For years, I’ve been doing my thing. Quietly, each day I’ve been planning the bits and pieces of our future lives. From weeding out the excess “stuff” collecting around our house, to careful remodeling so that the house will feel timeless even a decade from now to investing and to my career moves. Big and small and including even my perennial garden out front, the plans were always the same: build the future and one day it will get here.
This past weekend, we started one of the last two demolition/remodel projects left in this house: the back deck. After the deck, we have only our bathroom to renovate and that gets done after my husband can semi-retire, too. And just like that, it appears that we are on the cusp of the future I’ve always dreamed of: fully remodeled house, solid plan for retirement and even a few vacations and some normalcy thrown in. It took forever, but we finally got there.
Now, retirement is at least two full years and maybe five years away for me. That’s okay. We still need the resources. Further, I like what I’m doing now and I like the pace of the work. I can click along like this for awhile. Mostly, working for myself is ideal. It keeps my brain engaged while still giving us a decent income and provides me all of the autonomy I was looking for. For my hubby – the guy I’d like to see more often – semi-retirement is still at least two years out for him. But that will be our game-changer. When he can retire and work part-time again, we will finally have the capacity to run our lives like we want.
In the meantime, however, we managed to get to this place. Yes, we still have to dig it out and build the deck, which will start with me disassembling the old deck (at least the decking) this week. Then, it’s a matter of getting piers sunk into the ground 42 inches, then framing up a square deck and finally laying deck boards and building floating stairs. It’s weeks and months away from actual deck boards and largely, we need to be okay with that (read here: me; I need to be okay with that). In the end, when it’s done so are we. At least for a year. We have very little left to do and from here on out, we can choose to live differently. We did it. We both sacrificed and toiled. But we have addressed every stinking structural issue in this house. From a new roof to new jack posts in the basement from all the decks and doors outside being replaced to solar and geothermal heat inside. This house, which can get messy and chaotic with all of its furry inhabitants is safe, sound and comfortable.
And we have built an inside that feels like us. It’s a minimalist cabin in the woods. Part Scandinavian minimalist design, part modern, part farmhouse, part traditional. This house feels study, clean, warm and lived in.
Most importantly, we have filled this house with an easy love. From the humans down to the furry heartbeats, love lives here. There is room for everyone, enough for everyone and time for everyone. It was not easy merging five cats into one single home, but we have managed it and life is a slow, easy rhythm for them. They love their catio and each other. It just works.
Lately, it has also begun to dawn on me that we really have made it all work. For so long, we couldn’t focus on what we had achieved because there was so much left to do. But now? I looked around this house this morning and it truly does feel done. (Okay, done-ish.) And it’s time to celebrate what is and what will be. Each decision, each sacrifice, each investment led to here. Here is good. And the future is bright, filled with the one thing that means the most to me: time.
For a long time, I wasn’t satisfied with all of the sacrifices we had made because it seemed like we were living a life that was too difficult or too devoid of the good times and we were way too far away from the finish line for the sacrifice to have been worth it. Yet, somehow over this weekend – like water dripping on a stone – my perspective cracked open. In the coming years as we try to reduce our operating expenses, there are no big purchases we have to worry about. As we maneuver into a slower pace of life, there isn’t a slew of projects waiting to suck up our free time. We did build our dream house and it has things in it I couldn’t have ever imagined. The closed-in wall that allowed for the big, deep sofa that can fit a family to watch a movie with our prized Roger Tory Peterson prints hanging above them. The movable catio that allows my sweet babies their outdoor space. The kitchen island that is the site of 99% of our meals. Twister’s landing at the top of the stairs that gracefully hosts two kitty beds. The speakeasy feel of our fireplace room that decorates incredibly well for the holidays. My dining room table that comfortably seats 12.
It is generally hard right now not to feel so very satisfied with where we are. (I will say, it helps that our big project is outside as the inside of the house doesn’t get chaotic with the project.) But, we made it. We are planning a spring trip to the Caribbean with friends, I have a bestie trip this fall and I’m lucky enough to have steady work until then that makes hustling for contracts not a big deal. Even the fact that we cleaned up the tractor and tool sheds this weekend feels fabulous as it eliminated another couple of black holes in our lives.
Life ultimately had a way of finally catching up. Just when I thought it was all too much and I couldn’t do it, it turns out we were largely done.
The Yuppie Homesteader 