2 Months

 When I woke up this morning, I realized that it was 2 months ago that we officially purchased the house in  the Poconos.  (Which means on Thursday it will be 3 months since I sold my mother's house at the Jersey shore.  The dry autumn thus far you can thank me for.  I was such a wreck every time we had a storm at the shore that I couldn't take it.  Now that I've sold the house, there's been no storm.  You're welcome.)  I hadn't been thinking about it at all until last night when we got our NJ mail and there was the formalized title/deed/paperwork sitting in our mailbox.  A reminder that this is really real.  (As if all the furniture that I've bought, the movers, the electric and water bills, etc. didn't make it really enough!)

Two months ago I/we bought a house. I'm in my mid/late 50s (ouch) and I opened myself to the possibility of living somewhere else other than where I have been for most of my life.  It's exciting.  It's nerve wracking.  It's scary.

I have never been adventurous.  I want to be (sometimes), but I'm just too full of anxiety and nerves.  (Do you know how out of my comfort zone it was to travel to Florida/Disney all by myself last month?  Terrifying!  Don't get me wrong, it was fun and I'm glad I did it, but I was very anxious.  And you'd think that since I've done it now, it would be no issue to do so again, but when I consider it, I still feel anxious.)  I've always assumed I'd live out my life in the same town I grew up in.  Anything different just never occurred to me.

After all my (maternal) grandmother was born in this town before it was a town!  She lived here all her life, with the exception of one year (or maybe a little less...or maybe a little more) when she and my grandfather moved to the Chicago area.  (Why?  I'll never know.)  Then they moved back to NJ and settled in the same town she grew up in and purchased a house that was only 3 blocks away from where she had previously lived with her family.  My mother spent most of her life in the same town.  Living for many years right next door to her parents. When grandmother died (just short of 10 years after my grandfather), it was only natural that I would want to live in that house.  I convinced my husband (who was my fiancé at the time) that this was where we should be.  I convinced my mother to rent us the house (at an incredibly reasonable rate) until she "sold" it to me a few months before she died.  (And that is a story unto itself).  So I have always been in the same town.  (With the exception of my 4 years at college, but I still came back to NJ every summer.)  Why would I ever leave?

I haven't really...or I sort of have.  Unexpectedly finding a home in the Poconos and just buying it?  That was pretty insane.  90% of the time I am convinced that we did the right thing.  I love the house, even as I find its faults.  (And you always find the faults AFTER everything is said and done.)  But there are times when it overwhelms me.  The back and forth between two homes and two states.  The cost of living.  (Is there anyone who cannot complain about that?)  The question keeps arising, did I do the right thing?  I'm guessing I'll ALWAYS be asking that question.

We are two months in.  The house is finally furnished.  (Not completely, but again, is that sort of thing ever really done?  You finish one project and another pops up.)  We've had our first "official" visitor.  My husband was obviously proud to show off the place.  We've met most of the immediate neighbors.  I just met the woman across the street yesterday afternoon when a piece of mail addressed to her was put in our mailbox.  It was perfect timing and a way to finally knock on the door and introduce myself.  I'm so glad for the mail error, as this woman once owned the house that we bought.  I love learning more about the history of the place, which apparently started out as a cabin  (2 bedrooms?).  It was across the street from the house her parents lived in and she grew up in. (See a pattern here?) She and her husband purchased it in the late 1960s.  She sold it to her brother in the 1970s and eventually moved back to the house across the street.  And apparently the house next to us (to the west), which is not technically on our street, was also built by a family member and the man who lives there (we met him and his wife briefly one afternoon) is her nephew.  I think this woman is a fount of information about the house that we purchased and I'm hoping that I will learn more from her over the coming months.  (I knew that it was her brother who added on to the house and made it what it is today, but there's more that I want to know.)  In just a few minutes (because I had to get back to work), I've already learned a lot more, including (supposedly), what that strange button on the wall is (https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/one-month.html) as my neighbor has the same thing on her wall so I asked.  (Apparently, it's supposed to alert you when your oil tank is getting low.  Since I have what looks like two tanks in my basement with a gauge that shows me how full it is I don't know if it still works, or if I need it.)

What else has been accomplished in these 2 months?  I've had some of the plants (in the front) cut back and a chimney cap replaced.  (Landscape guys still have to come back and do some serious work on the leaves and lots more trimming.)  We have had the pond cleaned and covered with a net for the colder months.  (A heating pump still has to be put in so that it doesn't completely ice over.)  We've done some repair work on the fence that surrounds the property. (Actually it was really my husband who repaired the wiring and netting where it had been torn.)  A new fence may be something we'll have to invest in (sooner rather than later I'm afraid) as before we did the repairs it was obvious that SOMETHING got into the yard.  At first, we thought it was just deer (as they ate most of the plants), but then we found evidence (apparently the backyard is a good place to poop) of a larger visitor (possibly a bear).  We've been to the town Halloween parade.  I've visited a couple of churches  (one very local; one not quite so close.)  I've gone to the outlet mall .  (Spent money, but not too much and resisted many temptations).  I've baked.  (Cornbread; I wasn't that impressed, but it's getting to be time to give my pumpkin bread with maple cream cheese filling a try.)  Not bad.

As we enter month 3, I'm planning for Thanksgiving.  We will have it in the Poconos this year with my in laws on the actual day.  I'm not sure how this will work.  I AM sure that it will not be what I envision.  (What ever is?)  But, like the house, it's sure to be a new and exciting adventure.