Posts made by author 'Paige O. Roberts'

When I was in college, and for some time afterward, I did a lot of house and pet sitting. I loved it; I can remember describing it as being paid to go on vacation. For weeks at a time, I would stay in these homes that had so many more comforts and amenities than my own: cable or satellite television, washers and dryers that weren't in creepy basements, dishwashers, and huge showers with stone floors and built-in steam settings. Some houses only had a few of these luxuries, but a couple houses I watched had them all.

One house in particular was especially fancy, in my opinion. It had a beautifully manicured lawn, with a century-old apple orchard on site. When the owner first gave me a tour prior to me staying there, we spent about two hours going from room to room as I learned the history of the property and the house. The home had been in her fa...

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A few years back, I looked into replacing my house's foundation. From my understanding of the history of my house, the foundation was repaired at some point in the 1980s. Otherwise, it's mostly in its original form—which is very, very old. I knew from the time I bought my house that the foundation would need to be addressed at some point, and I was motivated to do it sooner rather than later.

I spoke to some different contractors and they each laid out the most worthwhile options: lifting up the house and repairing or replacing the foundation in its same spot or pouring a new foundation next to it and sliding the house over. One contractor suggested these options, but then paused a moment before asking me, "Why don't you just build a new house?" I was surprised by this suggestion; I hadn't even considered just starting from scratch. I repli...

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I can remember—almost to the moment—the day I discovered my love for writing. I was in the third grade, and at the completion of a week of state testing, our teacher let us pick a prize from a table of knick-knacks. I turned in my test and walked up to the table and surveyed the loot: pencils, erasers, stickers, finger puppets, bouncy balls–so many fun little things to choose from. I was eyeing a particularly sparkly sticker sheet when my teacher said, "Hang on a moment. I think I have something you'll like much more." He walked over to his desk and returned with a red composition notebook. He was right. I liked that prize much more, and I filled that notebook from cover-to-cover.

Since then (and probably before then, too) I've had an unending love and appreciation for both reading and writing, and can...

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I was recently talking with one of my regular customers at my store about the local area, and she was surprised to learn I've lived here all my life. Alternatively, I was surprised to learn that she has not lived here much longer than a few years. She looked at me somewhat sheepishly and asked what I thought of new folks moving into the area. I realized she was probably expecting some sort of sarcastic response, or an overall general disdain for folks who relocated here in recent years. I explained that I think change is good (and necessary).

I don't feel any type of negativity towards folks who move into the area. Most of the time, I feel really inspired by the people I meet who have moved here, because with new people come new minds and new ideas. They not only have a different perspective from living elsewhere, but they...

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