On the way home from Chatham I asked Joe if we could take a detour and drive down along the water in St. Joachim. I have no idea why, but this little fart of a town in the middle of nowhere was been, and always will be, the place I want to call home.

It just feels right to me. I am embarrassed to say I am a sooooo romantic when it comes to stuff like this. Anyways, so we are driving down along the water when I see a big, beautiful house on the river complete with boat house. There is a “for sale by owner” sign in the front yard with the price $139,000.  We stop and turn around to see the sign again….yep, still $139,000.  “This is it” I say to myself! Fate! These people must be insane or the inside is a total dump or I have just been given a gift from above…. I am hysterical for the better part of a day. I call our real estate agent who says she will come over the next evening and I start prepping the house.

Well, of course when I drive back to look at the house the next evening, the lady sweetly says “oh, we are advertising for the house down the road” which is a shack not even on the water side…. cry…. all my hopes and dreams shattered. I politely suggest she clearly mark that on her sign and she laughs and says “we paid four times that four our home”… of course you did…. cry some more…

As I pull back into my driveway and stare at my postage stamp of a house I can’t help but cry.  God I need help. I try to focus on the plus side, in my mad dash to have the house ready for the real estate agent I organized the shed, cleaned out the closets, touched up all the baseboards and chipped paint and cleaned the laundry room…. Well, at least it is a clean postage stamp.

The point of my little story is this. I’m stuck here for a few years so I’d better make the best of it. My next house is going to be on the water come hell or high water, and that costs big bucks. In the meantime, I have no choice but to make this one work for our family. I don’t want to live the next few years resenting my home, so I am determined to fall in love with it all over again. The only way to do that is to change the few little things I really hate about it that I can actually change.  New carpet in the basement, $1000. New shed out back for extra storage, $400. Reorganize backroom to make my laundry room a little nicer…free! Money saved staying in my little home for a few more years until we find the perfect one…..thousands…

If you find yourself cursing your home but are not ready to sell and move right now, take another look at what you can do to fix what is broken…without spending a fortune.  Pretend you are selling your home and that a real estate agent is coming through…you’ll look at your home differently and take the time to tackle bigger projects you’ve been putting off.  Invest a little to make the things you really hate a little more loveable.

Of course you never know, you may even drive by your dream house tomorrow, but at least your home will be ready for a quick sale!