We have been in our current home for 12 years. Our house is owned by my husband's parents, who have been amazing and allowed us to stay here - rent free - for over a decade. Three years ago Tony's mom lost her battle against cancer. We figured the strained relationship with his father would soon see us kicked out of our home, but alas, here we have stayed. I spend the first ten years hating this house, wanting desperately to move, but never having the financial ability to do so. The last two years I have spent making this house a home. We have spent countless hours and dollars to make it our own. We've cleared brush, put in a swing-set, built a fire-pit, planted flowers (annual butterfly garden and perennial irises) and perennial foods (rhubarb, black berries, raspberries), put in both in-ground and raised bed gardens, built a lean-to for the rabbits... and had plans for expanding the garden next spring.
All of this came to a screeching halt when my father-in-law announced last week that he has decided to sell the house. We have no interest in buying it. It's really too small for our family. Seven people in a three bedroom home is cramped to say the very least. So we are now facing a new adventure... finding a home to call our own.
Tony has put in for more hours, and will soon be seeing if he can get promoted to assistant manager. With the added hours, and a possible pay raise, we're hoping that it's enough to get a bank loan big enough to buy ourselves a house. It's not likely, I know, but there's one on the market right now that is absolutely perfect for us. Out of town, several acres, more bedrooms, and more kitchen space. We could have our dream of a mini functioning hobby farm ... The yard is big enough for the swing set and a fire pit, the acreage is large enough to accommodate a larger garden, and it's far enough out of town that we could have chickens. Is it too much to hope?
At this point I don't know what our timeline is, so I'm not sure if I will be winter sowing, or packing in the next few months. Hopefully we will know more soon.
This means that our dream of opening our own business is temporarily on the back burner. Tony still wants to go ahead with both at once (a home and a store), but I'm hesitant to do both when one is more readily needed. Either way, that's what we've been up to as of late.
I have been working hard to get stuff listed on our Amazon account to try to earn some extra money to pay for some of our regular expenses (cat food, litter, dog food, monthly flea prevention, toilet paper, wet wipes, laundry detergent, dish soap, shampoo, etc.) while we work on saving up enough to consider a deposit for a house loan. Thus far I have 182 items listed, including craft magazine back issues, old vinyl 45 records, vintage sewing patterns, and a couple odds and ends (Angry Birds dog tags). Lots more to come as I have time to list more. I also have stuff in the other shops - check out the links on the About page! I'm also going to be working on getting some stuff listed on Craigslist and on local Facebook groups to try to move stuff locally as well.
I harvested all of the tomatillo seeds today. There's a lot! This is a mix of yellow, green, and purple. They all cross pollinated, so it'll be a surprise when they're planted with what comes up. I left some to re-seed themselves, tossed a few out into the woods by my parents' house to see if any might grow there, and the rest are here drying now.