A New House on a Lake

It has been a long time since I blogged.

I sit at my computer on a snowy day, looking out of the window and enjoy a view of trees and docks and animal tracks across a frozen lake. I have an urge to record the story of how after 20 years in one house, we end up the next year in a new house on a lake.

How it Began
It started with Mike's random comment, sometime in the late summer or early autumn of 2007, that he would like to live on a lake--a random thought, nothing more.

We have friends in Maine who don't live on a lake, but live close to a "pond," Flying Pond, and we have enjoyed visiting them and canoeing in the slow evenings. Mollie and Joel tell a story of visiting one summer and taking the canoe across Flying Pond in the evening...getting toward dusk and being deviled by some kind of biting insect. They neared the middle of the pond and suddenly a crowd of bats surrounded them like a cloud eating the insects and leaving them suddenly after they finished their meal.

Back to my story...Several weeks later, at work, I share a meal with some colleagues only half attending to the conversation. My attention becomes more focused when I realize that one has been talking for several minutes about readying her house for sale...yes, her house is on a lake. Sounds good, so I tell her to let me know before she puts it on the market because Mike and I are interested. (Mike more than me.) Just after Thanksgiving (2007) she invites us to visit and see the house. It was beautiful. We went back several times and inspected, but couldn't agree on the price given the appraisal.

Back to the Drawing Board
Now, I was on a mission. I looked at lakes in the city. (Mike and I agreed that Indianapolis would remain our home.) We visited friends who had just bought a condo on a lake. Took Sunday drives and wrote down telephone numbers and called. We even got a realtor to help us look. No luck.
Then in March of 2008, I checked the Internet and a condo, price reduced, turned up. I took my sister and we looked and then dragged Mike over. He wasn't enthusiastic until he realized that he knew some residents of the community and checked the place out with them. (Apparently, many here only want to leave to be buried.)

So it happened. Not without a lot of work. We lived in the same place for 20 years. A house with a large yard, a shed, a basement, and a large attic crawl space. We move to a condo, no yard, no shed, no basement, smaller attic. We got rid of a lot of stuff and hauled a lot to Goodwill. Lighter we are, and happy.


Mike bought a kayak, probably we will follow the lead of our neighbors and buy a pontoon boat. We share a dock with a neighbor and the kids have been swimming in the lake. The house is designed for entertaining and we have--twenty-three here for Thanksgiving 2008, and a nice crowd to bring in the new year, but that's another story.