Helen

April 2030

Helen Deppiesse is 40; Leo Deppiesse is 32; Lizzie is 5; Jack is 4

Helen couldn’t believe she’d even considered this. This time last year, she was finally feeling settled in her life and happy with being a mother. After her initial misgivings, she’d come to like their little house in Richmond, and now that the  kids were older she’d been able to go back to work part time, as a substitute teacher.

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.

At five, Lizzie felt very grown up now that she was going to school. 

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’s gardening shop was doing very well. He made enough now to get a manager a few days a week.

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. 

He’d used all the space they could spare in their backyard, and even helped two neighbours develop and maintain their own vegetable gardens, free of charge. He didn’t want to go back to tending other people’s gardens as a job, though. His dream was to get a bigger piece of land and live off it by growing their own food and by selling the excess. But it was just a dream, for now at least. They had talked about how they might look into it when the kids were older, or even as a retirement project.

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.

As well as the shed, there was a barn which had once housed horses. Since they got chickens for the chicken coop, Lizzie asked, could they also get horses for the barn?

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.

She wasn't going to worry about any of that now, though. On her own here, up on the hill, Helen felt this was where she’d always belonged. In one direction, she could see town, with her work and her friends and her family.

A short walk away in the other direction, Leo was preparing dinner with their kids, with food from their own garden.

A year later, Helen couldn’t believe she’d ever not considered this.

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One of the problems with moving Richmond to a smaller world is a housing shortage, especially as my YAs move through college and form households of their own. Back in TS2-world I had always imagined Bluewater Village to be backed by farmland on the road to Richmond. My new Richmond world has farms on the other side of the lake from town, and I couldn't afford not to use that area too. I guess the farmland has to start somewhere, so this area became the Richmond end of the road to Bluewater village. I fell in love with this little farm, and it just makes sense as a home for this family.

Leo is a self-employed gardener - like Angel's repairman career, there are no set hours and progress is tied to how much produce he sells.

I did some research into the formatting problems I was having, and found suggestions that the problem could be to do with something embedded in the theme. So I tried to change the theme... and it seems to have helped. I like this one better than the darker one, anyway... although my complaints on the previous post will probably be very confusing to anyone who only reads it after I change the theme...