Finding a new home

So a couple of months ago there was the first-time home buyer tax credit, and some inheritance and it's a buyer's market, so we decided to look around and think about buying a house in the Berkshires. We saw a bunch of houses with our awesome real estate agent, made lists, got pre-approved for a mortgage and put in a offer on a run-down duplex. We were beat out for that house, but we were not deterred!

I was planning gardens and pricing tile options and meeting with excavators and plumbing and heating specialists. I was planning a blog entry all about it. I would say "that's why I haven't been songwriting much,"  and "I just have to have a guest room in my new house because I love having visitors, like the lovely Jess Klein who just spent 3 days here."

I'll admit that I was worried about how I would write songs, tour and fix up a house all at the same time. Especially since the plan was to try to fix it up pretty quickly so it would be ready to sell whenever we would be ready to move. But I figured that I'd figure all that out somehow. I felt scared, but also really brave and the more other people thought I was crazy, the more empowered I felt.

As I was driving off for a 3 week tour, I was actually talking on my mobile phone to my realtor and Alison about how much to offer for this funky 70's ski chalet on 4 acres of wooded mountainside. And then I drove some more and saw more of the midwest. The space! Then I went water skiing with The Ginn Sisters and felt the heat of summer that I had really missed all last year. Then I got to Austin and saw a hundred houses, little bungalows in bright colors, that I would rather live in that anything I've looked at in Berkshire County. And I'm playing music and listening to great music and seeing all my friends all the time.

Hmmmm. Maybe I don't want a fixer-upper hidden way back on a dirt road after all. There are lots of factors for us to consider that I think we were ignoring. I feel like I've been in a Berkshires bubble for that past few months and I forgot that the rest of the world existed. Ack! I hate making decisions. But this one definitely needs more consideration. I will say that I've heard tell that my greens and strawberries and peonies are all going gangbusters back home, so there is a little part of me that wants to stay there and just garden all summer. But before I do that, I have to go to Kerrville and hear some amazing music,  eat more good Mexican food and Texas BBQ, and then go to Nashville and have fun, be inspired, and get obsessed with the idea of living there instead. It's gonna be a busy week.