I finally made the move that so many folks from New England make: I’m going to live down south.
That often means many different things, since New Englanders define “down south” in many ways. I mean, Antarctica is technically “down south” but I don’t know a single person who has ever moved there. Typically it’s a “get out of the cold” type situation, and you’re not doing any better going THAT far south. No, for me it’s a move to North Carolina.
That means I need to find a new house, right? My wife and I sold our house back in October of 2020 and spent much of 2021 on the move. We traveled out west, brought our dog to a trainer in Idaho, visited family in California, saw friends in Arizona, went to the Grand Canyon – we did tons of stuff. It was a fun trip, but lots of miles on the road and we were both ready to just BE HOME for a while.
Well, it’s taken awhile to find the right spot, and as luck would have it “the right spot” was actually no spot at all. We decided to build a house this time! A nice change from the 75 year old house we owned in CT, which had all of the problems you get when you buy a house built in the 1950s. It was a flipped house, so lots of finishes had been redone and the house LOOKED nice, but there were a lot of issues hidden below the surface that lured us in.
It was a great house for a house, and we had a good amount of yard on three sides of the house, which was great. The dog loved running around outside, we had a patio and a fire pit, and plenty of space to play outdoor games. We play TONS of games: card games, board games, video games, and tailgating games. One of our favorites was playing cornhole, and we had a running tally of who won which games for the whole year. We played so much that we had our own cornhole game set, and for ¾ of the year that’s exactly what we did. Pour some bourbon, set the boards up, play game after game and do an awful lot of trash talking. But what happens when it rains? Or was too cold?
We played inside, duh! We got one of those little $20 sets from a big discount store. The boards were tiny, and they folded up into a bag. The bags themselves probably weighed 6 ounces, and I swear the ceiling fan would affect their movement. But it didn’t matter. We had enough room down the hallway where if one person stood at the front door and the other person was at the far side of the living room, we had enough room to play. So we did that, too.
Obviously building this new house there had to be an assessment on cornhole viability. Well, there will be enough yard space to place outside for sure, both in the front yard and the side yard. A fence has got to go up for the dog, but there’s plenty of space to set up some boards – maybe even a couple of sets – and get some friends over to play. I’m pretty sure the indoor cornhole can continue as well, but we’ll have to play through the kitchen and dining room and into the living room.
I’m not saying that when you build a house, or buy a house, that you should only get one that allows you to play indoor cornhole. But people DO say that you should really consider how every space in your house will be used, especially if you’re building, because there is plenty of time and space to do some really neat things in your home. I’m simply suggesting that taking cornhole into consideration is something that should make your short-list of considerations.
Make sure you’ve got room outside, and if you can finagle it, find a hallway or a few rooms in a row that will let you play the little indoor travel size. It certainly makes rainy days, or cold days, or snowy days more fun when you can keep playing your “outdoor” party games when you’re stuck inside!
