WELCOME 2016—The Year of Changes

Those of you who’ve known me a while are aware that “Change” is not my favorite word. While I’m a whole lot better than I was when I was a young woman, still giving me lead time really helps me make a transition.

I wrote a post last year about our discovery of a lakehouse fifteen minutes from where we live now. Some of that follows. (Hang with me this really does connect. 🙂 )

…..Love, love, love the water views in Maine. 

(Boothbay Harbor. We’re returning next October. Setting for book releaseing this month.)

I’d begun to pine for a place to stay on the water in Maine for at least a month or two during the summer. (Have had much fun looking.) My husband finally told me as long as he was practicing law (and you know lawyers never really retire), he couldn’t go and stay on the coast of Maine (or any coast) for that long. I wasn’t willing to leave him.

I sighed and faced reality, letting the dream slip farther away. Then one day we were out looking at new homes that one of my husband’s clients build. Really nice homes, golf course views, the latest and greatest in kitchens and baths, but no water!. We decided we’d have to bite the bullet and get his client to find us a place with a water view and build us something.

That was on a Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday an email from our real estate daughter showed up on my computer with this subject line: Waterview??? A piece of property in Fort Worth on one of our smaller lakes had popped up when the price lowered. She told us later she doesn’t even check that listing often. I looked at the pictures and sighed. Went away. Came back, looked again, and sighed some more. So after the third time I figured I had to show it to Bob. We had to actually go look at it. (We had beach because of severe drought.)

Long story short (which you know is not my strong suit), we bought a lake house! 15 minutes from our current home. It’s small and a bit run down. We can’t even get both our cars in the garage. And the kitchen is bare bones.

None of that matters because of this. 

Stunning huh? We can’t believe how fortunate we are to have this fall into our laps. (Not without some haggling. LOL) The plan is to fix it up and move out there full time. I know many folks with two homes, but it seems a bit much for us and with a view like this, we want to be there all the time. This whole thing wouldn’t have happened without the support of our awesome kids.

Of course, our kids and theirs will get to enjoy Waters Edge West long after we’re gone. A good legacy, don’t you think?

That post went live on May 28, 2015. (I’ve reprinted–and updated the photos–because I can’t give you the link to that post, since the old ones were all lost when I changed PR folks. Disappointing, but the change was worth the loss.)

On December 28^th, 2015, work actually began on the remodel for the lakehouse. What’s happened in just a couple of weeks is amazing. (Gutted kitchen. Shades of HGTV) Now it’s real and we really are moving from our home we’ve been in 20 years this coming April. From nearly 2900 sq. feet to 1700! Big Changes are coming in very small ways.

Every time I look around my house I ask, “Can that go with us? If so, where can I put it?”

One of the things we like best about the lakehouse is all the windows. We love being able to see the lake from every room, but that means we don’t have many walls for putting up stuff. We took down one wall.

(Dining room and family room minus a wall between.)

How much of all our “stuff” are we going to take with us? What do we do with it if we’re not taking it?”

Goodwill is my friend. They have a drop off place that’s near. I’ve already made three trips and that just is the tip of the iceberg of our “stuff.” We’ll probably have a “Moving Sale” either before or after we sell this house. The logistics of that boggle my mind.

What really boggles my mind is all the decisions about stuff for the lakehouse. Where do I want the ceiling fans? What will they look like? What about the chandelier for the dining room? What kind of pendants should hang over the kitchen peninsula? (Fortunately, we earlier selected counter tops, back splashes, and cabinets.) Still we need to select faucets and door pulls for the kitchen and master bath. I’ll be dreaming about all of this for sure. LOL

Let me be clear. I am not complaining! I’m blown away by this opportunity to live on the water for the rest of my life.

(We added the poles and I added the turquoise!)

But we’ve got big changes coming and lots of decisions ahead!!!!!

Along with all this, I’ve got a book, ACT OF TRUST, to bring out this month another one to write and an old one to spruce up and release. Going to be a busy year full of changes.

How about you? Do you like change? How long have you lived in your current house? Have you moved a lot in your life? (The lakehouse will be our 7^th home in the 40 some years we’ve lived in Fort Worth.)

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