Learn the Big Apple!: The End of an Era...Sort Of.

Blogging has fallen to the wayside, I'm afraid. My 'beauty blog' and facebook page have taken over in a way that I did not expect, but I still enjoy looking at my friends' blogs and commenting on them. Therefore, at this huge turning point in my family's lives, I could not neglect to post an entry. After all, my blog began with our moving into this house in the country. My first blog post was written while we were living in a friend's one-room cabin, a family of four awaiting the completion of their 'house o-dreams'.

My whole life, I had wanted to live in the country. I grew up a predominantly 'city girl', a girl of the suburbs. My husband also lived in 'town', but both of us had grandparents that lived in rural areas and both of us yearned to someday own our own country acreage.

My own grandparents lived in Carthage Tn, on a road that was inhabited by close friends and family. It was like 'paradise' to visit them. The house had been designed by my grandfather, in keeping with his artist needs, and was tucked into the trees. There was a big ol' deck and a gravel drive. There were gorgeous farmlands on both sides of their country road, plenty of room for childish gallivanting, and my childhood 'crush' lived right up the road. I could sneak out at dawn and watch him shimmy up trees and do his morning 'chores'. My good girlfriend also lived right up the lane. I could hang out at her house with my cousins and even walk to the Kingdom Hall on Sunday Morning...a novelty indeed!

So in 2005, when my husband and I felt that our family of four was outgrowing our 1300 sq. foot home, we decided to try our hand at 'building a house'. We found 20 acres for a great price in Pleasant Shade, another area I visited often as a child. We opted to build a home that was only slightly larger than our current home (about 1800 sq. feet) but with all that land, figured we could enlarge whenever we liked. Also, the house would have a basement in the same footprint as the house, providing possibilities to double the square footage when necessary. We had big plans...plans for raising goats and chickens, plans to build another home at the top of our property someday in the future, leaving the house to the kids and thereby keeping the place 'in the family' forever. We planned to start our own businesses, writing or painting, that would eventually make driving that long 35 miles to my husband's current job no longer necessary. I already worked at home after all, and the boys' school could practically be SEEN from the property...just a stones throw away. It was a great little country school with only 55 students and a good reputation. The next best thing to 'home school', if you ask me! The KH was just a mere 10 miles away, the closest we'd ever been to a congregation since our marriage in 1995. The property was also centrally located for shopping, only 15 miles from basic shopping and about 35 miles from several larger shopping options. None of this seemed like a big deal back in 2005, as we watched our house grow from nothing and breathed in the fresh country air around us.

I enjoyed picking out the custom cabinetry for my new kitchen and settling on a lovely 'ocean' color scheme that really suited the bright and airy feel of our home. I actually had a great time scheduling the different workers and paying out of the construction fund, keeping all the paperwork and timing factors in order.

My husband and I, contrary to popular belief, did not fight during this time. We were in sync on most things; he left the decorative things to me and I left the structural stuff to him. Our two boys (then ages 5 and 1) loved climbing around on the giant dirt hills, and playing with the rocks unearthed by construction.

There were a few hiccups. We had to re-work the blueprints to suit our needs and the slope of the land. A huge rock caused almost a 3 month delay in the building, due to the fact that it had to be blasted in order for the foundation to be poured. This also made an unexpected and VERY large dent in our budget, causing us to go more than 30,000 dollars over our anticipated amount. We sold our home quickly but the house was not yet ready when we did, so we had to move into the aforementioned cabin for a couple of months before we could close on the new place. The building took about 12 months to complete. Still, we came in at a very decent finish. It appraised for well more than we owed by its completion and we settled in nicely, with a nice big padding of equity in our favor.

Living in the country was great, for the most part. I enjoyed the views, the open air, the freedom. Unfortunately, my husband didn't get to enjoy it like I did, since he worked full time. The upkeep of the property was a bit more time consuming than I imagined and we never DID get around to landscaping. Once we moved in, it became harder to find time for such things, especially when I found out I was pregnant again in 2007. But we still loved our home and my kindergartner was loving his little school.

Then, things began to change. First, the school lost its battle with the state and was shut down. The kids were all shuffled off to a larger school about 10 miles away, making bus transportation necessary for us since carting around my son plus the toddler and my pregnant belly was difficult. Gas prices hiked ridiculously that year...remember? By fall of 2008, it had reached 6.00 a gallon in some places! An unchanging income and a quickly changing economy is bound to have an effect on the average family. Then, the housing market CRASHED...properties everywhere were upside down. Jobs were lost. Initially we wanted to move out west, since we have a deep love for desert climates. But changing jobs in an unstable economy didn't seem like the best bet, so we decided that it would be best to move to an area more convenient to my husband's job and closer to schools and shopping. The house was put up for sale in 2009.

I am not as sad to be leaving it as you would expect. Like I said, the change in the economy caused alot of changes...not only in attitudes but also in priorities. We are now expecting our fourth child and I currently don't have any desire to own property, as odd as that my seem. I don't want that kind of responsibility or the stresses of maintaining property value. I'm ready to be within a mile of shopping. I also hope to take advantage of our proximity to the beauty college. I'd like to get licensed as a stylist so I can start a vintage styling and photography business, eventually. I like not having to worry about the fact that my cars could break down at any moment, knowing that if we absolutely HAD to- we could walk to most things. Heck, we can even order a pizza to our home!

The rental house we found is right smack in the middle of town and is actually larger than the one we live in now. It kind of fell into our lap and we didn't feel we could pass it up. I'm even a fan of the style of the place, which was built in the 1950's and retains much of that original appeal. A more recent 'addition' is less to my taste, but provides the novelty of a large laundry room and a (*gasp*) third bathroom! Most importantly, the schools and jobs are close enough to qualify our continuing to drive to our current congregation, at least for the time being. This was a key factor, since I didn't want the boys to have to deal with changes in every aspect of their lives right at first.

I will, of course, miss this view. I'll miss the smells associated with the country and the fact that my kids could run rampant on the hills without our really worrying about them. But everything has its trade-offs and I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to be a 'city mouse' again, at this point in my life.