Reflection on Our Big Move
While driving home from dinner last night, we talked about how much our lives have changed since Memorial Weekend 2024. We are fast approaching Labor Day, and I always considered those two holidays the start and end of summer. That means Fall is about to be here, and we are coming up on the one-year anniversary since we first saw the house and then bought it about six weeks later.
Why the Move?
Clark had just retired after 33 years as a Firefighter/Paramedic, so we knew it was time to start thinking about a place to retire.
Clark didn’t want to be anywhere cold anymore; he had enough of the snow and the shoveling. Ironically, we still have that here at Old Bandy, but it's just not as bad.
We knew we wanted a Restoration Project but never dreamed it would be like this house!
We wanted at least a few acres, but truly wanted at least 5 acres - and we got 6.2! Our ultimate goal is to open a shelter for senior animals so they don’t need to spend their last moments in a cage, hoping someone will love them again. At the time, we had two 17-year-old cats, and we could not imagine them trying to live a good life in a cage. They need love, warmth, cuddles, and lots of sleep. As some of you know, we had to put our beautiful girl Savannah down before moving to Old Bandy. Luckily, our champion mouser/bat chaser/all-around helper, Tiki, is still with us in our beautiful home.
We had anticipated moving in about 5 years, and we had visited one of my favorite places in Georgia and looked at homes there. Zillow was our new best friend at home in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Louisana, and others. We discussed staying in Illinois but knew we would need to be much farther south for better weather.
We spoke to a realtor who quickly changed our life's direction! He said you can sell your house in the next few weeks, the market is HOT, and you can get more money than you are even thinking. We had already purchased Old Bandy, so we thought—why not? My job involves travel and working from home, and it can be from anywhere. Our previous home was sold in less than a week for over asking!! Holy Moly - but we had to move out completely within three weeks. Reality hit quickly.
And now… Dream vs. Reality
The Dream vs. Reality: We knew we would have challenges, but OH MY GOODNESS, do we ever!
We have a zoo at our home - which we’ve never had to deal with this before. Mice, bats, raccoons, groundhogs, squirrels, bunnies (little tiny babies!), deer, and so many cicadas. So many. This has been such a learning experience. We believe we finally have the raccoons locked out of the attic! Throw a party, everyone! Whoohooo!! Now, we move to the groundhogs to find a new shelter before hibernation.
We miss our family so much. The kids we didn’t see often, but now its a big old trip to get them here. I would love to get my family here too.
We miss our friends tremendously. Now we need to figure out how to see them when we go up north for appointments. OR get our house liveable for people to spend the night.
Sometimes, it’s just hard to live in a home that is not totally ready to habituated. The water situation (eColi / Sulfer / Well Water), the second floor ceilings from all of the years of the roof leaking, the 1970’s gas station bathroom, and on and on.
The POISON IVY and the rest of the lawnwork. Clark thought we have a giant lawn mower, we cut down a few trees and its done! No, not even close to the case. The poison ivy is a full time job. The underbrush is also a full time job. We have well over 100 trees on our lot and they are randomly placed. We’ll figure it out, but it will take years.
We Don’t Regret It - Most of the Time
We love our Old Bandy House and everything that comes with it. We love having Clark’s family close by. We love all of our new friends, and we love our small town. We have a single movie theatre and we love that too. We’ve learned to do all of our food shopping at Walmart and Aldi. We enjoy the intense thunder and lightning storms - this house is built like a tank! We do have moments though, of sadness, or being overwhelmed. Just keep dreaming of the end goal and imagining what we will accomplish is more than we ever thought. We love her and our life.