I’m calling it “Two Plows”.
It’s my unanticipated new home, just a little more than a mile from where B2 and I used to live, but light years away from the orderly life of an upscale residential neighborhood. The name is derived from two horse plows that were left on the property, at my request, by the previous owner. One of the first things I did after moving in was to carry them towards the mailbox. In my “free” time, I plan to clean them up, adorn them with paint and shellac and put in some landscaping light to silhouette their forms at night for people coming to visit.
A lot of folks have come up to look at the place with its funky cottage, outhouse, old stonewalls, dilapidated greenhouse, overgrown grape arbor, and the forested and abandoned country road. They all leave saying the same thing:
“This place is you.”
I assume it’s not intended as a left-handed complement. The dust bunnies in the upper hall could be mistaken for tumbleweeds.
I spent a couple of days camping out in the sunroom in my old sleeping bag and cheap aluminum cot. The first thing I did was clean out the fridge and stocked it with a case of Labatt Blue. The little old lady also left a slew of mason jars, which I ran through the dishwasher and placed in the freezer as beer mugs.
The day after the closing the movers arrived and I directed traffic, mostly to the abandoned cottage where my woodshop will be resurrected.
Then it was time to make lists. Lots of them, and to start living day to day to figure out what was missing. There were endless trips to Walmarts, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Best Buy. This was followed by lots of phone calls to various subcontractors for doing electrical work, putting up fencing, stripping wallpaper putting down new flooring, winterizing the sunroom, and adding a deck. I’m still trying to sort out how much of this
I want to do myself: trying to balance the practicalities of saving money versus losing patience for all the things not done.
Surprisingly I had more furniture than I originally thought, and only needed to go out and purchase a bed, a segmented couch, and dining room table. I got a great deal from a consignment shop for the last item. It had wicker chairs and a rich pine finish, which complemented the pine in the living room.
Within three days I was ready to have some folks over for a first meal. I called up Adie and JayWon. A half-hour before arriving JayWon told me that she was bringing some company: Hannah, her fiancé Jim, and Amy (a softball colleague of JayWon’s). I was short of food by about three people so I jumped in the Jeep and headed off for some power shopping.
When I got back Hannah had found my Nikon and was busy snapping pictures of the new place.
She is a very talented professional photographer and I was delighted with what she left for me. Pictures of flora and fauna, and of Jaywon and Adie. My girls were home with just me and a few of their friends for a simple dinner. It's been eight years since this has happened.
