Myrtle Beach Pictures

from top: walks on the beach; for my sister--Lulu's Cafe; straight out of the past--Piggly Wiggly; sunsets; Venus & the crescent Moon--all this month, Venus, Jupiter, & Mars will be seen near the moon.

Spooky Day at the Beach January 23

Slept so well last night & now sitting here watching the ocean.

About the house, which I am still super superstitious about but can’t seem to manage NOT talking about, here are a few intriguing facts about it that made me want this particular house:

1) the first sight of it—so magical sitting on its little rise in the land
2) the fact that we had to ford a stream to get to it
3) the fact that the road to get to the house twists & turns several times on the way
4) it looks like an enchanted cottage to me
5) it is an interesting color
6) it comes fully-furnished, which means we can stay there from the moment it is ours & use or give to charity the items we don’t want
7) I can easily imagine an addition to the house of a lighthouse or treehouse-type structure to serve as my office.
8) it has my vaulted ceiling and interesting windows in the living room
9) it has a large deck off the back with faraway views
10) it has a beautiful view of the gazebo & pond
11) it’s in this little cloistered community tucked into a mountain glen
12) …and, most of all, the fact that from the first moment we stepped onto the property, the sound of the rushing stream that runs alongside of it greeted us and made me not want to ever leave this place.

Honestly, I actually cried when we drove away! I was a blubbering idiot the whole time we talked about the house and the possibility of getting it. We put in the offer and I was so happy, I was practically screaming in excitement. And I probably burst our agent’s ears when he told us the sellers accepted the offer.

And now I have moments of panic when I imagine everything that could go wrong with the process—too many to mention—so I’m just holding my breath & hoping, hoping, hoping that everything goes well.

We started out wanting a house with some land, and we found several, but they always seemed to have some drawbacks. Beautiful house on 32 acres—at tip top of mountain with scary zig-zag road up it that would be treacherous in snow. Horse-farm on 4 acres—with junkyard next door. Beautiful modern home on 2 acres—with dump across the street. Since there were no restrictions the further you got out into the country, anyone could park a run-down rusty trailer right next to our land and we could do nothing about it. So we kind of gave up on the house with land feature and looked in subdivisions, but then there was the lack of privacy. So we were thrilled to find our little house in an established community of about 15 houses, all clustered in this glen with a tennis court, pond, and gazebo. And on one acre, so we are very happy.

Spooky times here at the beach in the fog. I feel like I am sitting inside a cloud! We are up on the 18th floor with our deck overlooking the ocean. Yesterday, we could see all the way out to the horizon. Today we look down & can’t even see the beach right below us!

Picture of a seagull friend on the beach from yesterday--today you wouldn't be able to see him in the fog even if you were standing right over him.

Keeping my Fingers Crossed January 22, 2012

Well, first of all, I should tell you that our 2 months of driving around and checking out the areas around Asheville & driving to see the outsides and neighborhoods of specific houses for sale, then finally seeing the insides of 4 of them has resulted in us putting in an offer on one of the houses. But not before putting in an offer on another one then rescinding it to put an offer on the one we liked the best. Long story which I will tell of later, but, right now, I feel kind of superstitious about talking about the house we found as I want it SO very badly. Our offer has been accepted, but I am still leery of talking about it until we get closer to the closing date on April 2. So I will just say that I am deliriously happy (and that is no exaggeration!) about this perfect house—perfect for us, anyway.

So since I don’t want to get too excited about the house out of a fear of things going wrong, I will tell you about Myrtle Beach, where we have come to spend 5 days of relaxation from looking at houses. Actually this trip was planned long ago to give us a break from the snow—as we had heard that the last two winters in Asheville were VERY wintry. But as of yet, we’ve only had a dusting of snow and no real snowfall.

We are staying in a one-bedroom Ocean View suite at the Best Western Plus, and we are very happy with the suite, the view, and so far with Myrtle Beach in general. It seems to have many places to eat and things to do, although right now many of them are closed. But we are here to relax anyway, so that suits us just fine.

Picture of the remote control “fresh bag”—such an excellent idea & the first one I’ve ever seen! I usually have to create my own with one of the plastic covers for the glasses in the hotel room.