April 24, 2008 -
We officially own our own house! After 5 months of resting, reading, and searching, Joe and I have purchased our first home. Three beautiful wooded acres with a stream rushing through the back and a small house on a private road in Gallatin, NY is now all ours. When we first saw it a little over a month ago, we laughed and went on our way - it doesn't make a great first impression, which is probably why it was the cheapest listing around and on the market for over a year. But then somehow we ended up back there and had a whole new experience, realizing that this place had to be ours. Only a few minutes from my sister's house and just 10 minutes from the town of Red Hook where I grew up; in the country but yet so close to town; utilities set up, but not much of a house so that we could build what we want; and a damn good price. On that second visit it was just all to clear and the closing was this afternoon.
This blog is meant to chronicle the building of our life together. I suppose I should have started it 7 months ago when we got married, but it seemed like there's wasn't much going on. Of course in retrospect I realize that we actually had TOO much going on - we got married, decided to change our lives completely, quit our jobs, packed a house and garage full of stuff, drove it across the country, stowed it away in my mother's house, started a vegetable garden from seed, and bought 12 baby chicks and 4 laying hens.
But now the adventure truly begins! We bought this land with the intention of building a house and a small farm on it. It will be a tiny house (between 500 and 900 square feet, depending on how brave we are) and we will work towards reducing our dependence on stuff and instead focus on what matters to us most - love, life, family, integrity, hard work, a connection to the earth, and pure simple fun. We will raise chickens and grow vegetables, while doing other work until we learn what works and where we can make money off the land. But first - we need something to live in. Over the course of our relationship, we have lived in a tiny apartment in NYC with another couple, in a house in San Diego with another couple, and now in a house with my mother, and it is time for us to have our own place! What is on the property is not really livable and we are far too choosy to live in house some else built anyway, so the summer's project is to build our little house. And work begins tomorrow!
We officially own our own house! After 5 months of resting, reading, and searching, Joe and I have purchased our first home. Three beautiful wooded acres with a stream rushing through the back and a small house on a private road in Gallatin, NY is now all ours. When we first saw it a little over a month ago, we laughed and went on our way - it doesn't make a great first impression, which is probably why it was the cheapest listing around and on the market for over a year. But then somehow we ended up back there and had a whole new experience, realizing that this place had to be ours. Only a few minutes from my sister's house and just 10 minutes from the town of Red Hook where I grew up; in the country but yet so close to town; utilities set up, but not much of a house so that we could build what we want; and a damn good price. On that second visit it was just all to clear and the closing was this afternoon.
This blog is meant to chronicle the building of our life together. I suppose I should have started it 7 months ago when we got married, but it seemed like there's wasn't much going on. Of course in retrospect I realize that we actually had TOO much going on - we got married, decided to change our lives completely, quit our jobs, packed a house and garage full of stuff, drove it across the country, stowed it away in my mother's house, started a vegetable garden from seed, and bought 12 baby chicks and 4 laying hens.
But now the adventure truly begins! We bought this land with the intention of building a house and a small farm on it. It will be a tiny house (between 500 and 900 square feet, depending on how brave we are) and we will work towards reducing our dependence on stuff and instead focus on what matters to us most - love, life, family, integrity, hard work, a connection to the earth, and pure simple fun. We will raise chickens and grow vegetables, while doing other work until we learn what works and where we can make money off the land. But first - we need something to live in. Over the course of our relationship, we have lived in a tiny apartment in NYC with another couple, in a house in San Diego with another couple, and now in a house with my mother, and it is time for us to have our own place! What is on the property is not really livable and we are far too choosy to live in house some else built anyway, so the summer's project is to build our little house. And work begins tomorrow!
OMG, where did my little east village jackie go? Are the days of "whatever! i live in manhattan" long gone?
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