Lest I forget- October 3, 2018

 So we are staying here! We backed out of our contract to buy the ranch across the street for a number of reasons.  The ranch across the street is lovely in case anyone is interested. We forfeited our  deposit and turned over the Inspection Report therefore our change of ❤️ cost us over $2600! ( in two weeks).  We decided we could not leave our trees 🌲 🌳 and our backyard  and our glorious summer porch and our hardwood floors and our gas burning stove and our nice spacious rooms and the best dining room in all of Colonie ( well I may be a little biased on that one!  ) We can still get up the stairs and will put in a chair lift should that become necessary.  We decided the exercise is good for our cardiovascular health.  Thank goodness we both were on the same page with this decision - no argument there!  We woke up one morning on a blowup mattress in our family room ( our oak tread stairs were being redone and we were sleeping downstairs for a couple of nights ) and looked at each other and basically spontaneously said why are we doing this? We learned some interesting things in the process.   I learned that I take after my father a bit in the fact that I hate being told “you need to get granite countertops “ and “your kitchen is too 1980’s “.  Why would I pull out a perfectly functional counter top simply because it is mauve in color. I’ll simply call my kitchen a retro look kitchen! Who knows, maybe I’ll start a new trend. I have custom made solid oak kitchen cabinets that were recently refinished by a 92 year old guy out in the country we call Fred the Junkman. He is a retired Nassau County Cop who years ago opened a marvelous “junk” store out in the country.  We took the cabinet doors off and delivered them to him and he sanded and refinished them at a very good price. In fact we paid him more than he asked for!  I will never cover this marvelous wood with white paint no matter what is in vogue.  And when it comes time to sell, I refuse to remove the photos of the people I love just so they can envision themselves living in my home. Hopefully they have good enough imaginations to picture their own loved ones in their place.   Bob promised to use the money we would have paid into a Home Owners Association fee in a Senior’s Only Development ( such as Maxwell Village down the street which oddly enough is mostly two stories anyway!) to hire help to maintain the outside area and I have vowed to clean out the clutter and simplify our life inside the house.  I have started and I will report back to you on my progress periodically ( it helps me stay true to my commitment ).   Besides with the rate of development here in Colonie, we may have the only trees left in town!!! Lastly we have loads of kids moving into the neighborhood and the beautiful sounds they make are delightful.