Step One, find a house and barn

After looking in 3 towns in the Bennington area, we found a house and barn. We looked at 4 and the last one was the one. It is in Arlington which is just south of Manchester and not far from Bennington. We drove around Bennington and finally saw the monument, but what was better.... gorgeous homes around the monument, very old and classic. We will like it there.

We will move to this Cape style house with a nice barn. The closing will be in mid November.

BIG CHANGES SINCE THE LAST POST

From spring, through summer and into the fall, we have decided to make some major changes in our life.

• first we were going to open an Airbnb using the apartment and lots of left over furniture from the house to fix it up nicely. New flooring and a rebuilt chimney were the major renovations. 
• with a visit to Grand Isle in July, we recognized that it would be quite enjoyable to LIVE there. we met with a real estate agent and started looking at property. Trying to find a little house and a big barn brought us to a place that was simply shocking, and thus started us on the journey of house hunting that continues to this day. 
• but in the middle of the night, after realizing that taxes are very high in the islands, and the houses were not great away from the shore, I visualized living in southern Vermont closer to our families.
• Bennington area holds  our interest now, some place we have never spent much time in, some place that has the charm of Vermont, an academic community with a highly acclaimed medical center, a very rich historical background ( the monument is a big clue) and it is close to one of Vermont's outstanding fly fishing rivers, the Battenkill. So does this make sense? 
• all the family and some friends we have discussed this with are more than happy about the idea.

So today I started in the attic and had a great time throwing stuff out the window. The new pickup truck does help with trips to recycle and will be great for moving, towing the trailer, towing the boat and eventually towing the next Airstream trailer (Flying Cloud 23 FB); it's already picked out.

Here is the first load of the house clearing.