My Dream Home Part 2

I did not realize there was going to be a Part 2! (Part 1 here)

Negotiating a house sale was really exciting, and the closing process on the cabin happened exceptionally quickly. I didn't even have time to change before I signed the papers. It was an extremely privileged experience. Every time I tell this story I want to preface - I had a lot of help, and I’m not ashamed to ask for help. Seeking support is one of the most powerful tools.

Once the sale was final, and my bank account was drained, a home purchase held a whole new weight. The financials were so overwhelming, I consulted my friend who is a money coach - Charly Stoever (he/they/papi). They reassured me my emotions were natural and even with the debt, a home and property purchase is an appreciating asset. Skip to the Connection Questions section of this post to see their additional answers to questions about home buying.

The morning after I closed on the sale of the cabin, things changed. During negotiation, I asked about an easement across my neighbor’s property until any additional houses were built. When I drove up to take my first truck-load, the easement road was blocked off. Instead of being upset, I sat in gratitude and turned around to take the main road.

The cabin is a dream come true, but typically, we wake up from our dreams. We don’t experience all the components that build the dreamscape, like weeding the garden, regraveling the driveway, or using power tools - all of which were decently fun. But after one more night's sleep at my parent’s house, I was living a whole different reality.

I’ll gloss over the part where I’ve been living with my parents for the last four years and it’s been completely restorative, there’s plenty of that in the rest of my posts!

First thing I noticed was the mason bees. Going in and out of the front door I thought I saw these tiny wasps flying around and made a mental note to spray for wasps. The next day I tried to follow their path and determine the location of the nest, and witnessed them flying directly into the logs of my home! Terrified of the potential damage, I researched what could possibly be burrowing in the wood and went in a cyclical thought process jumping from carpenter bees, carpenter ants, termites to finally, mason bees.

The whole time I was moving in, these little bees were wandering around the sunny side of my home. A welcome party perhaps. Thankfully, mason bees do not burrow holes in the wood, but rather use existing holes to nest for about a short period. It just so happened to be the first two weeks I owned the home. These are the best possible critters out of all the options because they don’t create any damage and they are fantastic pollinators. I planned on hosting bees! However, the inevitable prevention of all these creatures is a $30,000 repair. Yup, I’m making much bigger financial decisions now.

If the mice hadn’t been discovered at approximately the same time as the bees, I might have been able to handle the situations independently. But because they were in fact together, I was pretty overwhelmed. It makes sense field mice would be seeking shelter… I am in the country, and in a field. I really don’t understand what freaks me out so much about mice, but it makes me feel creepy-crawly and disgusting. (TW: dead animal) I put out a few pieces of bait myself after noticing some droppings on the tops of the cabinets and laundry room. I didn’t expect that I would have to hear the dying squeaks of a baby mouse AND find a way to move the animal myself.

I love little animals and I have since put in some preventative measures to keep mice out of the crawl space that won't harm them at all… but I’m just not going to share my home and kitchen. That was a huge moment of emotional turmoil. With friends literally on the way to arrive at my place, I pumped up the I’m an Albatroz song and shouted “WELL FUCK THAT LITTLE MOUSE CAUSE I’M AN ALBATROZ” and screeched with every tiny movement. Mabel tentatively peaked around the corner of the stairs like “you good?”

The first night in the cabin was damn windy and the logs creaked and groaned as they expanded and contrasted with temperature changes. Also the kitchen cabinet will shake if the window is open. What an adventure and test of courage! I played my typical brown noise on the Insight Timer app and prayed. I didn’t get much rest but I did have a spiritual experience, connecting me with my new surroundings.

Part of my dream for this space is the land, the earth, the trees - connecting with nature. I want to be the tender of this land. All night I just kept trying to connect to the universe and despite not being totally prepared, knowing I was in the right place at the right time. As wind whirled around outside, I remembered the Inverted Experience I did for New Years Eve to start 2023. Mabel and I went on an adventure to Seaside and took pictures blowing in the wind. Wind - the powerful and unseen force of nature, something you can’t see, but feel - has been a part of my journey believing in a power greater than myself. And the wind is very strong up here! I reassured myself that wind must mean the energy is just as strong.

