Visited three properties yesterday. First - a small red house near Buttermilk Falls - was secluded enough but no view and way too small. Seems to be a place someone's flipping. Definite pass. Second place we'll likely make an offer on.

Third place, on the far limit of what we could afford, but no one there to let us in! Agent got the key out of the box and the deadbolt seemed to flip, but the door also seemed to be bolted in one or two other places. Perhaps this is why it has been on the market for a while. But even at half the price, I'll pass: close to CU, and secluded, but nigh-half-million should get more than two acres, much of which is 45-degree hill behind the house. Not possible to go for a walk in the woods, only a climb there.

So yeah, found a place we really like, about 17 miles east of CU. And this has the right feel: karmic almost. For, you see...

Back in the early 80s, when we were getting into rare sheep breeds through 4-H, we came up to Cornell's campus for a sheep auction. We bought some beasties to take back to PA, but while here apparently I said to mom that Cornell is the place I wanted to go to college. And so it came to be, and the rest is history.

The connection here, where we come full circle, is that this potential new home (perched on a hillside) overlooks the Cornell sheep farms. I think that's too good to be true, and to pass up. In truth, they are too far away to hear or smell, and you'd only see little white blobs in the fields, but still... this does seem to be the house for us.

This week: financing. Next weekend: a second visit to check details and final considerations. At least, that's the plan if all goes according to schedule. The place has been on the market for a while, and apparently by chance some other couple arrived to see it as I was leaving. With luck (karma?) they won't make an offer.