Downsizing

It was a perfect day Saturday. Somehow, we managed not to get out of the house until lunch time. Since we will be downsizing this summer we thought we would check out a couple of areas and the types of apartments, mobiles, condos, manufactured homes, and RV parks that are out there. It is one thing to read about them, quite another to see them.

Lunch first, of course, and we found ourselves lingering, forgetting we had an agenda. Agenda? That is not the correct word, but you get the idea. We headed for a small town closer into Seattle that had not impressed me in the least when we drove through it one night. The ad, however, was for a cheap studio cottage, on an estate, with a fenced in yard. It was suggested in the ad that people get out and look in the windows and then call to view if interested. Well, what fun. So, what if we aren't going to move until summer. Maybe it will be perfect and we can work something out! (Yeah, some days I make no sense!)

"I don't like this neighborhood," I repeated. "It is not appealing at all."

But hope was still there, we still had corners to turn. We turned the last corner and saw what looked like a shed, what appeared to be a 300 square foot shed with decent siding (though in an unappealing color). We edged forward to see a haphazard unstained tiny addition on the back. 600 square feet? Across the narrow road was a corral with a horse; I envisioned a hot summer windows open and smells wafting in. We did see a sign saying for rent on the fence, but it was not a privacy fence as advertised. It had to be the right place according to address, but. . . . I could not make myself get out of the car to look. Of course, today, I wonder, "Had been a gem inside?" Then I realize it didn't matter, I was not comfortable in the neighborhood anyway.

We drove South and then East for 34 miles to view an RV park, mobile home park, and small apartments. We got so caught up in looking at the outsides and neighborhood, we drove all the way to the closest town and realizes we had not bothered to ask to see the inside of an apartment. Well, at least we got to drive through the small tree lined RV park beneath the mountain covered in more trees. Of course, we also discovered that we would have to pick carefully our site because half of them looked onto a large storage business rather than more trees or the mountain. But the the two parks and apartment grounds were clean, well kept up.

Guess it is obvious we aren't in panic mode yet, but viewing places to live this way, half way, sure won't keep us from getting to panic mode, because cheap and within an hour to his job just do not seem to co-exist. And I refuse to leave this climate to go back to being cooped up in air conditioning all day long, even if it means living in a reclaimed chicken coop. (Ok, that last remark is another non-reality.)

My dream for the perfect cottage almost for free still lives inside me. If only reality would stop interfering!