Life Updates of a Larger Magnitude

This could be it - the Forever House.  What?!?!?!  That whole covered porch thing would actually become 2 garage bays with amazing doors and then matching entry doors on either side.  Check out these beauties... And my cartoon drawing of the garage area:  The siding and windows will all get replaced.  The interior will get gutted and rebuilt up to code (this thing was built by an artist - great with concepts, bad with "rules" and "codes".)  The back porch needs to be demolished and rebuilt. Currently the house is a 2 family unit, with identical sides that have 3 bedrooms, an office, and 2.5 baths.  They each cover about 2,500 SF.  But the most amazing part is the view from the back.  Through all the crazy vines and trees is a gorgeous overlook of farms,stream, and valley. So the past 3 days have been an emotional whirlwind.  I love how much potential this place has and I'm psyched out of my mind about the thought ...

Tomorrow, I'm flying up to PA to see The Barn (see last post).  My dad and I are going to go through it together, then I'm going to spend about 6 hours coming up with a scope of work and some rough floorplans, and on Wednesday 2 different builders are going to come through it with me and give me an idea of how much it will cost.  I've suspended disbelief and I'm moving on gut instinct alone now.  I hope my guardian angel is watching over me... So, IF the builders say it will cost less than $200k, and IF I can get the house for less than $200k, and IF we can find the financing/money to handle a $400k investment, then... we will either live there when renovations are done OR we will sell it for a profit (I hope).  We could be talking about my forever house here!  Or we could be talking about a flip on the level that I didn't want to be at for another 5 years or so.  Either one is something that I didn't expect to encounter at this point, and I'm a little ov...

It's funny to me (rubber chicken, not funny "ha ha") that things will happen in my life and I think, "Woah.  Everything is dropping into place at a ridiculous rate.  This must be MEANT TO BE."  And I think that about absolutely crazy stuff; my brain has no filter when it comes to "impossible".  Leave Boston and move to FL when you're 8 months pregnant? Sure!  Quit your awesome job because you might be able to make money flipping houses?  Why not?!  But then when I start to encounter a little resistance I think, "Ok, you just went for a ride on the crazy train.  The stars are NOT aligning.  You should get off this train now." And here's how this applies to *right now*.  Sometime in the last 2 weeks, I started to reopen the "moving to PA" door.  I think it's related to 2 things - the fact that my dad is having hernia surgery in a few weeks, and even though this might not be an epic procedure, there have been quite a few ...