We arrived in North Carolina, April of 2005. We checked ourselves into an extended stay hotel. We only had the bare necessities with us. We put everything else in storage.
My husband didn’t have any work, but we did have a security blanket from the sale of our house back home. We lived on this blanket for 6 months.
During this time, we moved a second time to a very nice upscale apartment complex. It was probably one of the nicest places I have ever lived.
We stayed there for 3 months while we searched for a house. We looked at literately dozens of houses. AT least 20! My husband wanted land; I wanted a nice cozy inside. I have always dreamed of a Victorian house.Three stories high, lots of secret areas, a huge walk-in pantry, crown molding, wood work detail. I do not like anything modern, it really has never appealed to me. My love is for the old school, late 1800′s, early 1900′s homes.
BUT…
How does that Roy Orbison song go again….Dream, Dream, dream…..lol
It seemed like every place we looked at had some flaw. We looked at this one farm house~ up towards the mountains that we just loved. Picture an old white farmhouse with a red metal roof. It was the cutest house which was set on 7 acres for only $99 grand. Of course we had to wait till the cows and chickens crossed the old dirt road to get to that little house! Another homeschool family lived there with their 5 kids. It was rather tiny,(1000sq ft.) but tiny can be cozy, right? There were no closets in the house at all, and they just recently put in a wee tiny bathroom right off the kitchen. They were just using the outhouse! LOL
The Kitchen was so cute. Very country cottage, all white, and they built in a breakfast booth nook. I always thought that was the coolest thing. Who needs to eat out, when you have booth in your kitchen. I am booth gal! I will wait 30 mins. if I have too, just to get a booth. I do not want to go out to eat, and have to sit at a table and chairs. I can do that at home!
The master bedroom was down stairs, then you walked to the back of the house where there was this narrow little stair case, leading up to an attic, that they converted into 3 bedrooms. The middle bedroom which was sand-whiched in between the other two had no windows. All the walls were still wooden, without the sheet-rock, but they were divided into 3 bedrooms. It looked so cozy. That said, It was soooo hot up there. No central air, but there was a little air unit in one of the bedrooms up there. Remember~ no closets, and no doors on any of the bedrooms. The outside was Awesome! Lots of established gardens, flowers and barn cats every where! Great views of Pilot Mountain too!
Another house that stuck out to me… was a house far out in the boonies…It had all the privacy that we wanted for the kids. In fact, It would have taken hubby 2 hours just to get to his new job the real estate man said, being behind all those tractors each morning. Commuting is not something he wanted to hassle with.
We looked at several other houses in the middle of no where, and a couple in neighborhoods that were really nice “eye candy” BUT, we didn’t want to go back to suburban-ville. We just had spent the past 4 years listening to a guy rev up his motorcycle each morning at the crack of dawn, and a pair of very rowdy twin boys doing their bike wheelies on our landscape! No, we wanted to hear the crickets and bats at night, and the birds chirping during the day.
Ahhhhhh..The Country Life! Which was a far cry from the Miami girl that I formally was, and with my hubby growing up in NYC..We were ready for a change. We wanted more for our kids.
We told the real estate man that we wanted a county setting, but not more then 20-30 minutes from civilization in case of an emergency.(which there has been plenty of BTW)
We looked at another place that seemed to fit the bill, but it was surrounded by wild dogs and some pretty wild neighbors too. It was also our budget a bit too. We did not want to have a 30 year morgage that we’d have to be a slave too for years to come.
Then we looked at a house in this same town, that we are presently living in… It was on 8 acres of beautiful open landscape. Little bunny rabbits hopping all about.
We made an offer, but they declined it. Then some time later they re-notifed us to accept the offer, but it was too late.
Then we looked at a house off into the real deep woods….I have no idea what the prior folks were thinking. They put some really funky contact paper all over the walls and even on the floors!!! Oh, and the wooden floors in the kitchen were painted lime green! LOL Ewwww!
The real estate agent pointed out that the small surrounding ponds would also attract, and probably do attract copperheads and water moccasins. So…we passed on that one, even though I am fine with snakes and use to own a Boa in fact. No deadly snakes around the kids. It was also only three bedrooms and we needed four bedrooms.
We also looked at a great 3 story house in town. It had all the old fashion stuff that I so desired. A kitchen bar, with lots of cubbie space, a full mother in laws courters down in the basement, a huge great room, a sun room,screened in porches, and the bedrooms had built in dressers in the walls!! Lots of old time charm. The only thing that it didn’t have, was a wrap around deck. Something my husband has alwasy dreamed about having.
