Make up your mind, Scarlett

I have some important decisions to make and frankly they are driving me crazy. While I was in London Bill and Claudia told me that they wanted to buy my house. They have rented the house from me for the last two years. Bill knows that he is going to end his career in London so it makes sense for him to invest in a house. But I’m not sure if I really want to sell.

BC and I bought the house and then did major renovations top to bottom, inside and out. It’s a terrace house in South Kensington. There is the house itself and a self contained flat on the lower ground floor (or basement as we would call it here) that we designed as a rental unit. That’s the flat I use. We bought the house in 1983. Since then the average house price in London has risen 740 percent. And in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea the figure is almost double that. That makes the house one of the best investments we ever made. If I did sell the house I would make a lot of money.

When I decided earlier this year that I was tired of the isolation here in Tennessee I planned to sell the house here and move back to London. But I have been having second thoughts about selling it. Despite my gripes I love this place. BC was an architect and he designed this house for us. It has all the things we always wanted in a house. BC designed the kitchen of my dreams. I could run a restaurant from this kitchen. I have four ovens, warming drawers, refrigerated drawers, two sinks, two dishwashers, wine storage cooler, Viking range with six burners and grill, Sub Zero refrigerator and freezer, and acres of granite counter tops. Can you tell I like my kitchen? The house sits on sixty acres of rolling hills with great views. Oh, Sam says I forgot to mention his favourite spot, the pond where he swims in the summer. It is my mini Tara or Neverland minus the llamas, chimp, paedophile, and little boys. But in the interest of truth I must admit there is a fair amount of Jesus juice and porn.

I am not trying to brag about my house. It is after all just a house. Before we could afford to build it we had to work very hard for many years, save, and invest wisely. I just want you to know that it is a dream house. If I sell it I will be giving up our dream. Yet it was always a lot of house for two people and it is now even more for one.

A couple of things happened this week. The county tax appraisal arrived. The countywide reassessment happens every six years. The value of the house has increased 30 percent. Luckily that won’t translate into a larger tax bill (yet). The state is using the reappraisal to set the tax rate for the county to bring in the same amount of revenue generated last fiscal year. So the house as an investment has appreciated nicely. S and P called Tuesday and reiterated their interest in buying 10 acres or so from me and building a home. We discussed this in Baku last week. It would be great to have them as neighbours. Then this morning my realtor called with an offer she received. She had an open house while I was on vacation. So there is a potential buyer.

The blogging may be hit or miss for a while since I have a lot of thinking to do. ...Fiddle de de... What do I really want? Sell or not sell. Stay or move. If so, where? And most important, what in the world do I want to be when I grow up? ...*music swells*... I'll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day... Excuse me now while I pour myself a little....ah, juice. Wait, wait, wait....it's Cinco de Mayo. Make that a margarita.