Breaking Real Ties to the Land

I worked hard for this place.  This was my fourth home.  It's a product of my desire to have a warm beautiful sanctuary in Seattle; a place full of original art, to display my collection of books (over a thousand volumes) and momentos of my family and to live with my amazing wife, Kerry.

And now it's sold.  We had planned to sell it in 2010 when we bought Brigadoon.  The problem was we could not.  A combination of incompetent Realtors and a lousy housing market made that impossible. Kerry decided that we could make it a vacation rental, so we did.  It served us well, paying for new upholstery and sails for Brigadoon, while allowing us to keep the place until a buyer appeared.

Well, one did appear, about six weeks ago.  The deal actually went smooth as a Lake Union summer night on the water; barely a ripple.  There was no Realtor.  The new buyer is in the house last night and we no longer owe the bank hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That's Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars -- Hundreds of Thousands.

I will miss this home.  I started my marriage to Kerry in this place.  We figured out how to be husband and wife there, how to live together. I built the place I always wanted, in Seattle.  I filled it with art, music, happiness and love.  I will miss this home in a way that I will miss any other.  This was my home.  I bought with my previous wife, then had to buy it all by myself when my previous marriage ended.  I shared it with Kerry. It was beautiful.  I will miss it.  But...

It's part of the Freedom Project; to reduce out debt, our constraints, our commitments.  It's part of enlightenment.

My debt is "enlightened" to tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that gives us freedom.  It means that Kerry or I could lose a job tomorrow and the other can still take care of us.  It means we are that much close to our goals, and that much more free.

It means I no longer own a home on land.  I may never own one again.  I have less of a tie to the land.  Before, if we had to, if we needed to, we could head back to this lovely town home.  Now we cannot.  It belongs to someone else.

It really, really means that Brigadoon is our home -- for good.

Brigadoon, sailing away.