It was right across from a park though…Very Busy main street.
We then looked at a house that was some where between modern and old school. Not too much too say about it. It was all wooden floors, which I do not like. That, and the man that lived there said they were moving because his mother in law was very nosy, and was the town gossip, knocking on their door several times a day. She lived right next store. I kept thinking, what if she likes my family?
The only other one that really sticks out to me, was this barn style house. It was traditional barn red. It was on 2 acres. It was also across the street from a main lake. Did we want to live on a busy main road? Not really.
It had all the old fashion wood work that gives a house character. A basement, hidden cubbies, the works! I also liked that the people that lived there were also homeschoolers, and had built a one room school house right next to the house. That was really neat! Oh, and it had a long row of mature grapes growing off a clothes line, and a established garden, with fruit trees already producing.
The only thing was…There were two sexual predators on that same street. No privacy, and on a main road, so if the kids ran outside to play…chances are, they would not be safe. *sulk*
This brings us up to date, on where we live now, which is a modest 4 bedroom/2 bath home, just under 2000 sq ft. We do not have much, but do not need much. In fact, it was suppose to be a 3 bedroom, but we converted the den into a 4th bedroom, by putting some french doors on it.
We looked at this palce and decided that day. As we made an offer, the offer that we put on the other house that declined our bid, now accepted our offer…. They changed their mind because they wanted to sell fast.
We did as well though, and told them we were no longer interested. Even though my son would have loved that John Deere bedroom. They very really into art, and had each room themed out. The dining room wall, was of a huge light house and water. It covered the whole wall. Guess it was not meant to be though..
Our agent told us that this place (where we currently reside) had been on the market for 2 years, that the owner didn’t even live in the same state anymore…that it would be a easy deal. And so it was…
At first it was great. We had the land for the kids to roam, the sound of the crikets at night.. but then, this former city-gal was getting cranky. I started to find every possible thing to dislike about our new house, land, and even this one horse town. What a rat I was!
I started begging my husband to move us back up North. Any place was better then here!
My husband did not want to move though. He found an Awesome job. One he could certainly retire at…VERY family friendly, and not much of a commute.
BUT….
I continued to whine until he was open to the idea of moving.*embaressed to admit nowadays*
We had some good friends that moved from the North about a month before we left. They moved to Pennsylvania.
Wouldn’t you know, my husband started having some dreams about PA. and slowly became open to the idea of moving there.
As for me….
I figured any place was better then being here. We went for a visit to Pennsylvania and I loved it. In fact, I already had a dozen houses to look at, AND a agent. These were big, beautiful 3 story houses that go for a measly $90k-120k. Imagine that! Practically giving these huge homes away!
There is so much History up there too, which I loved!
Hubby hated it though.. We came back home and began to pray. We definitely did not want to make a huge mistake again. My husband also began to have feelings of me not being happy up there either. It was a horrible time for us. *sadness*
That all said..
Since we have moved down here, the company that my husband use to work for back home, switched ownership. That, and our old church is completely under new leadership and being divided in more ways then one.
I was still crying out to the Lord, Pleading with him… WHY NORTH CAROLINA? What was this evil punishment.
Thinking back on my life thus far…I think of all the moving around I did as a child and teen..house to house, town to town, city to town,state to state.. and so forth…I think of who I once was… “Crazy Party Girl, to put politly” Not believing in God, or maybe believing, and not caring. I really don’t know exactly…as I got saved later in life, at 23!
One thing is for sure though..I am not the person I once was…I am a new creation in Christ. I am a sinner saved by GRACE! I am a loving, compassionate person. I have lived a full life. I have experienced a whole lot for my age.. but all in all, I am who I am!
I am where the Lord wants me to be at this time in my life. I will not conform to a certain Religious standard to be accepted by Religious Fanatics. I do not need to win Gods favor by following, and trying to live up to a bunch of man made unbiblical rules (pastors and churches rules that is, of their version of cookie-cutter Christianity). Jesus already paid the price on Calvery. There is nothing that I can do to get him to love me more then he already does. I will wait for him to transform me, when he sees fit, it is nothing that I need to physically do on my own. AMEN!
It was July 2008, that I identified as the birth of my adulthood. It really took that long…*G*
Some of us learn later in life, what can I say. (I am only Human.)
Life will forever be an ADVENTURE!!!!