It’s been a while since I made a blog post, my bad. Life sometimes gets in the way, and things get pushed to a rear burner where they can slowly whither and die. I’m hoping to have caught this before it’s completely dried up, and while I suspect that may be the case, I’ll go ahead and waste a few electrons and write this anyway.
Liz and I have been living in Middletown, New Jersey since the early 1990s. Our home, a small 1200 square foot, 3 bedroom, 1 bath ranch sits on a 50 x 100 foot lot. We planned on staying in that home for about 5 years. Now, 33 years later, we did a thing and bought a house away from the Garden State.
We had been looking at real estate in Central Pennsylvania (think the Gettysburg area), but weren’t finding anything that we could either a) afford, or b) met our unique needs insofar as shop space and room for our multitude of hobbies. To make it even more difficult, Liz wishes to continue to perform with a community concert type band (she’s an excellent bass clarinetist), and locating a new band was looking somewhat problematic.
Fast forward to December, 2024. We spent the week before Christmas visiting friends Mark and Marie on their beautiful farm in Southeastern Ohio. Marie and I have been friends online for quite some time, had spent many hours on the phone, but had never met in person. Marie is the owner of Promethean Sewing Machines, and my viewers should be well aware of the magnicifient transformations Marie creates from neglected sewing machines, making them not only fully functional, but beautiful and unique works of art. Our trip to their farm was multifold: First, Marie and I had gone in together on a shipment of sewing machine cases and I needed to pick up my part of the haul. Second, I had been collecting machines for Marie that she was interested in transforming in her unique style. Third, another mutual friend – Jen from Sewing Machine Rehab – was coming to visit so we were all able to spend some time together.
During our stay, the conversation had turned to moving out of New Jersey and our search for a more “retirement friendly” place to settle. Our disappointment withthe pickings in Pennsylvania led to “Why not look at Ohio?” from Mark. Out came the laptops and cell phones, and soon we were all looking at various homes and land possibilities. There were a lot of excellent possibilities, and so started our Ohio adventure.
Long story short, we eventually (about 3 months later) walked through a lovely brick ranch house with a finished, walk out basement. It also has a 24×24 foot steel shop building with heat, air, and 200 amp electrical service. The house wasn’t exactly “move in ready” as it did need some work, but the bones were solid, the location perfect, and it checked all of the boxes – including a nearby community concert band!
So that’s how we ended up here, in Caldwell, Ohio. What’s the current status? Well, we’ve replaced all 22 windows and 4 entry doors on the house, plus the entry door on the shop. The heating and hot water system has been replaced, and we are under contract with an electrician to have him replace the service entrance to both structures, as well as update the panel in the house (get rid of the glass fuses and put in breakers) plus add a 100 amp sub-panel in the garage. At the moment, the shop is being powered by a generator when we get the opportunity to be in there, but we’ve been busy with making other modifications to the houseas well as getting stuff mpoved from New Jersey to Ohio (yes, we’ve been doing the move by ourselves). he plan is to [[ut the house in New Jersey on the market soon. I have been staying in Ohio, working on the house and doing my day gig from home for a couple of weeks, and as soon as Liz and the cats get here, she will be officially 100% retired.
Keep an eye on the YouTube channel for video updates…