Five years ago, when we talked about moving to Duluth, Matt said, "My request would be that we have land somewhere." You can always find a house on acreage up here, and I longed for nature, peace, wildlife, apple trees, and gardens. No problem, I thought. Sign me up.
So we bought this amazing place on Gaus Road. It is the type of place I had thought about buying if, say, we won the lottery and had been able to leave the Twin Cities and spend summers near Duluth. Twenty acres with a trout stream running through it. A mixture of open field and woods. A room attached to the garage that Matt could use for a studio. We would fish in the stream, cross country ski on the trails, plant an apple orchard, and make our own maple syrup. This house felt like home from the first time I walked through it - and I was intentionally settling here for the long haul. We would raise country-loving kids who romped through the woods and helped collect eggs from our own chickens.
Dreams change, though.
For us, it's been a series of gradual changes over the past few years. Working two full-time jobs and having two babies has taken most of our energy. We have been able to collect apples from our tree, I have learned to preserve green beans, we have several vegetable beds, and Matt has enjoyed our easy access to northern lights. But there are other areas we haven't made progress on. We've never been able to finish our big trail loop; basic maintenance has taken precedence over expansion. Our landscaping beds are usually a complete mess; by the time I've finished weeding from one end of the yard to another, the weeds have sprung back up at the beginning. We can just barely keep up with mowing, but never seem to finish all the trimming needed to really make the yard look nice. The to-do list, from painting to repairing to improving, only got longer -- all of which requires not only time, but money. It seems a source of never-ending frustration.
At the same time, we decided to go for kid #2. Daycare, medical, food, and diaper expenses doubled. I remember shortly after Alex was born, Matt suggested that we consider selling the house to save money. He was worried that we weren't saving enough, and wouldn't be able to weather any job loss or other life dilemma. Suggesting major life changes to a new mom probably isn't the best idea. I was hormonal and sleep-deprived and needed to feel 100% grounded. I would retreat to Alex's room where I could listen to him sleep and forget all talk of moving. There was no way I had the emotional energy to move, or the desire. I loved our house in the woods.
As I came out of the baby haze, there was no denying that a lower mortgage payment would make our lives better -- money for vacations, hobbies, to pay other bills, to establish an emergency savings fund. We have never wanted to be a family that sacrificed life experiences to have a fancier house. As much as I had wanted to raise kids who love playing in our woods, I have come to realize there are other things that I want even more. I want them to be able to pursue gymnastics, or soccer, or music lessons -- whatever interests them. I want to take them to symphony concerts and snowshoeing up the north shore. I don't want our family to be so married to a house and property that our weekends and free time are spent not fully living. And, we've never had the time or money to build that chicken coop after all. Wonderful Duluth friends have reminded me that our little city is filled with nature, and I likely don't have to sacrifice trees, birds, or chickens to live closer.
As Matt and I were talking about all of this over last winter and spring, we also found ourselves driving to Duluth all.the.time. Not just for work, but for doctor's appointments, the dentist, all of our shopping, gymnastics and music class, volunteer opportunities, fun Duluth events, and hanging out with friends. Driving to Duluth twice a day (spending 3+ hours a day in the car with day care drop-offs) was getting to be the norm.
I vividly remember the Saturday of Memorial Weekend. I drove to Duluth three times that day. Once to meet my friend Kirsten for coffee, after which I drove home to get the family so we could drive back to Duluth and run all of our errands (Home Depot, Target, grocery store). The kids napped, and that evening Matt and I drove back for a wonderful date night in Canal Park. Sitting at Bellisio's, outside in the sunshine admiring the hills of Duluth, we started daydreaming about how nice it would be to live closer to Duluth, where all the things we wanted to do, from the Lakewalk to restaurants and parks, were just a few minutes away. After all, we moved here because of that beautiful lake and hills, no? And I had just spend three hours of my Saturday in the car? Ridiculous. And it's only going to get worse as the kids get older and more involved in activities. Over our two-hour dinner, we started a list of things we needed to do before we could list our house, and decided on possible Duluth neighborhoods to live.
From there, the idea caught fire. I became obsessed with having a shorter drive, fewer winter snowstorms to deal with, being closer to friends and Duluth awesomeness. I made a goal of doing something every day to get our house ready to sell. Over the next two months, Matt and I painted, replaced sheetrock, hauled rocks, repaired siding, cleaned out excess junk, and figured out how we wanted to stage our house.
We even had an adventure involving a water pipe ... Matt tried to pry some trim off a basement wall, when he discovered (via water shooting everywhere) that the previous homeowners had nailed the trim directly into a water pipe. Ummm ... oops.
With the list wrapping up, we took photos and wrote up a description of our house, which officially went on the market last Monday. Damn, it looks awesome! It made me want to cry as I was reminded how wonderful this house is, and how it truly was our dream house.
It will be so sad to leave a place we had dreamed of, the house where we brought our babies home, but yet I feel that it is the right decision, the right move for our family, and I am anxious to see where our next adventure takes us!
