In two days, it will be the anniversary of closing on my home.
It’s still hard to really believe that I own a home. And five acres of land around it. And I can do what I want to this space (within reason).
I add the within reason because I recently learned that my home insurance company would prefer that I keep the area around my house mowed out to 100 feet for fire mitigation. And that is something that I am willing and able to do for safety.
However, they also wanted the deck to be fully enclosed in metal mesh. While I was willing to put up fire-resistant latticework on the lower sections, full enclosure simply isn’t happening. So my husband and I are going to take down the deck. We’re going to be building an on-ground “deck” and making stairs to get into the house, mostly using repurposed material from the original deck. Oh, and we’re switching home insurance providers.
The on-ground deck won’t be as big as the current deck, so there should be plenty of material, even with us planning to create a little “shed” with some of the boards and all of the now-useless lattice.
My house is going to look so different without the deck, but that’s okay. It’s mine, and I can give it a haircut if I want to. I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous about building my own stairs, but I believe in my and my husband’s ability to make it work.
It’s amazing not to have the annual rent stress, that period of time between January and May when I don’t know how much of a raise I might be getting nor by how much my rent will go up for the year. When I was renting, I felt like I had no way out. Whatever they told us to pay, we’d have to pay, even though they were diabolical about matching rent increases to my raises every year, with the rent increase coming a month or two before the pay increase goes into effect, just for extra stress at the start of the summer.
I don’t miss that one bit. I wondered if I would miss things that are available in Boise once I moved out to the country, but I really don’t. I’m content to be more than a 30 minute drive from the nearest fast food restaurant, an hour away from the nearest movie theater, and two hours from Boise. It is incredibly beautiful out here in Cambridge in a way that is restful to my spirit. I love sitting in my house with the wind howling outside, or the rain tapping on the metal roof.
Here’s to the first year, may it be one of many.