Minimum Viable Cabin

Offer accepted. We have The 1! Well, pending Contingencies. "What's a Contingency?" you ask your wise real-estate savvy friend who knows all about it.  Me, who just learned about it last week: A contingency is a condition you list as part of an offer on a property whereupon if the contingency is not met, you can withdraw the offer and get back your earnest money.  Earnest money is a small deposit you make to demonstrate your good faith in buying a property. If you withdraw your offer, the buyer keeps it. It's often 1-2% of the value of the property. In my case, it was 1.53% of my total offer price)  Contingencies could be something like "Land is not actively on fire" (j/k) or in my case "buildability of the lot" and "assessment at or above purchase price." They're usually mandatory and out-of-the-box if you're getting a loan - and lenders are smart so their contingencies are a pain in the ass.  But me, I'm only moderately smar

Sex advice columnist Dan Savage says there's no such thing as The One. According to Dan, you find a .6 or .7 or .8 and you round that person up to the 1 (one). Okay, I agree with that approach, but look at this bae. Those trees, those ferns, the sun peeking through. It's a very attractive plot of land. And level as the day is long. Electricity and city water at the street. Maaaybe the beach is not the deepest and most swimmer-friendly paradise, and maaaaaybe its nearly half a mile walk to it, but it is a beach and it's on a deep lake. So this is like a .71 which I have rounded up to The One*. I've put in a cash offer slightly below asking (and only dared that because well - it's a cash offer). *pending Contingencies

It probably hit me around the same time as it hit every other city-dweller in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic: I need to be in the countryside. My sourdough starter needs a back yard! I need a treehouse for my succulents! I can do my job from anywhere and I do not want to do it from here. At least, not all year long. I have had these pastoral longings forever, and sure, I could run away to the countryside, but guess what - they keep all the money in the city. I don't have a trust fund, and I love museums, so giving the city a try seemed like a good idea. Still does. But now that the city has slumbered a bit there's less of a watchful eye on those of us who are easily able to log in and produce good work from pretty much anywhere. We've been creeping out to country houses and home-countries and parents' suburban homes - anything to get away from the closed museums and restaurants that now feel fraught instead of exciting. For me, the ultimate countryside is New Englan