Living on the Water?.. been there... Number 1 on the bucket list... done

Yes, I lost my 4,000+ sq ft house and had to move... when I got the letter from the bank that said to move, I moved....(I did not know that meant they would do nothing for 2.5 years and the house that was so beautiful would go to ruin... that is another article. So I found a basement on Craigslist... that's a different article#2.... who is going to take someone in this position. Credit shot, no hope... part time minimum wage job...so I was lucky to get anyone to take me. I had to establish a good credit pattern after the big fallout and I had no really choice except to get some roof over my head... couldn't be picky...But I worked two minimum wage jobs full time and after the six month lease was up saved enough money to move from that basement..... As I was looking for rentals...>>>

I found this....pic one My lucky Day...? well, I could stand it for about 6 months...and then the cold set in, the toilet stopped working and to start with... I tested the water to find it was unfit for human consumption and chemicals in the water that could go into your pores. I had the Environmental Lab in Annapolis test it-got the results submitted them to the rental management and no one really cared to do anything, sooooo I bought bottled water to shower and cook.... I notified the landlord and even talked to the owner when they showed up to collect the money from the coin washing machines. They did not do anything. I had signed a year lease. I had estimates for water treatment, hot water heater... but nothing I could do. I really couldn't even afford the rent to the penny... add the bottled water and- That was an expense I was not prepared for... Actually it was really too far away from my itty bitty pay job, and the week I moved my van died.... so... uh... yeah, oh well... That's life and that song plays in my head all the time... every times something else happens. The view.... welll you can see.... Instead of crying in my pillow I could go out on the screened in porch and cry in the breeze off the water.... or float out to sea in my inner tube with my bottled water in the raft.... As you can see from the list of toys, my wonderful boy friend (that I met on an internet personal site) bought a tow rope to tie me to the dock so I wouldn't drift away permanently while he was not there.

Each morning as the sun came up the heron at the end of the dock would go down to the riverside and wade into the water and catch his breakfast. It amazed me how much that one bird could catch and eat. The other birds seemed to do yoga exercises on their pilings.

I tried to make the best of it by getting up every morning early and swimming in the river before I got ready for work. I worked the late shift, so I could enjoy the morning and early afternoon before going to work. It was a good hour or more drive, but I was determined. I had moved all the way out there, and had my car break so, now I had to get a new car that was gas economical and also could carry things like my van. I liked to just move myself except the big things like a bed. This time I didn't have a bed, but I brought a few heavy things I couldn't lift. It was an adorable little house, if it had only had good water.

The porch was looking out at a great view, but I found everyone on each side could look in, so I went to Home Depot and got some spring extension rods and put those bamboo screens on each side. It turned out that it was very very windy most times because of being on a cape, so I put an extension pole on top and bottom of the screens and attached with those large round cafe rings with clips, putting the rings on the rods and clipping them to the shades to keep them from flapping in the wind... They worked perfect.

I brought my trouble free dog and it had a little woodstove for heat. I had my little appliances from making the basement room a living space for me, so it made it feel home to me. There was a small refrigerator I could put my bottled water in, and a convection roasting oven that I could use as I couldn't move around in the kitchen. I worked at a material store, so I bought remnants fabrics and did the curtains for the bedroom, living room, kitchen and the bathroom shower and window curtains to make it match and feel beachy.

So I lived with the water... see pics at the bottom... but then as the weather turned cold the well pipe broke and the toilet wouldn't flush... I can live without the bathtub, although the reason I rented this place was partially because it had a bathtub... but no, I have found I need a toilet that flushes. The solution by the landlord... well they sent a Rocket Scientist out(ha ha) who said you should put a big trashcan on the front porch and fill it full of River water and then you can use it to fill the toilet tank so you can flush.... It's only a few hundred feet to the river to bring it up... Yup DUH HUH..... Then he got an old rotten hose that was cracked at the nozzle and hooked it to the spicket of the house next door(same owner) and he opened the bathroom window... mind you it was starting to freeze out... and he said I could run over and turn their spicket on and fill the back of the toilet tank with water whenever I had to flush.... YUP DUH HUH..... picture the hose old dirty rotten and cracked and when you turn it on the water sprays in 50 different directions because the rubber is rotten.... now look at my bathroom pic where i had painstakingly cleaned up their bathroom and made curtains and shower curtain to match for my bottled water freezing cold hand powered showers..... .... NAH>>> time to move....

I put new blinds on their windows and it had no air conditioning, so I bought two air conditioners and then I couldn't take them with me... They didn't appreciate them, but I bet the next tenant did.

And they pursued me and that wasn't good as there as a year lease.... but really...? I just wanted warmth in a bed and a toilet that worked, and was it too much to hope for when I saw the bathtub that there was water the EPA did not say I shouldn't bath in?

Would I do anything differently... probably not... if I had tested the water in advance I would not have rented it and I would have missed the wonderful nature things and the view and swims for 6 months.... but now I have heard not such great things about swimming in the Magothy River, so I feel lucky I did not get sick from that. I did need that experience of floating out to sea all alone and thinking through 'The Meaning of Life" haha

The truth is living on the water was on my bucket list and I honestly thought it would never happen. Well, I accomplished that even though to some people my whole life had gone down the tubes... In some ways the quality of my life was better that six months than all my life because I could actually stop and smell the roses, not just run from work to work to water the flowers to run through the gardens... but actually touch the sky so to speak and know what I had known all along.... Everything will be okay as long as we believe it, and have faith and keep trying and don't give up the ship. Or as my boy friend pitched in a bought me a rope to tie to the dock, it kept me from floating totally away in life and I could come back refreshed.

I didn't find the answer... I moved back to the city close to work and lived in a Highrise studio for a year... on the 10th floor... great views of the Pike.... Yes, I lasted a year there, through an earthquake, some power outages, a window rod cracking off the wall in the quake and when I moved the door would not shut... so... no that wasn't exactly smooth sailing.... but the toilet worked and the bathtub worked for a whole year of luxury.....

Now... well, you will see in the articles I publish what I am doing to find my way. I have always made things and done things on the side and I have started some little side businesses and I will share how with another article. I am helping someone else smell the flowers right now and a variety of other ventures are on my daily menu. I will share... have fun in life and don't let the trials and tribulations get you down, there is always a rainbow somewhere, you just have to look for it and keep making that list and checking it twice.

I am still trying to find my niche, but I thought maybe I could share some of the things I learned here and maybe help others make their little piece of heaven here on earth, wherever they are, and keep the faith...