I’m struggling with a decision. I’m doing my best to convince myself that a rural estate upstate with a cool Mission Revival style house, old barn, and 2nd house (and a few sheds thrown in) is a bad decision, as there’s so much expensive work that would need to be done, renovation-wise. And it’s far from NYC, where I enjoy going to art galleries and museums. And it’s even further from the beach, where I like to relax and swim in the ocean. It would be a completely different lifestyle, and there’s part of that which is exciting, and part of it which is maybe just the idea being exciting, and a potential future reality of wondering why I’m spending a small fortune to heat a big home in the upstate New York winters will have me ready to stick my head in the nearest snowbank to forget my worries.
So, I’m doing all this research last night to build up evidence that a bid on this real estate would not be a good idea, and I’m really convinced I’ve found my answer, and then I decide I’ll paint to give myself a break from the research and thinking. But next thing I know, I’m painting a picture of this house, and the act of painting these luscious architectural curves and red clay tile roof of this Mission Revival style home has me getting excited again. I finish the painting and decide to title it: “Why is there such a magnetic pull from this damn house?”
I mean, come on, aren’t these architectural details enticing? My painting is here above left, and a photo of the actual front window from the inside (on my visit about 10 days ago) is above right. If I owned this house, I’d probably remove the bed and make this a library and reading nook, wouldn’t that be a great place to sit and read a book? You can read more of my indecisiveness about this property on my previous posts here and here.
My mindset from the past few years has been to plan for a future in retirement where I have a simple home with low to no maintenance and consider it a home base while I spend significant parts of the year traveling, and it seemed – or seems – like it’s still a solid and enjoyable plan. So why do I keep coming back to wanting to have this elaborate house with endless home improvement projects and maybe no money left over to travel at all? I’m really trying to figure myself out on this one, I’ve looked at plenty of homes, both on Zillow and in person in recent years, and I can’t think of any that have me obsessed like this one – but that still doesn’t make it necessarily a good idea.