An Open Letter to the Woman I Bought My First Maine House From

Dear Former Seller,

First off, I was going to call you out by name, but I decided not to for a couple of reasons -- first off, you'll know who you are as you continue reading this letter, and I get the vibe that, like me, you like to keep your private life, private.

(Which, I get the irony considering I'm writing this letter on a public forum in the first place. But, as much as I like keeping my private life, private, I also like giving credit where it's due -- except, I'm just not sure if this is how it's always supposed to go when you buy a house?)

It's been about a year and a half since you sold me your house, and honestly, I'm not even going to drag this out any longer in this letter.

I just wanted to say -- thank you. For so many reasons.

Thank you for picking me, first of all. I'm sure you had offers that were better than mine, which could've padded your bank account way more and helped with the house you were buying at the same time, but the fact you picked me just means so much, because it really was (and still is) the perfect home.

But even more than that, thank you for all you've done for me after picking me to sell to. Because, honestly, I'm not sure if this is how this usually goes when you buy a home since you were my first time (insert ever sarcastic joke here), but you've gone so far above and beyond just being one person selling a house to another human.

From random texts about the electric bill and stuff about the house in general I had questions about, to even reaching out about good spots to walk the dog in the area or have him groomed -- you never left me on read once and always answered my questions.

And then there's the things you do on your own sometimes unsolicited out of nowhere, like dropping by the house and leaving a large envelope in the front door with a note that mentioned while going through your things, you found items that actually belonged to the house (like manuals for the fridge, water heater, etc).

I don't know if that's how things usually go when you buy a house from someone -- where you keep in sporadic contact with them after the fact or not. I don't know if it's normal to be able to reach out to the person who no longer has anything to do with the house to ask a question about something, or whether you're supposed to just figure it out yourself as a homeowner.

If it is normal to keep contact every now and then and to reach out, well -- thank you for never blowing a question I have off. I'm a stubborn dude that doesn't really like asking for help much, and asking for it is always my drop dead last resort. So, when I ask for it, I need it.

And, even more so, if it's not normal to keep in sporadic contact and, as a homeowner, you're supposed to just figure everything out for yourself without the help of the previous owner, well...

Thank you even more for just clearly being a real baseline solid human. I hope all the good things happen for you and your newest home -- you clearly deserve it.