Simple Living

Three years ago I wandered into one of many of life's crossroads.

My roommate and I had to leave the apartment in which we had been living. We are both in our sixties, and it was an alright place for us to be. Granted, it was a basement apartment and the mold situation had made both of us sick on occasion. But, the landlord had finally installed a dehumidifier and that seemed to take care of the problem.

The apartment we lived in was one of four in the same building. We had families with children living above and beside us, and sometimes, the noise of stomping feet early in the morning was a bit annoying. However, it was an affordable apartment and it served its purpose.

One fateful morning, my roommate received a call from the landlord. I have to be honest at this point and admit that my roommate occasionally smoked medical marijuana in our apartment. He smoked in the back bedroom and even I couldn't smell it. Well, the neighbors had complained about the overwhelming smell that drifted out the door.

I am not saying that my roommate was right to smoke in the building. In fact, I had pointed that out more than several times. But, the real reason we got evicted is that all of the families with children were friends and another friend of theirs wanted to move in. I know this to be true because one of the people involved told me that when I bumped into her in the grocery store a year or so later.

The landlord told us to be out in a month. I told him that he would have to actually come in with the police for that to happen. So, we settled on three months.

The search for the new place began, and it was totally disheartening. We looked at apartments that had stairs smaller than the length of my foot, long walkways, or no parking areas.

Then, one evening, my roommate saw an ad for a log house with several outbuildings, and the price was right! He called and the landlady told us that the house would be available the same day we were scheduled to leave the old apartment. Talk about divine intervention!

We went to look at the place and it consisted of the main house, a small building with a loft bedroom, a tiny outbuilding that would make an awesome music room for my roommate who plays the guitar, and a run-down cabin a little distance away from the main house. We signed the contract, and before we knew it, we were moving.

The problem was that I am an "early to bed and early to rise" person, and my roommate is just the opposite. He would head for bed at four in the morning and wake me up in the process. There were absolutely no walls in the entire structure, except for the small bathroom.

I thought about renovating the little cabin, but it had no plumbing or electricity, and it had pretty well fallen into neglect, overtaken by the local mice. I gave up the thought until a few months later when two things happened at the same time. I got my income tax check and my son moved from Connecticut to Maine.

My son had just gotten out of a bad marriage and he needed a quiet place to put his life back together. We looked at the cabin and decided it was worth the effort to fix it up. We had some of the work done by a handyman, but the clean up and the rest of the finishing touches like the log ceiling were done by us. We added electricity, but no plumbing.

My son spent a year in the little cabin and reshaped his life. He eventually found a place of his own and the little cabin beckoned to me. My roommate and I were constantly feuding about space and time. I love the man dearly, but it was either find my own place or stay and live in the cabin. I chose to live in the cabin.

I moved all my treasures into the little space, got myself a daybed and a camper toilet, and made it my home. My dog decided to stay at the house, but my cat moved in and suggested I bring her food dish and kitty litter box along too.

I moved in a couple of months ago, and thanks to my son and the cords of wood he left behind, I made friends with the wood stove, which is the only source of heat.

I love my little space. I don't miss having a television. I suppose I could have one if I wanted to, but I love my solitude. I have an ancient radio that I tune to the oldies station, and my cat and I rock out to the music of my teen years. I have a microwave and a coffee maker, and I even have a small mini fridge. I go up to the house to take my showers and to say hi to the roomie and the dog. I have to say that my roommate and I get along a whole lot better these days too.

It's really funny that some of the people that know I live in a cabin are totally horrified by my lack of modern day luxuries like the television or a real toilet. They just can't fathom how I can live this way. And yet, there are those who would love to try this cabin-living lifestyle.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my story.

Life is good.