As "A" Cabin becomes "Ours"

A  lifetime of searching, here she is. Our 750 sq. ft. cabin in 100 acre woods. 

We bought a cabin in the Catskills. Sounds so straightforward and so simple. It wasn't.

I, for one, didn't think I had to think about retirement. Afterall, I'm only...(scratch my head, how did this happen?) 53!

Basically, my significant partner, the love of my life, the single person with whom I've spent more time with than without, is an avid angler. I, of course, did not know this when we first started dating. It was March and flyfishing season had not begun. I was lulled into this false sense of normalcy, until mid-April when an odd being emerged from my relatively normal newly acquired boyfriend.

But this was in 1984 before he left for Botswana, Africa with the Peace Corps and our lives were forever changed by our encouter.

Two children, a return to Africa, and 30+ years later, we find ourselves in New York State, my home, his fishing ground, with two children rapidly nearing adulthood and the two of us nearing freedom; both financial and familial. Empty nests, here we come!

And with many factors converging, we half-seriously started to search for a getaway, at first, then a simpler home for an end date not too long in coming.

The Catskills.

After seeing this farm on the right stretch of river, we dreamed
of making it a fly fishermen's lodge, growing hops on several
acres and living the rest of our lives there.

• Affordable - we started off thinking about getting buildable land near the East Branch where we could erect a canvas safari tent. We were looking at $8,000 bought and paid for.  
• Relative adjacent - a reasonable distance from the rest of our family located in Brooklyn, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  
• Reality adjacent - under 3 hours from a paying job 
• Abundant Wilderness - wildlife, rugged terrain, unspoiled beauty, the danger of being stung, bitten, swallowed whole.
• Good food and Great beer - afterall, we were looking to enjoy ourselves! With that in mind, we need sustainence!
• And I did mention he flyfishes, right?

At first, it was daydreaming, swapping Truilia and Realtor.com sites with each other here and there. Then, things got serious. I would spend hours scouring Craigslist, real estate sites, getting recommendations from friends. It was an obsession.

Then, we started going up on weekends making appointments to see land, fixer-uppers, 300 acre farms...what were we doing?!?

We had fallen in love with the idea of the second home and most importantly, the Catskills.

What turned out to be "A" cabin in the woods, would most certainly become "Our" cabin in a matter of months.

But what Peter wanted from it and what I hoped to achieve are not always the same things. What happens when our needs clash? What if it's a matter of "His" dream becoming "My" nightmare?