list of things I need to get rid of and organize this winter and spring. I've also started thinking about the things I'm going to miss, like Whole Foods. I'm really going to miss Whole Foods, with their bulk food section and all the organic goodness. I'm also going to miss the ease of travelling to and from this place. Although my home town has a small airport and there are two with in two hours drive both north and south of there, its not quite as easy a trip.

But there are some really nice elements: being close to my family, a network of old/close friends to hang with, the beauty of spending time with my folks but then having some place else to go afterwards, all the green, the friendly people, the quiet, etc, etc. There are down sides too, but we'll cover that in another post.

Next up: Molly Cooks Christmas Dinner and makes her Grandmap Puke (in a good way...)