Time to Buy a Big-Ass Tractor
We finally found a house…
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My husband and I have searched for a house for almost two years. Not because we didn’t have a home or because we had to relocate.
No, we were looking for a house because we made another mistake. Unlike a particular relative and his wife, we make plenty of mistakes. We like to call them the ‘Manzer Mistakes.’ the relative’s wife is quick to remind us of that fact and how they did everything right, how they are richer, smarter, and better in every way. Ooh, I sound a bit resentful, don’t I? Well, I don’t mean to. I believe our decisions (whether good or bad) bring us to where we are in life, and our present moment is precisely what it should be. We joke about making so many Manzer mistakes, but in reality, it is just living. We all do it.
Eleven years ago, Gary and I lived in a private country setting in upstate New York. He was retired from the AirForce and was working as a maintenance supervisor, and I was a nursing director for a large medical group.
At the time, I was working a lot of hours and felt stressed and resentful that I didn’t have time to do the things I enjoyed.
Tired of high taxes, sleet, snow, cold, and clouds, we decided to move south.
We chose South Carolina for the lower cost of living and the warmth. Warmth from the sun and the people. We completely fell in love with how friendly everyone was.
We decided to buy a house in a development in the low country. We are about 30 miles to the beach and about the same distance to Lake Moultrie.
We ordered a new house in a development. It has an open floor plan, which I thought would be great for entertaining, a pantry the size of a postage stamp, and a backyard that is not much bigger.
This all worked fine for a few years. Then we realized it was a ‘Manzer Mistake’. We have never been the entertaining type, and we soon realized we despise open floor plans. I also discovered that once I retired, I had time for the things I enjoyed.
The problem was this house prevented me from doing those things. The yard was not big enough for me to garden, and the house was not big enough to store all my canning jars, herbs, crafts, woodwork, piano (I don’t have…
