Looking Back on 2010

We are drawing near the end of the year.  Looking back on 2010 there have been two major developments with respect to home.   First we bought a vacation home in the sunny south where we hope to spend as much as three months of the year.  As a result we ended up putting our primary residence up for sale.  Selling our house was been the primary focus of 2010 taking over most of our activities.  We started out trying to sell privately then went to a real estate agent.  When that wasn't successful we took the house off the market for a month while we vacationed at our vacation home for the second time.  We put the house back on the market when we arrived home where it continues to sit.  Our area has been hit with the economic downturn so the housing market is soft right now.  Unfortunately this has been bad for us but we are still optimistic that we will be able to sell the house shortly.  Aside of focusing on the sale of our primary residence and buying another one we have been working on getting our vacation home in order to rent out when we are not using it.  Renting out the vacation home ends up paying all of our vacation home expenses while netting a little profit for the bank account.  Next up on the agenda is finding a small rental unit to buy in the same area as our primary residence but that is another story.

Household repairs in our primary and vacation homes have been minimal, thank goodness.  We ended up with a minor furnace repair in our primary residence but other than that it was decluttering and keeping things neat and tidy for showing the house.  On the other side at the vacation home we focused on cleaning and furnishing.

We have a lot of plans for 2011.  We hope to have our primary residence sold within the next couple of months or so, moving in time for putting in a garden.  We do have one house we'd really to buy like so hopefully things will work out that way.  Our main focus until we sell will be decluttering and getting rid of anything we can to avoid having to move it.  The vacation home is set for rental so our main goal will be keeping it renting when we aren't using it.  I need to make a few things for a handmade touches at our vacation home.  An afghan or two are in the makings and I will be making dish cloths as well as adding crochet edging to guest towels and pillow cases.  I even bought a couple of pattern books in anticipation since I have a lot more time at the vacation home to indulge in knitting and crochetting.  Oh and I have some lovely yarns that I will be making up into sweaters.  I'll be getting back into ceramics at our vacation home too.  Stay tuned as it should be interesting homemaking in 2011.

Garden Gnome
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