...Because wishes can come true.
In our case it did.
With mixed results.
The good part is we were able to leave Baltimore, Maryland, where we were transferred to in 2012. We gave it our best, made some friends, and lived in a beautiful neighborhood 500 feet from the Baltimore city line. Our streets were lush with trees, and gorgeous architecture, and our house was large and very livable.
But we never seemed to fully embrace our situation, and a lot of people couldn't embrace us as a result. They knew that we would eventually return to the Midwest. Compound that with next-door neighbors who ran hot and cold and when one of them started a scorched policy towards us, that was when we had enough.
So then we struggled with moving back to either Columbus, Ohio - where we lived and had many friends or moving to Cleveland where Cookie, that is I, had grown up. Greater Cleveland won because we could not afford Columbus anymore. So greater Cleveland won and we ended up not in Shaker Heights - where I wanted to return to, but one of the other Heights.
Which brings me to our house, Withering Heights.
It had so much charm, beautiful woodwork, and a gorgeous lead glass vestibule door. And it sat on over a half acre of land. In any other neighborhood - say Shaker Heights Lomond neighborhood, this would have been four city-buildable lots of ground.
And the street is unlike any I have seen. Large lots, well-maintained homes, and a variety of architecture that spans 1900-1970.
Yes, the house needed work - we've never owned a new or perfect house, so how bad could it be, right. Right? And besides, people would love to come to this house and fall in love with it as we have.
Welp, after six months, it hasn't worked out quite as we thought. It is not quite Green Acres bad - we do not, and I stress do not, need a pore key for the house, and our closets do not open to the outdoors, but it has old house charms and issues. Lots and lots of issues.
It's far from our dream house. I mean what the hell were we thinking. Two men in their early sixties taking on all of this? Had we bought a more sensible house, we wouldn't be up to our necks in projects.
I now have stress dreams about how we are going to pay for this, who is going to clear out the yards and yards and yards of English ivy that have taken over the grounds. Then there are fifty trees we need to remove, and trim, and even more that need to get raked up in the fall. In my dreams I wander around, overwhelmed, searching for something called peace of mind, instead, and in reality, we are overrun with deer. Seriously, we have whole herds come through here.
And Heathcliff? No, Catharine is here. Just Bambi.
Still here is where we are and here is where will continue to be. So I guess we are stuck.
Far from the Shaker Heights of my dreams, we are stuck in Withering Heights.
