How Did He Do It?

By he, I mean James.  By it, I mean get me to move.  Me.  The girl who thinks of her house as her nest.  The girl who grew up in the same house all her life.  The girl who swore we would never build again.  Doesn’t he get that I brought my babies home to this house.  I cooked family dinners in this house.   I’ve started holiday traditions in this house.

Somehow folks, he performed the impossible.  Not only that, I am excited about it.  It all started many months ago, when James suggested we build again.  That conversation ended with me in tears ranting that I wouldn’t leave our friends in the neighborhood and how James is just not emotionally attached to anything.  So maybe he caught me on a bad night, but remember my house is my nest.

After that approach, James did not mention it again.  Only because he was working on a better approach without me knowing.  One night after dinner, he said, “You want to go for a walk.”  This is something we normally do on a nice night, so I thought nothing of it and said sure.  As we are walking, he begins to tell me about this great lot around the corner.  This great lot, however, was not for sell.  Do you think that stopped my husband?  No way.  He looked up the owner on the tax map, wrote them a note asking if they were willing to sell, and sure enough after 14 years they were considering selling it. 

He definitely took the right approach this time.  The lot did all the convincing.  It has a beautiful marsh view and looks out in the distance to the harbor and the Cooper River Bridge.   It is framed in the front by two grand oak trees that spread their limbs far and wide.  I could picture our girls (and their friends) climbing these trees out over the pluff mud.  I could see them running to the house excited about the crabs they just caught.  I could imagine them paddling out in a kayak with their Daddy.  Yes, I could see this in our future. 

So guess what, now we own a new lot and are preparing to build AGAIN.  I ask again, just how did he do it?