2019 Life Logs, Day 122: Hard Decisions
Date: Thursday, May 2, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 57, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Every spring since I lost Mark, I have struggled with the hard decision of where I am going to live. I enjoyed renting the apartment on the harbor, but it was more expensive than I could really afford. Plus, I love to garden and I couldn’t do that there. In the spring of 2017, I looked for homes to buy and other places to rent. I came up with nothing of interest. The same thing happened last spring, and then the possibility of renting this cottage came up as a result of a conversation with friends. I love it here and this spring I approached the owner to see if she would be willing to sell it to me. She will, but there is still the question of whether I can I really afford it? As most of you know, owning a home comes with lots of expenses. At the same time, Heather and Jed have been on the lookout for a home with enough bedrooms for all of them and a small in-law apartment for me. Last week we looked at one that was very promising. The price is right, the location is right, the house is big enough, but the yard is small and the orientation to the sun is not perfect for gardening. So, we decided to hire an architect to come look at their current home to see if it can be renovated at a reasonable cost to accommodate all of us. We met with the architect this afternoon, and yes, it can be renovated, but the cost is more than we had hoped. We are all still wrestling with this. Thankfully, there is no real emergency as we will all survive just fine for another year as is. Hard decisions like this take time, and time is something Heather and Jed have very little of right now. We’ll continue the conversation this weekend and see where we land.
