Happy Endings, Happy Birthdays and Two Closings

Tomorrow is my 40th birthday, and today we closed on two houses - Cottage 24 and Cottage 20. Used to be that I used to sweat every single second between the offer on a house and the actual closing - I mean when you are only getting paid once or twice a year, closings are important.

But now, with closings every 3 weeks or so, its sort of becoming old hat - you figure between the land I buy and the land and homes I sell, I've been part of at least 100 closings.

But don't let me fool you - a closing is a big deal - a culmination of design a home from scratch, picking a piece of land, putting the right house on the right piece of land at the right place on that land, getting the damn thing built without too many delays or problems, navigating the weather, the planning boards, the subcontractors, the land, the financing, the banks, finding a buyer, and actually closing on the home - transferring it from me to them.

It's pretty glorious.

So, happy birthday to me. The big 40 - I kind of like it, I definitely wouldn't trade what I know now for a few more years of youth, that's for sure. Knowledge and experience is worth it's weight in Gold, in terms of running a business at least.

Lisa was going to take me away to our favorite New England Inn in New Hampshire to celebrate Lincoln's b-day, my b-day and Valentines day (and without Lucas), but alas, with my mom stuck in Lancaster under 3' of snow, we had to cancel. Now I'm stuck in Eldred with the ole ball (lisa) and chain (lucas).

Oh well, no one said it was going to be easy.