A few weeks ago, when our closing date was pending on the house, I took sometime to look around and try to envision the apartment we currently occupy, as the empty space it once was. I was transported back to that time when we first moved in. It was a time filled with uncertainty. We had a few things but not more than could fit in Che Camry. The apartment walls remind me of how we really built something up. Originally I was the one that was sad to leave. I love this space, I love the area around it, I feel safe here. An really I only got to spend one summer here which is sad because the State Fair grounds are within walking distance and so is Como Park.
Originally Di did not share my sadness but as the time gets closer, I can tell she grows more weary and leery of moving. Everytime I go and look at the house we bought I see the potential. It has nothing to do with me wanting to live there. It will be a good home for a few years but really the thing that I find exciting is that I know it will make me money as a rental. It is not our dream home, it is not a huge space, and there is nothing about that is new. It will be a monumental amount of work and I would rather live here. But when your rent payment is the same as your mortgage payment and you are renting out half of your house and making 85% of the mortgage payment doing so, the numbers are too good to pass up. This also allows us to build a business together. My wife is the smartest person I know and together we will accomplish great things. However, I have resigned myself to the notion that our lives might suck a bit for the next few years. Honestly, neither of us have dream jobs and we are not moving into a dream home and we have only enough money to scrape by. But we have made a conscious and rational decision to have our lives not what we want them to be for a few years in favor of having a life better than what we could have imagined later on.
Regarding moving with just Di, she is right. I know it is irrational but I get so upset when she can't move a simple couch up the stairs. Let's just do it and get it done. There is no option to just not get it moved. But as many things as my wife can do better than anyone, moving things and lifting things is simply not one of them. I also refuse to pay someone for something I can do myself. That might be a Minnesotan thing but I will tell you this, you don't get to buy a house a year after you started full time work by paying people to do things you can do yourself. Anyway, god love her we have other hands helping. It is no fun when Husband and Wife hate each other for a few days during the move so the assistance will allow us to avoid that fate.
All things being equal, I want to stay in my apartment. It is nice, clean, classy. I have never really considered myself a man and probably never will, but this is what men do. They get married to women they don't want to live without and they build a life with them. And while I am dreading this whole thing, I also know in a years time I will be singing a different tune. I know this is the best decision we have made thus far and we have a long term plan. Let's just hope it all works out. Oh, and Di is right. We get a puppy! We already paid our deposit and our new puppy will be coming to us in early August. Seems like a ways away but it's not a big deal when you are talking about adding a family member.
I will end with this. The other night Di and I were lying in bed talking about where our lives will be in a few months. We will own a house that will create long term wealth, we will have a dog, we are married and both have decent jobs and someday we will have kids. I told her this is the American Dream. And it's all the more special that I built it with a Sri Lankan.
-Mitch