Dateline: in the loft at Nona's, Terre Haute IN, 18 May 2005

The sellers of plot 16 accepted our offer today at 3pm. No counter. So now we own 4/5ths of an acre of old-growth woods in Indiana, already zoned and plotted and surveyed for residential housing.

Spent the afternoon with the builder in his nearby house going over plans, then looked at a few rentals (yuck!) that were 1,200-1,500 square feet usable and costing too much, plus there's this big yard to maintain and so on and so forth and I just said to myself: simplify. The six-months of construction will fly by, my wife will be hugely busy with all the decisions on the house, plus three kids in a new school, plus our youngest, plus me with my book coming out--so just forget the rental house. We store everything but the essentials and get a luxury 3 bedroom apartment, which in this part of Indiana goes for about a grand a month ("luxury" is less expensive here all right).

So for six months my new home office will consist of a small built in desk just inside the front door of the apartment--a whopping 4x5 space, but with high-speed connection, so I'll be fine. Brand new complex with heated pool, playground, etc. It'll be weird, like urban camping, but we just have beds and clothes and what we need for school and work and everything else will be stored.

I sign the lease tomorrow on my way out of town and rent a storage space as well. We break ground on the house in 30 days.

The deeds are all done.

I return home from my week with no business travel--finally.