Recently Weifarer posted about why we sold our house house and bought a yurt. Now to tell you the real story.
In order to explain it, we need to go back, waaayyyy back. A decade ago, we were renting a place for $800 mo in my favorite town of Old Town, ME. One day I got frustrated with paying good money for something I did not own. We ended up finding a house a south of Bangor with a monthly payment of $500 mo. About the same time my wife went from working 10 miles away in Bangor, to an hour and a half away in Warren, ME. She commuted for about 6mo when we figured it better to relocate closer to work. In two months time we listed the first house and sold it before winter.
Into the next house we went, 30 min from her work. This house is everything Weifarer described. However it was also a few more things she left out. That dead-end road was not always a dead-end. The bridge at the end was rotten and we convinced the town not the rebuild it as it was not needed. By doing so, we pissed off all the local “mainahs.” The meandering paths, were indeed very nice- When the owners were not up. The owners were from Massachusetts and although it was a residential neighborhood, they felt it was still backwoods as opposed to their hometown of Lynn. Due to this, they felt it their right to endlessly fire their guns all day, add to the ATV traffic, have huge bonfires and party during the entire time they came up. Being right across the street, it was a living hell for us.
The house itself was nice, but the toxic mold, endless leaks, mouse infestation, carpenter ants, rotted beams, bad wiring, bad plumbing, no insulation, poor heating, and overwhelming feeling it was going to collapse just made it kind of unnerving to live in…other than that it was nice
We did live there for 8 years so all could not have been too bad, I did love the garage and occasional privacy. One big thing though was Weifarer only worked 30min away for half of that time. She eventually got another position 1.5 hours away. As this house was nicer than our old one, we decided to keep it. A few years went by, my formerly pristine BMW 328i was destroyed by the commute. We did however pay it off, then the credit cards were paid off, then a student loan, and finally a refinance that lowered the bills even more struck a chord. Why are we bothering to pay for this house if we are not benefiting from being here? By this time, the markets were crashing, but I figured…list the house anyway. A great journey is started by one step.
A few months later the house had an offer and was being sold. What to do now? Well, at that time I’m riding cross country on a motorcycle I just rebuilt out of spare parts in a garage in NM. On the way home I considered renting, not gonna happen. Buying another place was out of the question. I had no desire to live with either set of parents. This left a yurt or houseboat. Being maine, a houseboat does not work in the winter so the yurt plan was launched.
Till next time…..