Lots of little things have happened in the short weeks I’ve officially lived in my new home - the night I heard coyotes howling, breaking the very first drawer I opened in the kitchen, discovering not wood but plaster in one of the walls of the bathroom, Mabel’s groomer discovering a foxtail and giving her poodle paws (which became her newest nickname). All of it is an opportunity for growth. I am growing into a part of me I haven’t met yet. (Shoutout IFS, what it is and my post about it)

Now, a month after closing, I have had the opportunity to make the place my own. Barbie is trending hard right now, and I’ve been greeting my niece with “Hi Barbie!” All the pink makes me so happy, and it’s always been my favorite color so I have plenty of clothes and accessories to make the aesthetic. Which is good because I don’t have a lot of extra spending money at the moment. After throwing my mom a party with all pink decorations (of course), it clicked - Business Barbie Dream House closet! - the perfect solution behind my desk.

Compiled of all things I already owned, including the lights from my first home office that broke in transit.

Someone told me, the house asks for what it needs. My desk is set up in the loft of the cabin with an open closet right behind me containing all my pencil skirts and skirt suits, a lot of which happened to be pink. The lighting is best facing the window, but required a lot of adjustments in the webcam settings. I fixed the glow on my face but then it looked like I was working in a cave. Lighting up the closet was something I did in my previous home office, but no one at work was able to see it. I didn’t want to highlight a boring closet. Since I work at a toy company anyways, leaning into pink is a perfect note to the girly, fun, empowered Barbie inside of me. Barbie for president!

This is my house. This is my home. I don’t want to claim the earth, but I am a steward here. The highest frequency energy - love - is here in this house with me. Everything surrounding me is love and there’s only love allowed here. And I am a part of that energy. Friends who radiate positive energy continue to help me make this space my own. This was just a feeling I desired, the specific details didn’t exist in my head. Even though I always wanted a cabin writing retreat, I couldn’t have imagined the power and responsibility I’ve been gifted. My tools and teachings can grow exponentially here and I can share these blessings with others. I hope one day this can be a place for others to feel this energy.

I am left with two questions:

Why do I feel so much more deeply connected to this path?

What is a path and why does it guide you?

Connection Questions

These connection questions are answered by my favorite money coach, Charly Stoever (they/he/papi)! Charly is a nonbinary latinx money coach helping their clients become millionaires. They're a formerly undocumented Mexican American, twerker, and ex-stock broker who hosts the Unicorn Millionaire podcast.

• Instagram: @travelercharly

• Website: www.unicornmillionaire.com

• Podcast: Unicorn Millionaire

• Mailing list: Subscribe here

1. How would you advise someone who just made a first home purchase that's now experiencing scarcity mindset because most of their savings are gone?

"If somebody who just bought a home is freaking out and experiencing scarcity mindset because most of their savings are gone, that's a totally natural response. But the good thing about buying a home is you're actually buying an appreciating asset. Think of the long term growth that's going to happen when you remodel, and then you let that house appreciate and go up in value for decades. Think of the money you'll make when you sell that house and focus on the long term goal while focusing on how to replenish your savings, whether you have a 9 -5 or a business, just stay focused on replenishing your savings. And have fun with it! Treat yourself for making such a big investment - buying a house is a big decision."

2. Do you think an investment in a home and property is a good investment and why?

"An investment in a home and property is a good investment because it's one of the few things in which you'll borrow money for and you're almost certainly guaranteed to make money off of your investment - especially if you rent it out and get that cash flow, or if you simply let it sit there and appreciate in value over time. I'm not all for borrowing money to take out a car loan to buy a new car, because new cars depreciate in value as soon as you drive them off the lot. So, honestly, in my opinion, the only good debt there is is buying property. I don't even think that student loans are worth it, as we've seen with the student loan crisis, people are in hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt and they're still not getting the job and the salaries that they were promised they would get with their degrees. So, I think properties, real estate - that is the only good form of debt to have."

3. How would you approach a home and property purchase and why?

"I've never bought a house or a purchase so what I'm doing is I'm constantly talking to friends who've bought homes and have purchased homes. So I'm not asking advice from people who've never done this before. It wouldn't make sense, so I speak with my friends, I've had my friend Gaya on my podcast to talk about how she bought a condo and sold it and used that money to buy a townhouse. Even last night I got an email for the mortgage lender because I'm trying to get pre-approval for my first property and unfortunately, I only was approved for about $200,000. But I showed my friends the email, and I was overwhelmed at first because there was lots of interest rates and numbers and calculations and acronyms, but I showed her the email and she helped me draft a response saying, what about if I tried this, or what if I do this, so it helps to ask questions and get help."

The Photo Evolution of "Fixing" Peeling Wallpaper in my Guest Bathroom