Tuesday, April 06, 2010

A stone house near the sea

Being both an itinerant and a bit of a pack rat is definitely not a happy marriage of qualities. My home is wherever I happen to be at the moment... but my stuff is scattered about the world in temporary storage (in a suitcase under a friend's bed in the UK, shoved into a nook in my mom's laundry room in Canada, in boxes in an attic somewhere in the UAE).

And then a collague told me about the stone house she bought in Turkey (see top photo. U's house - complete with pool - is located in the hills of Üzümlü just outside of Fethiye on the western Mediterranean coast of Turkey). Her dream was always to have a home somewhere on the Mediterranean. While I have never had such a dream, to have a stationary place to drop all my accumulation of junk would certainly make my constant shifting of jobs and countries easier!

Visiting U's place over Newruz has planted a seed in that part of my brain which continues to desire MORE stuff instead of wanting to tossing it all into the bin and move off in another direction free as a bird or a Buddhist monk. Mu (an engineer friend who could help this dream to materialize) has uncharacteristically agreed that one of my ideas isn't a BAD idea (!!!)... maybe partially because he liked my choice of location - not on the Med, but the Agean and connected to Greece and Italy by ferry (town of Alaçatı on the Çeşme penninsula).

Seems I have a few choices. The first is to buy a "ready-made" house (as Mu puts it). The house below is one in Alaçatı, but is quite likely out of any price range I might have... and doesn't even have a front garden.

The second choice is to buy land and build. (Below house also in Alaçatı).

And finally, there is the option to find an old stone house and remodel. I love the old Üzümlü stone house below. Would it really be so bad to have a place in the neighboring country to escape to every now and then?
And the big question, "Is this just an impossible dream?"

1 comment:

Saffron said...

Could it be that you're actually thinking of setting down some roots somewhere??

Gardens are overrated, 'specially if you're not gong to live there full time. I say get the most HOUSE you can afford and go to the park/beach/whatever for greenery (g).