Weekend Journal

With the work piling up in enormous piles around my desk, I’m fighting back the panic with lists and calendars of appointments. Weekends will be work-filled for the next three months, so this will be the last installment of the weekend journal. Who wants to read “I read for 12 hours straight. I graded 50 exams. My laundry is dirty”? Not me.

Well, I did do a lot of reading this weekend. But there was still time for a couple of playdates and adventures.

Yesterday, we went to an Open House. Why would you do such a thing, you ask? You already have a house. Yes, but we spent so many weekends going to Open Houses that we kind of got hooked at prowling through other people’s homes. We only check out the cool old houses in town; homes that we’ve always been curious about. Afterwards, I call a few buddies to see if they checked it out, too and we compare notes.

Yesterday’s house was super funky. Some rooms went back to the 1700s and others were added throughout the years creating a warren of rooms. The realtor showed us a hole in the basement. The home had been a part of the Underground Railroad. There was an enormous backyard with an acre of property — unheard of space in this town. Eight foot windows! Moldings! Wide plank pine floors! River rock fireplace! Potential everywhere. Christmas lights dangling from the barn for amazing outdoor parties.

We actually started doing some math about whether or not we could afford it. If we sold our place for top dollar, took out more loans…. hmmm… Now we have two incomes ….. Nah, the place needed so much work. The bathrooms were foul. All the additions had made the house really dark. Walls had to be knocked down. Major landscaping work. Painting. Carpentry. Electrical. Damp basement.

Can’t have it.

When we came back home, our old place with its many cracks and dents looked new and shiny. Probably a good thing that we’re not taking on that fantasy project. We actually still have a lot of work to do here. In between going to parent-teacher conferences today, we stopped by a kitchen cabinet store. Perhaps it would be best to fix up this place before we take on a new challenge. Maybe later in life, we can be the Angelina Jolie of old homes collecting orphans around New Jersey, but this is surely a bad time for it.