Instead of Writing or Drawing
This Old House
For most of my adult life, I’ve wanted an old house to live in, care for, have my family and friends over…I found it in Richmond, Indiana, just 7 hours west of my home city of Frederick, MD. I’ve included a link to my Instagram page devoted to living here.
If you work online and have a serious yen for an affordable option to living in your dream home, consider this little city. Like my 1920 house, it has its issues, but it’s affordable, friendly, charming, and has so much to offer! If my family lived closer, I’d probably never leave.
Squirrels are plentiful, as is pink carpet in and around my home…it was “in” during its last makeover during the 1990’s. Hoping to get a lot of it gone when my son arrives next week to pitch in.
It’s been a blessing and a curse to own this house. I’m a dreamer and think first with my heart, so umm….the fact that I don’t know how to fix much of anything didn’t enter into my thinking. Sooooo…there’s that.
A more weighty issue is that only a couple of family members and friends have made the trek to Indiana to share this crazy homestead with me for a visit. COVID changed the stability of flight travel as well, so, this experiment is probably coming to an end. In order to sell, there are 4 generations of stuff I’m wading through, sanding, patching, painting…
…repairing and finding folks who KNOW HOW to do so, that I can afford, blah, blah, blah…it’s a FT endeavor. Of course, all of that work endears the house to me. If you want to love something or someone, invest a lot of service, effort, and care in them.
My awesome realtor, Rhonda Duning (same woman who sold the place to me 5 years ago), suggested we get it listed with the awful pink carpet for now and then update the pix when the hardwood floors are finally revealed, so here’s a few pix that are almost ready to post:
Again, try to look past the pink—the house has such great bones! I’m not advertising, I just feel like sharing what’s filled every waking moment for the past month!
The Victorian secretary comes with me. She might look really great here, but there’s no place that wouldn’t look better with her in the room.
Don’t you just love old doors (and doorknobs)? It’s understandable Aunt Clara collected them.
There are 3 bedrooms, 2 with finished hardwood floors—I’d always hoped to have my grandkids here. Oh, well. “Life is what happens when we’re busy making other plans.”
Anyway, that’s what I’m doing these days. If it won’t sell for the bottomline $ I have in mind, I’m holding onto it. Have decided to do my best and leave the rest up to a wonderful realtor, fickle buyers, and God.
Molly and Mini can hardly wait to have this craziness over with! But they do revel in leash-less romps in the nearby woods and huge dog park, which don’t happen often enough because their human’s tired! Plus, their mum and sister, Lucy lives only a 1/2 mile away!
Whatever happens, it’s nice to have had a go at this lifelong dream! Whether or not it lasts, it’s been a worth-living chapter in my life.
