Today at 5 pm I closed on my home purchase, and I couldn't be happier with it. My dream home always had a cozy living room with a mid-century fireplace and mantle, a spacious kitchen with tons of storage space (and a wall oven), a bathroom markedly bigger than any other bathroom anyone has ever offered me in my lifetime, a couple of bedrooms, also markedly bigger than I would ever have expected, a pantry, a finished basement, a half bath that actually works, and a bomb shelter, just in case North Korea develops an air force. That's exactly what I bought, along with the added bonuses of an attached garage and a sun room off the kitchen. The American dream is still alive and kicking. It's getting harder for people to achieve the dream, true, but it's not dead yet.
From Pyrgos will not in the foreseeable future become a "dead blog," but you may notice a significant slowdown in my posting rate, even more so than the slowdown of recent months. It's not that I don't have anything to say. It's just that I don't have as much time to say it, now that I'm busy tackling home projects. My plan is to be pretty aggressive with the cosmetic and interior revisions that I'd like to see, projects that will consume many hours and require hard work on my part. The house is move-in ready and perfectly acceptable to live in "as is," but there are some aspects of the decor that are so retro that even I don't feel them. One example is a massive cornice over the inside living room window, which I'll need to remove, a couple hundred square feet of cheap linoleum that needs replacing, and a built-in bookshelf that I'd like to build on outta there (I hate built-in bookshelves). More intense projects include updating the kitchen, installing security doors behind the garage, and getting the chimney extended above the attic vent. It's all very exciting.
My writing priorities are also shifting a bit. I purchased the house, and not a condo, because I wanted some degree of total seclusion, without noisy wall-to-wall neighbors and the cramped feeling that condos always give me, even when they're a decent size. There is a very large writing project that predates From Pyrgos by seven or eight years that I will be giving my fuller attention to, a task made easier now that I have more room to breathe, and think, and get it all out. I cannot emphasize enough though that this blog will not die - I have a list of interesting perfumes to post reviews about, and several opinions that still warrant their own slots in the blog archive, so if you're a fan of my work here, please don't despair and think this is the beginning of the end. I am a routine-driven person by nature, very much regimented into all that is familiar and fun in my life, and I love this blog. I'll continue contributing to it. I simply may not be able to contribute as frequently as I have in the past, although I will try my best.
I appreciate my faithful readers, and don't take lightly the prospect of leaving them hanging. Several bloggers have done that to their readerships since 2010, without reason or warning, and I feel that's a bit rude. If and when the day comes for From Pyrgos to be fully retired, I will give you all good reason and ample warnings. Meanwhile, please read on. Just know that the next article will be posted from a living room in one of the oldest and best-kept corners of twentieth century Connecticut.