If it hadn't been for Val, I would probably still be living in a
tiny, low-lying, overpriced rental cottage, waiting for the next storm
to come and flood me out again - frequently needing to negotiate several feet of seawater to get to my horse.
The
paddock and run-in I leased for Val, was put on the market just a few
months after we arrived. In the scramble to keep the only suitable
horse-keeping spot available, I made a pie-in-the-sky offer on the property (owner financed + no down payment) and suddenly was the owner of 2.7 acres on a tiny destination island in the Atlantic Ocean.
Rent and mortgage being out of the question, next came the Shimmy Shack. She
took her final journey to the farmette, providing me with a
semi-comfortable, somewhat watertight home for the last eight years.
Fast
forward to last January, and the house building journey began for real -
plan chosen, builder interviewed, contract written, construction loan
secured, site cleared. After some serious number crunching - I bit the
bullet, committing to be the painting contractor - which I can confirm, is much easier
in the theoretical phase of the house building project lol.
Doing
anything equestrian-related beyond caring for my horse, (much less
creating blog-worthy horse content) was simply out of the question in
2018. It feels like the year passed in the blink of an eye. I was pretty
good about documenting the process photographically, so hopefully the
pics will help me share my review of the Year of the Unicorn...