On Homes

So, I've known about this for a while, but was bound to secrecy by my family until they began to tell people. Mom and Dad bought a "farm". I say farm, I mean 60-something acres of land about 45 mins from where we live now that has 2 small sections that are cleared for farming and the rest is forest. Dad hasn't been this excited in a long time (if ever...). Here they are on Boxing Day posing with their Sold sign:

My Mom, looking beautiful in spite of having spent the past year battling cancer, and my Dad, looking about as excited as a kid in a candy store, and their "farm". Mid-life crisis much?

It is a pretty large property, with a small section of farm land on either side. There is a creek that runs through it, branching off into a Y shape in the middle. It's a 5 minute drive from a beach on Lake Erie. Over the next couple of years, they plan to bring the trailer out there and spend weekends on the property. Ultimately, but not for a while, they plan to build a house on the property.

I have mixed feelings about this.

Part of me is not pleased. We have lived in our old farm house since I was in grade 2. I'm attached. Mom and Dad have put in a ton of work on the house, and the majority of my childhood memories are there. That house and its location... well, it is home to me. I am fairly attached to it, even to the town we live outside of. I hated that town growing up, but perhaps absence really does make the heart grow fonder, as I feel nostalgic and proud of it now. There was once a time that Mom and Dad planned to live in our house the rest of their lives, in fact, if you had asked me a year ago, I would have been certain that they would never move.

But Dad has always wanted a forest, that is where he is at his happiest. Give Dad walking shoes and his Tilley hat and leave him with the bugs and plants and animals and he will be content. And I think this past year has shown my parents that they have to stop putting off what they want to do. A brush with your own mortality will make you think twice about your priorities in life.

Oh, and the possibilities. I love the idea of it all. Buying a plot of land in the country, designing and building your own house in the middle of the woods... it sounds amazing. We might force him to put in internet and tv, but if Dad had his way he would live as a hermit, completely cut off from the world. I know he dreams about being self-sufficient, off the grid. Mom wants the house to overlook the ravine where the creek runs, and Dad has talked about having a huge glass wall. Their house (in my head) will look like my idea of the Cullen's house in the Twilight book, and the Cullen's house in the movie.

Remember this, anyone?



So, I suppose I'll have to wait and see. What will they do? When will they do it? What will it look like? How will I let go of the house I love now? What's most important, really, is that Mom and Dad are happy. And maybe that they stop mentioning that the forest will be fantastic for their grandchildren to play in.