Boyz in the hood woods…
After lo these nearly nine years of inner city living, we are moving to what can almost be called the country. Lady luck smiled upon us a few weeks ago when someone mentioned to Ben that we should look in Bath, Ohio. He drove around and came upon a for sale sign on a main road, with the house back there out of sight. He took a look around and peeked in the windows. He liked it enough that that weekend he brought me down there too.
I stepped out of the car, and even on a miserable gray day in March… the LAND. It just took my breath away. Are you sitting down? It's almost 8 acres! Do you know how big an acre is? I didn't have the slightest idea how to grasp it, but have learned on line that it's like about a football field– slightly less and sans endzones. Okay… seven of those. There's a big grassy expanse fringed by woods. In the woods you have a nice creek, decent sized, that I gather is popular with the paddling set and even has white water parts somewhere along the line. (Looks pretty sleepy on our part but great for catchin crawdad, etc.)
The house has a center from 1831, even with a plaque saying so. Then along the way there's been some expansion. Not all the changes make sense, and here and there you come across a "huh?" moment. The siding needs repair, and indeed needs to NOT BE aluminum siding, but I digress. Anyway, there are some good points about the house and some so-so points, but it's overall totally workable. THe house is only slightly larger than our current house, but will definitely be fine. And then you look outside and say to yourself… LOOK AT THIS LAND.
Due to scheduling whatnot, yesterday was the first time Ben got to see the inside of the house. Isaac and I wandered over hill and dale, finding a cute little garter snake and "an arachnid!" (as Isaac termed it), and seeing many birds, and sitting on a thinking rock, and finding a path down to the creek after we went the hard way through the woods, and lying on the grass (slightly damp) to see the clouds. There's a play structure there and Isaac has already decided who of his friends will get what swing. "it's like having my own park!" he exclaimed. And indeed, this is way bigger than his usual city park.
But first we had to get it. Last night we sat down with the realtor and went through the process of putting together an offer. I was very disturbed to see another realtor there with another smiling couple yesterday. I really wanted to grab a pitch fork and tell them to "git off m'land!" and "no trespassin'!" But instead I had to make due with giving them the fish eye. Anyway, he who hesitates is lost. We put in our offer this morning, just ahead of two other also in this morning– and we got it!
So now… it's going to be a busy couple weeks/months here. We've got to get the financing done. I spent half the morning on the phone with the mortgage people… writing with one hand while nursing a baby with the other… multitasking as always. And we've got to meet with the inspector on Wednesday, and go through all the various details. Then we'll close at the end of April and move some time after that, depending on a lot of factors. But we can overlap the houses for a couple months so it's not high pressure. We can get this house ready to sell… and then. Live down there.
I've been thinking of "hello-goodbye" pairings. Living in the city has a lot to offer, and living out in the sticks (although this is just a stone's throw from all the shopping in the world) has some detractors. I know it's not all roses and pie. But mostly!!
Goodbye car alarms, hello owls…
Goodbye being able to walk to five restaurants in a one-block radius, hello being snowed in at the end of a long driveway… (in the interest of fairness)
Goodbye homeless-person urine, hello coyote urine…
Goodbye mostly irrational fear of abduction, hello mostly irrational fear of rabid raccoon attack…
Goodbye broken glass and chain link, hello wildflowers…
Goodbye vermin (squirrels, mice, voles), hello different vermin…
Goodbye no space, hello SPACE…
A conversation:
Isaac: we should learn to be farmers and grow crops!
Me: what sort of crops would you like to grow?
Isaac: Pigs.
Me: hm, I like pork, it's tasty. But what about the killing part?
Isaac: I'd just take my gun. Boom. Real quick. And the pig would feel no pain.
A vegetarian he is not.
About Bath. It's a tiny community on the northern fringe of Akron, but roughly midway from Cleveland to Ben's job– to which he has been driving two and a half hours round trip for twelve years. And yet it's only 30 minutes from Cleveland, so I can still go on with my life with basic normalcy. Okay, I drove around "Bath Center" which had a sign indicating that it was indeed there. It seems to consist of a fire/ambulance department, a school, and a city hall. That's really all I could see there. The rest is just residential. There are some hideous McMansions nearby. It's on the fringes too of this massive national park. Indeed my project for the summer with Isaac, before this house was even a thought, was to learn that park, to walk all over it and work on our birding and other flora/fauna skills– and now– right on our backyard!
And also, as you may know, Bath was put on the map by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. When we first looked at the house, and then at the price (which is stunningly cheap– I know my friends on the coasts are going to faint) I figured, "Oh sure: the Dahmer house." But no. I waded grimly through some horrible police records until I found the exact address of the house where he lived from age 8 to 18 or so, and where he killed his first person. I google-mapped it. No. This is NOT the Dahmer house. I know you're as relieved as I am. And now, looking at the whole picture I can say, hey, this town is pre-disastered. I mean, what are the chances that ANOTHER psychopathic serial killer will show up there? Must be a billion to one at least. I feel very secure that we will be safe there. The house doesn't even seem haunted. It just seems cheerful and warm and quirky.
So my head is spinning. It's giddy delight. I have really loved our house and our life here in Ohio City. But there's a lot that I'm tired of too– like crack-heads breaking into cars just to get a little bit of change from the ash tray. Like loud music from the passersby, and lots of sirens. Like drunken St. Patrick's Day partiers needing to be asked to please not have sex on the curly slide so our little boy can play on it. Like the postage stamp yard (grass area, literally ten by ten feet) and the boy in the house bouncing off the walls like a super ball. Now I'll have that much needed ability to say simply, "Go out and play." Just go OUT and PLAY. Give the kid a soccer ball and let him run up and down or something. Here, I have to be with him every minute, making sure he's safe. Which is one thing when he's four… And did I mention that I have another boy who too will soon start to bounce off the walls like a super ball? Go out and play, you kids! This is truly a gift. I'm excited. I'm so excited that even the hell of moving seems like, eh. Whatever. We'll deal with it.
Non-stalkers drop me a note and I will send you the realtor link so you can look at some photos for yourself.
Goodbye known, hello unknown…