My sense of smell has been unreliable since Covid, so when I first noticed a strange, chemical smell on the air a couple of weeks ago, I convinced myself that it was just my imagination. Later that day, but husband insisted that it smelled smoky outside, and he looked online to see what might be causing it. It was smoke from Canadian wildfires. Since then, the wildfires have become big news, as they shrouded New York city in a toxic, orange haze and destroyed the air quality for much of the East Coast. But today, at least, the air quality wasn’t so bad, and I walked my full eight laps on the driveway, sans mask.
The Car Saga is over. We finally have all the car-related items that were promised to us, including the second key, the cargo net, and the title. The old car is sold and the plates canceled. My parents’ car is fixed and back in VT. So now I can relax and enjoy my new car. Except the car doesn’t feel like it belongs to me yet. It feels like a loaner. I hope that’s just a temporary feeling.
My husband and I wanted a buy a lake house, so we joined the housing fray for a few weeks. We went to an open house. We got preapproved for another mortgage. Then, after watching house after house sell within days, we began to wonder if there was any chance of us actually being able to both win a bid and afford it. What decided this issue was this one particular lake house in Massachusetts. It was priced within our range, and though it was a bit smaller than we wanted, it was otherwise perfect. I asked a realtor if we could see it. She said, “I can get you in, but offers are due the next day. There’s been a huge amount of interest in this property and there’s so much cash in this market, cash like we’ve never seen in this area before.” All that talk about cash was concerning, and I what I heard was, “Don’t bother.” So we didn’t bother, and then we quietly bowed out of the market. For now, anyway.
Stymied in our wishes to buy a lake house, we’ve pivoted to home improvement. This is, apparently, a national trend. Current homeowners are finding themselves unable to trade up, so they’re doubling down on their houses, spending big cashola to make their houses nicer. We had a landscaper out here last week. He recommends tackling the property in sections. First up is the front yard, which needs a new walkway, as well as landscaping along the edges of the yard. When I told the landscaper that I also wanted a walking path along the edge of the yard, he was like, “Wow, that’s weird. I’ve never heard of anything like that.” But I feel confidant that he can handle it. The guy seems like a pro, and I’m looking forward to seeing his plans.
