It’s Another One of “Those Days”.
The actions of this day will ultimately put our family on a trajectory for the future that is a “once in a lifetime” choice, and will be difficult to reverse.
We had given ourselves 18 days in France to re-orientate ourselves with the Charente region, browse properties and see how it felt being back here. I never imagined that we would fall head over in heels in love with a house on the second day. One that we, of course, cannot afford. But if we do this and that, we could make it work.
The soul searching has been deep the past few days. I’m not one for facing myself head-on. Normally, I know what I want and I grab it, not too much thought involved. But now, it’s not just me, its THREE whole other people who need consideration. Two of whom are completely reliant on the decisions I (and Jack) make now.
What do we want from a house, our life, our future, what do we want our kids life experience to be for the next 5 years, the next 10?
Back to that trajectory. Buying this house would force us down a path of embracing all that our very own patch of Charente, on the banks of the river would mean. Hard work renovating, pouring all our money and time into making our home our castle.
Not going for this place would mean either, potentially going for a much smaller place, much more affordable, with little to no work to do on it, the possibility of more travel, but still with its own compromises OR not going for anything and continuing to live as nomads!
Why do we have to make that decision TODAY? Well, ultimately, the owner of the house deserves an answer, we have already been pondering for over a week. What’s more, living in constant ‘vacation time’ is super expensive. Both the kids are anxious to know where we’ll be living, or as Vinnie puts it, “Just choose a house and then we can get our boxes!” Jack and I are also anxious to put some roots down. Ones that we don’t plan on up-heaving in 1–2 years. We have done an extensive amount of travel and moving over the past 5 years and I would be happy to curl up in our own corner of the world, focus on me, our family and take the days and months slowly.
Two more houses to see this afternoon and then it is T-minus-ZERO decision time.
