We couldn’t get that big rock and that flat plateau out of our minds. What a perfect spot for a house. Maybe some day we could buy the land….
And then we found out from our neighbor, Nick Healy, who owned it: the lot was already under option. Oh well, we didn’t have money to buy it anyway, so why did this news make us feel so downhearted?
Months went by. Buzz’s father died, leaving us a small inheritance. “Dad would have loved us to buy that land,” Buzz said.
“Yes, but someone else is buying it.”
“What if they decide not to? I’m going to call Nick and tell him that if that happens, we’d like to buy it.”
Buzz was at a playwright’s conference when Nick called him. The potential buyers had decided against that lot–did we still want it?
That summer the inheritance went toward a down payment, we arranged a purchase plan with Nick, and Buzz bought a chainsaw. With some friends, we set about clearing that flat piece of land. Our plan was, first, to build a tool shed for all our equipment.
But first we needed to get a road up to the house site. Buzz designed where it would go–winding up 1000 feet from the main road. We hired a local contractor, Phil Hamilton, to bring up his equipment and begin digging.
Meanwhile, I set up a cooking and eating area under a big blue tent.
The land was ours, clearing was underway, and the driveway was being created. The adventure had begun.