Moving to South Dakota: Part III

So, as you all saw from my last post, we found a house.

We're only renting for now, but the price was right, and we have a yard for Natasha. Plus it's a house! No more sharing walls with college students who like to have wild parties or blast loud music late at night on weekdays.

The house is in the town of Belle Fourche (pronounced bell foosh) which is about ten miles north of Spearfish. We had hoped to find a place in Spearfish, but no one there seemed to be willing to rent to people who have a dog. We'd eventually like to move down to Spearfish, but for now we at least have a place to call home.

The house is a very little house that was first built in 1913. There are only two bedrooms and they're both so small that our bed takes up the entire width of the room we use as our bedroom. The roof is also a little odd. You can tell that the kitchen and the two bedrooms are additions to the house because you can see where the original the roof is and where they slapped the new roof on. It slants significantly so that the southern walls of the bedrooms and kitchen are about ten feet tall, but the northern end of the walls or only about five feet and change. I actually haven't measured it, but I've hit my head on the northern side of the ceiling several times so I know it's shorter than my 5'11". It's annoying, but we can deal with it. This house is certainly not our dream home, but we're accustomed to dealing with less than ideal housing situations.

The town of Belle Fourche itself is a tiny town with a population of about 5,000 people. Gunnison had the same population, but it wasn't nearly as sleepy as Belle Fourche. Gunnison, like Spearfish, is a college town but because of the college there, the town has a young and active community. The downtown area or main street had cute little shops and a few restaurants, but as I walk down what is called "downtown" in Belle Fourche, I can't help but be amazed that any of the businesses are still in business. I rarely see anyone in any of the shops, even on a Saturday. Of course, the shops are nothing to call home about. There's really nothing to do around here. We end up driving down to Spearfish every weekend to go grocery shopping, see a movie, or go out to dinner. Another downside of living in Belle Fourche is that the railroad intersects the town, and trains decide, quite frequently, to park right in the middle of town. Considering the town itself is not very big, if a train decides to stop in the middle of town, it cuts off all of the roads that run north and south. We live on the north side of the tracks, and we've been stuck waiting for a train to move several times. It's incredibly frustrating, but we found out there is a road that actually goes under the railroad tracks. That has been a real lifesaver when it comes to Peter getting to work on time.

There are a few things that I like about Belle Fourche. It seems like a relatively safe town. Most of the people are friendly, and I bet I could leave my garage door wide open and all my stuff in there wouldn't "walk off". There are also a lot of old houses with that turn-of-the-century charm that you just can't find in modern housing developments. I like old houses. I've always dreamed of buying an old house and fixing it up. That of course takes a lot of hard work and a lot more money, but I think it would be really...fun? Maybe I shouldn't say fun, because I know if I actually tried to fix up an old house I'd probably get so frustrated at times that I'd want to torch it. Maybe one day when I win the lottery I'll buy an old house and hire contractors to fix it up for me. For now, I like walking through the old neighborhoods and dream.

The nice thing about finding this house was that we were able to move in immediately. The moving company who had packed up our apartment was actually in Spearfish doing another move, so we were able to get our belongings sooner than we thought. In fact, they hadn't even had a chance to take our stuff to storage yet, and it was all still on the truck. When they made the delivery, they offered to unpack everything since it was part of the moving deal, but I took one look at all the boxes and my lack of closets and cupboards and realized I had no idea where I was going to put everything. So, I told them no thanks, and sent them on home. We have some storage issues in the house, despite the fact that it has a basement and a garage. There are no cabinets in the bathroom so I had to come up with creative ideas for storage in there, plus there was little storage in the kitchen which required more creativity. So, Peter and I were left with the task of figuring it all out. By now, we have everything under control, but there are a lot of things I'd like to do to this house to make it more hospitable. I don't want to go too crazy, though, considering this isn't really my house.

One thing we unfortunately learned after moving in, is that there are leaks in the roof. When it rains significantly the roof in the bedroom and the kitchen leak. That's a big problem. We would be happy to stay here for a while if the roof wasn't an issue, but we'll see what the landlord does about it the problem. If it becomes an issue we will move when the lease is up in six months. I'm crossing my fingers that we won't have to.

So, there you have it. Peter and I are now residents of South Dakota. I'm giving the place a year before I form a solid opinion of the place. A lot changes in a years time. I hated Gunnison when we first moved there, but I think that was because it was the furthest I had ever moved from my friends and family and the separation gave me a mild case of depression. By the time we moved again, Gunnison had become home and I miss it. Hopefully I will feel the same about the Black Hills by this time next year. For better or for worse, South Dakota is now home and I'm determined to make the best of it.