For a month I had not heard from Kevin up at the RV place. My experience has been that he is a truly good man, and does truly good work, but just sucks at communicating. Which is fine, really–who am I, to be pointing fingers about that!?

After buying and buying all weekend, I had to go pierce the veil at last, and get an update. The news was stellar. All the work we agreed on was completed. Mainly: a complete new braking system, complete new coupler, a repack on the wheel bearings, and all lighting operational. So I paid him for that, and agreed to let him proceed with the much simpler (as it turned out) job of providing robust shore power capabilities to the cargo trailer. It’s supposed to be ready to pick up on Friday.

Not that I will sit home by the phone, this time, waiting to find out.

The exterior is done, the power system will be soon, and now it’s my turn to make the inside into an insulated, secure, and well-organized tiny home. I think I got this. We’ll see.

In the evening I visited Zillow to see what this house is worth now. The answer is that it continues to increase in value at a rate of about 3% a month, and will soon be worth double what I paid for it.

I made a Zillow account for the first time and ‘claimed’ the house, toying heavily with the idea of putting it back up for sale, by owner this time.

I haven’t pulled the trigger on that just yet. But here’s what I wrote under the part of the form entitled “What I Love About This House”.

***

I love it enough to be in no hurry to sell it, as evidenced by my admittedly ambitious pricing. I would never have put it on the market at all, except the Zestimate keeps going up so temptingly fast. In short, I am the opposite of that realtor’s favorite, the “motivated seller”.

I’ve described this place before as “the closest thing SandRock offers to loft living”. There’s a bathroom, a room for kitchen and dining, two small ‘bedrooms’ …

…and a huge open space in the middle for turning into an art studio, a workshop, a lab, or whatever is creatively relevant to your life.

It’s also very robust in electrical and security terms, and normally very quiet, unless the sound of church bells or trainsong is objectionable to you.

All of that taken together is why I chose to buy it, instead of a conventionally laid-out house. That’s also why I’m in no hurry to leave, at least until selling it would provide enough to re-invent the same open, creative, sanctuarial vibe all over again from scratch somewhere else.

If the inflationary cycle we’re just entering pushes the Zestimate past my asking price (and you can bet that in time it will), I reserve the right to ask for more. But you probably have some months before that happens … right? Just consider too what’s going to happen to mortgage rates, in the meantime, and do what’s right for you.

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