Helen
Jack was four. As a toddler he’d been full of questions about everything.
He was no less curious now, and even more of a handful now that he was able to go and explore the world, rather than just asking about it.
She spent part of her time with Helen and Leo, and part with her father.
Given his general lack of responsibility with most things, Roman had turned out to be a surprisingly good father to both his kids.
Leo spent almost every minute of his freed up time working in his own garden. As much as he enjoyed sharing his interest in plants with his customers, his first love was actually growing things himself, getting his hands dirty and seeing the results of his work.
Then Leo had seen the farmhouse for sale.
Just the farmhouse, not the actual farm. That still belonged to the previous owners, but they’d built a new, larger house on another part of their land.
They were selling off the original farmhouse, with the ‘small piece of land’ surrounding it - a small piece at least three times bigger than anything they could find in town.
It was on the Richmond end of Bluewater Valley Road, just across the lake and less than a half hour drive from town. Lizzie could stay in the same school and spend time with her father, and Leo could easily drive to the shop. On the days Helen worked, she could drop Jack in daycare or with her cousin, on the way.
The kids were excited to find a small playground in the backyard.
Leo was even more excited by the little grove of fruit trees...
...and the shed which had been converted into a greenhouse.
Helen had to admit she’d enjoy the bigger house, and the cosy fireplace in the living room where you could hang out with family and friends in the winter...
... and a pretty outdoor area for entertaining in the summer.
She was less enthusiastic about the mortgage they would need to buy the place. Thanks to her inheritance from her father, they were relatively debt free, but that would change if they bought the farmhouse. Helen wasn’t completely comfortable with that. Leo said that debt in itself wasn’t really a problem, so long as you were able to repay it. He predicted that, with the income from the shop and from what he planned to do with the land, they would clear the debt much sooner than planned.
In the end, Helen gave in. After all, it was selling for a very reasonable price, and it was unlikely that they’d get a chance like this again. She just had to trust that Leo was right.
A year later, Helen had come to love this place.
Not just the farmhouse, but the surrounding area, which felt like it was miles away from anything, despite being just a short distance from town.
The mortgage payments were up to date and the garden was flourishing.
So were the kids, enjoying a very different lifestyle than the one they’d had in town.
They hadn’t planned on keeping animals, but there was a chicken coop there already so they decided to get some new occupants for it. The fresh eggs would be good, and the kids enjoyed having new pets that were unlike anything their friends in town had.
She’d been interested in horses for some time now, and was very disappointed when the answer was a very quick ‘no’ from all her parents. There was a stable and riding school nearby, though, and Helen thought she might take both kids for riding lessons when they were a bit older.
The kids loved having big bedrooms...
...although for Helen it just meant more to clean up - or more to try to get them to clean up themselves.
The farmhouse and entire area is beautiful! It almost makes me want to go and start my TS3 again; I think I have not played it in a year or more.
ReplyDeleteThis game really is so pretty! This is why I love that I can use the different worlds like subhoods using Nraas Traveler mod. It'd be so hard to choose if I could only stick to one.
DeleteI am not keen on sims 3 but your sims and words are so pretty i forgot that i am reading about sims in sims 3.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It is a very pretty game. I think with Sims, each version of the game does some things better, and some things worse, than other versions, and different versions will appeal to different people. I loved playing TS2 and still miss things from there (I want a TS3 version of OFB that actually works like OFB!) even though I'm firmly into TS3 now.
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