“Remoted” – Day 484 (Tuesday)

Five years ago today, the latest chapter of home ownership really took shape when I signed the Purchase and Sales Agreement on The BungaLowell. In the home section of life, this was my third time advancing towards home ownership and the second time buying a home on my own. My amazing friend who is also an amazing realtor worked her butt off guiding me through every step of finding a home.

Our search started in Fitchburg and we saw some lovely older homes that had amazing woodwork and solid construction but still needed more work than I could handle. After I got my job in Lowell, we shifted the hunt a couple dozen miles because I don’t like commuting. I did it for far too many years under the philosophy of “live where you choose and work where you can.” After living in Tennessee for 12 years in houses close enough to work that I went home for lunch most days, I never want to commute again.

Maybe it's time to
finish moving in.

After signing the agreement, life kicked into high gear with preparations. It was exciting. It was stressful. I hope to never do it again, but I say that every time I move. After the hunt and the move, there is a crazy tendency, every time, to never fully move into the place, as evidenced by my spare room where I am haunted by still unpacked boxes and piles of stuff. Maybe it’s a psychological step for a future quick getaway, but likely it’s my sentimental attachment to stuff, especially things that were gifts that become elevated to holy relic status. There are treasures residing in those boxes, some of which are even labeled correctly with the contents.

There is also some weird junk in those boxes, like the contents of the box labeled “orange tea set,” which was from my grandmother’s family. It's the ugliest tea set I've ever seen. One of the cups broke years ago while packed in the box. I don’t even know if it was Mummu's or one of her sister’s, and I'm not sure why I have kept it and moved it dozens of times, or why I still have it today. That may be for a therapist to help decipher.

Now that it’s approaching the five-year anniversary of the house, maybe it's finally time to get around to finishing starting setting up the guest room. There were grand plans for that room when I signed the Purchase and Sales agreement. There would be some sort of convertible seating/sleeping furniture and an office set up. Or maybe it was an arts room with seating/sleeping? In any event, the intent was to be set up with a comfortable space for overnight guests. So much has both happened and not happened since then. Maybe this year on staycation I can get it squared away in time for the anniversary of the closing. Or not.