Some days I lie in bed in the morning and think...I'm getting old. The thought of getting up, knowing that your back and shoulders will be stiff and take some time to readjust to the land of the living, is just too much to deal with so early in the day. Laying there I remember that I was awake for a couple of hours during the night...no reason mind you, just couldn't sleep. My youngest grandchild comes over first thing in the day and I am forced to remember that I am indeed getting older. Yes...I know...even children get older.

Then there are days that surprise me when I get up and am excited about what we are going to be doing. I can't wait to get out into the world...breakfast at our favorite bistro or boulangerie, a day walking the streets of Paris or taking an excursion outside of town. Mind you I don't feel like a spring chicken but I really don't feel bad at all. So I think maybe this idea of feeling older is just a state of mind. It depends on our perspective.

"I can't believe you did that" were the words of a great friend. He was reacting to the news that we had just closed on the purchase of a new home. Those words in and of themselves would or could be appropriate for so many reasons, but in this case, it was because he said you are more modern than I am that made it worth noting...he is afterall, half my age. And what we did was buy a house online...lock stock and barrel as my grandfather would have said.

We found the house by subscribing to a service that provides new listing in zipcodes you are interested in and then we applied for a loan with a bank officer, we never met, completely online. We used a Title company and Escrow officer we have yet to be introduced to in person. We chose the house by the pictures posted online...knowing the ability of photographs to lie a bit about the size of rooms depending on the lens used. We also had a great realtor who checked out the house for us and used his daughter as an impartial second set of eyes. Our daughter and her husband checked out the house for us as our surrogate eyes and all pronounced it suitable and in fact "a winner." Then the five weeks of almost daily emails went on and in the end we closed on the house this week.

Now I dont' think of myself as some unusual example of my generation...I am pretty technologically literate, but so are many of my friends. I don't think of myself as some sort of pioneer in this area. I could have waited until we returned from France to buy that house, but it just looked too good to pass up. We had been looking for a home with a first floor master, about 1800 square feet with three bedrooms and at least two baths. OK so many of those may have existed but this was so clean and relatively new...sort of like buying a 1998 Cadillac with only 2500 miles on it. And the visits by family and friends verified what we thought. We did not know if we would find another one like it when we got back. So we made an offer and it was accepted and the rest is history as they say.

But then last week, we signed the documents the loan closed and we owned the house and I as I was trying to go to sleep I thought to myself...you've got to be kidding. You bought a house you haven't even seen. And yet, I somehow feel very comfortable with the decision. Without even seeing the house I feel like it is just what we needed and wanted. I feel like it will be home for many years. I am planning improvements and slight changes to accommodate our lifestyle, but all in all it seems to feel good.

So to all our friends who say...I can't believe you did that...I say; come and see it. We will be home in a couple of months and you are all welcome to see what we did.