Our last update was Winter. We got the heat fixed (out for a total of three days) and promptly left for a cruise out of Miami. Never in my adult life has a vacation been so perfectly timed.
We are now in a season of near-constant work on our properties, amidst work at our jobs and the flailing chaos of summer. We've had a couple of weary, anxiety-revealing conversations lately. We're about to take another big financial leap. Summer storms have not been without incident. I always feel fat this time of year. And we miss our families.
Since I don't live a life of regret nor complaint, this post will focus on celebrating wins, gratitude, the privilege of doing hard work, and the Adventure of Staying Put.
(Recap: In spring of 2025 we rented out our home [Wampanoag], bought an 1865 multi-family up the road [Freeborn], and moved ourselves in to it. In one purchase we gained four doors and four sets of tenants.)
Celebrating Wins
- In March we had the rear cabin demolished. I now have a pit in my backyard which I think means I'm a blond wig away from becoming my spirit animal, Leslie Knope.
- We had RISE (Rhode Islanders Saving Energy) come assess our old house and confirmed that we have no insulation. The great news is that, since we have tenants in the same building, the house qualifies for a 100% rebate on insulation work! We are having to jump through some hoops to answer questions for the project manager, but we are on our way to (hopefully) a different-looking winter 26-27.
- We hired a contractor for the cabin construction. Shaun, whose team did the demolition, wisely approached the tear-down as an audition for the build. He lives four minutes away and needs some larger projects like this in his portfolio. His team and subs are respectful of both our property and my personal involvement, which is a non-negotiable.
This wasn't an easy research project. We had one builder flat-out tell us they didn't have time for something this small. We had another lob us an outrageous round number to get us to go away. Both of them were personal referrals with solid reputations (someone "knew a guy").
Gratitude
- We decided to trust our sweet front cabin tenant with house-sitting during our vacation in February. This trust and relationship has only grown and he's a true joy to have around. He has signed on for a second year, and now volunteers with us and jumps in occasionally on yard chores.
- We are almost done with Wampanoag turnover. We just bid our one-year War College tenants farewell to Singapore with their four small children and the house is in incredible shape. We are thrilled by the new family moving in (also War College), even though they represent the U.S. Army. ;)
Watching one family PCS (permanent change of station) overseas and welcoming another from Germany, I enjoy being in a position to provide empathy and assistance. We've been able to loan air mattresses and offer U-Haul storage and make things as easy as we can on these military families in transition. It feels like a no-brainer to me. I hope it's made things a little easier for them.
- Breaking ground on cabin construction has been a challenge since Shaun had to fire the excavator before he got started. This is a silver lining around some red flags.
In a phone call, our guy at Wolfe Construction agreed to put off some billionaire work in early August to take us on (these are the same guys who filled in our pool at Wampanoag and have done two other jobs for us). It doubled the cost of the foundation (honestly, now it's closer to what we expected) but the work will be perfect.
Around July 4th we celebrated one year since gutting the cabin. If you told me a year ago that it would be a full year before we started building, I would have had some choice words for you. But we've been put in a place of patience that I think we're going to need when construction is ongoing.
- Andrew and I are now both working again in the helicopter profession. When we chose Rhode Island as a place to finish raising our boys, we shelved this part of our professional lives due to lack of local industry. We had no idea these opportunities were right across the bay. Despite a 40-60 minute commute (that's long for us), it really does feel like we have it all.
- In March I was able to travel with my sister to Belgium to visit our other sister living there. It turns out that what my soul specifically needed at that time was to
A) take a European road trip with two of my sisters and none of our husbands or kids;
B) follow one expert explorer and one expert travel planner around mindlessly with a waffle in my hand and some Euro in my pocket.
I literally started a note in my phone that week called, "Thoughts from a clear head." I recently updated it on a relaxing trip to see my mom in early July.
Hard Work
- We've taken on 1.4 acres in total of New England property. That's a lot of grass, shrubbery, weeds and old trees. And they all need attention.
We've outsourced the Wampanoag lawn, and the boys pitch in to mow at our house. The landscaping has been constant since April. I'm fortunate to work part-time right now and, on a good week, I'll do "outdoor stuff" an hour a day. It's good for my brain and the property requires it. But if I begin any type of full time work (which I plan to actively pursue by 1-Jan-27), we are going to have to hire more help.
I appreciate the earth projects. I have a couple of local friends with whom I'm thrilled to share pictures of my flowers, swap baby tomato plants and spare hydrangeas (saved a whole row of them from excavation!), attend the plant sale at the library and learn about things I didn't know I had growing. This newfound interest makes me feel 80 years old, but I don't hate it.
We had an enormous tree branch come down at Wampanoag that thankfully did not hit anything, but needed to get off the grass ASAP. Trying to get a quote for tree removal from our regular lawn guy turned out to be a bridge too far for his business model, so we took the boys over there with a couple of chainsaws on a Saturday afternoon. I have never seen the four of us come together like that as a team. Levi took chainsaw duties seriously and Drew didn't complain once about hauling branches with me. We got it off the grass in about 90 minutes, left some good fire wood for the tenants, and piled the rest up where the lawn guy could deal with it.
We had nine trees removed at Freeborn (two of which needed to come down for the cabin build): a project fraught with drama, gaps in communication and some minor historical property damage. Despite all that, I want to make sure to include these guys in our story and appreciate the precision work they did. There's a reason we called professionals for this work and they delivered. (The damage wasn't even theirs; it was done by the state-contracted tree guys who came in to trim around power lines.)
The Adventure of Staying Put
"You've made your bed, now lie in it."Said to someone who must accept the unpleasant results of something they have done.
(Cambridge Dictionary)
Last week we took a night off and sat on the beach with some new friends. They were excited to learn about our property endeavors but our responses probably sounded weary and a little negative. At the moment we were stressed, exhausted, and wondering why we did this.
I additionally find myself working through a pit of sadness brought on by visiting Wampanoag. It's a great house. We made it our home. I'd live there again. And in hindsight, 1979 problems are way easier to solve than 1865 problems.
I think it's important to remember why we did this:
1) With all rents in place, it will be cheaper for us to live in Rhode Island than it was before we purchased the multi-family. And the numbers will only get better.
2) Andrew and I have a nasty habit of getting stir-crazy around the year-and-a-half point. We have to break the cycle of complete upheaval and major life change and just let a thing play out.
...In his words, "If it wasn't this, we would have got into some other crazy s%$t."
He's right. This is our adventure that keeps us here - building community, learning how to work together and ask for help, and allowing our kids to be from somewhere (a pretty great somewhere in my opinion).
... And we need to let it play out.
