Opportunity Cost

On July 26, 2007 we closed on our dream.  A little homestead was ours and the vision that we had for it vast and full of excitement.  We were no stranger to the housing market, at that time being the fifth property that we had purchased in our life together.  We had planned for, saved, and even expected to carry our other house for up to 18 months.  Then 2008 happened.  After a great deal of turmoil and hardship, a huge flood, sparsely found then dicey tenants, and six years, seven months and two days of trying to sell our 'lake house', today we closed escrow.

Always making the best of it, we focused our energy and did what we could but had to put so much of developing our dream on hold, and now a little light.  After B's accident last year we were forced to take a hard look at our life and what was important and we decided that we needed to remove this stress from our life.  Bitter sweet, though it is, as we took a substantial loss in addition to the loss associated with carrying the property for so long.  In hindsight, would we have changed anything?  I do not think so.  The value of this homesteading experience for our family will ultimately be worth the opportunity cost that was in place to obtain it.  I think it only fitting that it has taken us so long to make headway with a name for our property, maybe we simply were not free to, until today.