The Dream

While I am much, MUCH happier with our house and property now than I was a year ago, I still have this dream of buying a house in the middle of nowhere.  We've been trying like crazy to simplify our lives, both physically in terms of excess possessions, as well as spiritually/emotionally.  It's harder than I expected.  Between work, family obligations, and my personal desires, I often feel like I'm being torn in two or three directions.  And our "stuff"...  We already have less than many people I know, but we still have some clutter and junk that we don't need or use.  It's a work in progress.  Thankfully, the living spaces of our home are pretty clutter free (excepting the kitchen, which seems to collect crap like nowhere else), and they feel much more serene as a result. 

But the embodiment of the simplicity dream, for me, is a cabin in the woods.  On vacations Up North as a child, we almost always stayed in vintage cottages - places with more charm than convenience.  There was one that had a makeshift bathroom on the screened-in back porch.  There was a tub on one side, a sink and toilet on the other, and the main entrance to the cabin ran right down the middle.  Another place didn't even have a tub.  Or a shower.  We bathed in the lake every time we stayed there.  We lived through rickety beds, mismatched furnishings that wouldn't fetch a dime at the Salvation Army store,and cranky vintage appliances for a week or two every summer.  And I loved it.

So when I was perusing the real estate ads (bad idea, I know) and found an "Up North Cottage" for sale right in the area where Shayne and I hope to someday move...  I fell in love.  Hard.

It's small, about 800 square feet including an addition, but it has more than enough personality to make up for it's size.  There's a fireplace, knotty pine paneled walls, hardwood floors, a vintage kitchen with drainboard sink, and 20 acres of meadows and woods surrounding it.  It's the closest I could ever get to Up North here in Indiana.

It was on the market forever.  And then one day, when I checked the ads for the first time in a while, it was gone.  I mulled it over for a few weeks, then decided to call the realtor to see if it had sold or just went off the market for a while. 

Nobody's bought it yet; the seller is just taking a break.

Maybe there's still hope.