A few weeks ago an architect brought me a proposal about building a new house on a great piece of property. I immediately was taken with the idea. I don't really need more house but it would be lovely to have a lot that was large enough to have garage, a garden, a bedroom and studio on the first floor. I checked with my financial advisor and we talked numbers. After he told me I could do it if I could hold the line on the cost within certain parameters, the fantasy of building another house occupied my every thought. Then the owner of the lot decided he didn't want to sell.
I was disappointed but I was in lust with the idea of a new house. I looked at a couple of new houses and checked out another lot but as the days passed I started to think about what building another house would mean. It would take at least a year, maybe a year and a half. In many ways building a house is a very creative endeavor but it is also stressful.
Is that the way I want to spend my time? You know at my age even though I feel great, time is limited. Today I've been thinking about Joan Rivers. A week ago she was still moving and grooving. Her death is another reminder of why I came to the decision that I want to travel more and do more photography more than I want to build another house. I still have my bucket list and my blue highways list. I don't want to put those things on hold for a year.
So I'm not building or buying another house. I have some things that I want to do to Casa Mercer to spruce it up but I think I'll just stay where I am. Unless.......
The owner of that lot did you a huge favor. Now, anytime that the urge to open a restaurant, open a B&B, or open a store comes along, do what's right: lie down until the feeling passes.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, I know a nice house on Umaran that's on the market.
Of all the urges I might have, opening a B&B or a restaurant would never be one of them.
DeleteWelcome to my world of "What do I want to do?" In my case, I would add "when I grow up. My house-hunting game may have finally come to an end after seven years. But there is always the next house.
ReplyDeleteThe next house I buy will most likely be in a high-rise condo in Houston.
Deleteya' know, Billie, you could always move your bedroom to the first floor.....
ReplyDeleteIsn't your current house already fabulous? I seem to recall reading about it in the past and it struck me like you and Ned didn't exactly scrimp on it at the time. I'm with Red Shoes. Having remodeled one very old house, I can assure you that building something is going to be a ton more work and stress than it seems now.
ReplyDeleteInstead, get in your car and drive around Mexico. THAT you won't regret.
Saludos,
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where we try hard to take our own advice.
Kim, I don't think I'll go on driving trips around Mexico. I did a lot of that in the past with Ned but there are some cities I'd like to see and the bus station is just a 10 minute cab ride from my house. I can jump on the bus and let someone else do the driving. I am definitely planning some driving trips in the US. Blue Highways, don't you know.
DeleteP.S. Am I EVER going to get off the "comment-requires-approval" list? Check out the post I wrote on the subject. I'd be curious to get your views.
ReplyDeleteSaludos,
Kim
Kim, I know I need to do something about the comment thing but I just keep putting it off. Invariably when I make some change on the computer it changes something else that I have to figure out and then that causes something else.....and so on. So for me what should have been a 15 minute thing turns into a half a day and I'm already a busy woman. LOL I have a love/hate thing with the computer.
DeleteLOL... I know what you mean. Have you ever looked at Wordpress? I think the comment system there works better than the Blogger system. In Wordpress you can require authorization of unknown commenters, but once approved, then their subsequent comments appear automatically. (If you set it that way, of course.) I have a test blog on Blogger, and I poked around in the settings there to see what you were up against, but it doesn't look like there's an equivalent setting. The closest thing would be to only allow comments from registered users, which would include people like me who already have Wordpress accounts. That might be a good solution, but of course, it's up to you and how much effort you want to put into making the change. But if you wanted to make that change, you'd simply go to your dashboard, select "settings," then select "posts and comments" and then change the "who can comment" field to "registered user," and then change the "comment moderation" to "sometimes." "Sometimes basically requires comments on older posts to be moderated. My guess is that this helps keep out spam. Anyway, of course, this is all up to you. But there's the roadmap. It's pretty easy.
DeleteBut overall, I think Wordpress is easier to use than blogger, and the pre-made themes are also nicer. But changing blogging platforms has its own set of challenges too.
Anyway, Feliz Domingo! and saludos,
Kim G