Tiny house, big living has become my new norm. Gone are the days of the 3000 square foot home. Today, I spend part of the year on a 32’ sailboat and the other part in a one bedroom, one bathroom cottage in the woods. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
If you haven’t read Part 1 of this story, click here to get caught up. If you have, you’ll remember we left off with me asking “what about the pirates?”
So, Tom’s response to that statement was a look of bewilderment. He said “that’s what you’re worried about?” I am completely confused by this response. Doesn’t he realize he just asked me to put all my worldly possessions on a boat? Geeze…if pirates attacked, I’d lose all my stuff. Of course that’s what I’m worried about!! (In hindsight, what a difference 9 years makes in ones prospective.)
This bombshell dropped in August. By March of the following year, we (ok, Tom- I was still off doing charity walks with friends) were spending a lot of time on Zillow and Yacht World.com We had decided that while becoming salty dogs and living full time on a boat sounded great, that we probably weren’t “those people” (the 20 some year old kids that can’t even fathom getting older.) One day, Tom said “Have you ever heard of Rock Hall, Maryland?”
Growing up in Delaware County, PA (aka DELCO) we were about 2 hours from this tiny town. My dad and grandfather used to come here to catch Rockfish. I can remember them coming home with loads of fish, oysters & crabs (yum!) and they would talk about this little town just a smudge on the map. Isn’t it funny how 40 years later, it would become part of my life again?
Rock Hall is a small Waterman’s town located smack dab on one of the best locations of the Chesapeake Bay. It’s on the eastern shore, across from Baltimore and is host to 1,268 full time residents. Those numbers more than triple during the summer season as boating, both sail and power, are the major attractions. For as small as the town is, they have over 10 marinas, 13 restaurants, 2 kick-ass waterfront bars and even an annual Pirates & Wenches festival. Arrrghhhh! It’s also the inspiration for some of my newest collection pieces. It seemed like a good fit, so we decided to buy a plot of land here upon which to, someday, build a home that we could come back to. I found my happy place 🙂
As luck would have it, the land proved to be useful right away. See, we bought a boat that ended up being a lesson in “how to fix a boat” rather than “how to have sundowners every night.” So every weekend, for 7 years, we would drive down, pitch a tent on the land, and spend the next 2 days working in a sweaty boatyard on our dream. The local people took to calling us the “tent people.” I guess you have to be known for something.
So how did we end up spending 7 years fixing a boat? Well, it all started with one statement. “What’s that smell?”
(this is part 2 in a multi-part story…stay tuned to find out what happened next or have it delivered right to your in-box by subscribing to future posts- click here )