My wife dropped a bomb on me this evening. We were coming back from grand daughter's birthday party in town and I asked 1 question "how's your mom getting along living alone"? Boy that was the wrong question to ask!
My wife said that during bible study that her mom was talking about moving into town and asked my wife if i wanted the house and property. This turned into a long conversation and basically the decision was dropped in my lap, if I wanted my mother in law's house and property or not?
We discussed the pluses and minuses.
Pluses:
- Free house on a little over 5 acres with large barn.
Minuses:
- On a very busy road two lane road.
- Close to the power plant
- Main route for Coal trucks, you get a coal truck every 2 minutes, 6 days a week delivering coal to the.power plant.
- Too many memories of my father in law for my wife.
My wife said I know you want to move deeper into the woods and my mom's house is not in the woods, its surrounded by farm land. I said yes your right, I want to get away from as many people as I possible can and live in the deep woods, with trees and wild animals. I then said if I were to take the house, get insurance and pay the taxes every year. The first thing I would do is put a fence along the road, plant fast growing tall stubs and add a gate at the end of the drive way because I just couldn't stand watching semi's and all the traffic pass in front of the house every time I look out front. I just simply wouldn't be happy there at all.
But then I said but what do you want? Would you live in your moms house, is it something you want? I really wasn't surprised when she said no because i already know she wants to live deep in the woods also.
Then I said, well it's a free house but honestly I don't want to live there either. I mean we could fix it up, it needs some work but nothing to bad, since my father in law was not able to do the up keep and we could rent it out. But I'm not greedy, nor do I want to spend the time and money on it. So, I told my wife to tell her mom that I don't want the house and property. She agreed, but said she didn't know how her mom was going to take it because she had her heart set on giving me house because she knew I would take care of it.
This is one of those situations a guy gets in, minding his own business, then wham... no matter what I said, I'll get a woman upset. If I said yes, my wife would be unhappy, if I said no, my mother in law would be unhappy. Well I'm not married to my mother in law, so happy wife / happy life and my mother in law can just deal with it I reckon.
