…but men marry move-in ready. (Anita Loos, I’m not)
The original plan for today was for both of us to take a vacation day, so that we could meet with a financial planner. This was rescheduled from about three weeks ago, when the financial planner canceled on us. Naturally, the financial planner called today to cancel. We’re starting to wonder how badly he wants our business.
So instead, we ran a handful of errands (once again, I owed money to the public library) and drove by a few houses. Several seemed like they would be worth visiting with the realtors, but one stood out–not because it seems like our dream house, but because we like the idea of it.
The house is small, and in pretty rough condition. The lot, however, is enormous–1/2 acre in an L-shape. There are two other houses adjacent, and both of them appear to be empty as well. Our guess is that there was originally a much larger lot, and that two parcels were sold off, while the remaining one and land behind those parcels was retained.
There’s plenty of room to build something fantastic, if only we could afford to both buy and build. And even if you put a larger house on the site, you’d still have a lot of open ground. J said, “You’d have plenty of room to grow organic vegetables,” and I said, “I’d have to quit my job, hire workers, and sell everything at the farmer’s market.” And that’s just not going to happen.
But it does have a certain draw, particularly since the other houses and lots in the area are also a bit ranch-y. It’s a neighborhood that retains a touch of its historic flavor, and both of us find that appealing.
In the end, though, I think J summed it up nicely: “I want to fantasize about it, not marry it.”