The reason that Captain Mark and I choose to relocate here was because this is where “my people” are from. For more than 150 years, members of my family have lived in this county and since 1929, in this very house. This is the house where my father lived most of his formative years and the house was purchased in 1940 by my great-aunt (grandfather’s baby sister) and her husband. It was from her estate in 2003 that Mark and I purchased the house. 
We are often asked how we could move from the Chicago Loop to a tiny town in Southern Indiana where the closest Wal-Mart is over twenty-five miles away and the nearest Target is over fifty miles. The decision was very easy and the reasons are multi-fold. While I did not go to school in this county, I spent a great deal of my childhood here – every weekend and summer while my father farmed the family homestead – so there is comfort and familiarity with Lionville that comes filled with wonderfully distorted and cherished childhood memories. When this house was for sale following my aunt’s death, I just could not bear to allow it to leave the family and it seemed easier for us to move here than have the house moved elsewhere. Captain Mark and I knew that we wanted to travel and we simply could not afford to travel like we have and still maintain our condo in Chicago. We loved living in Chicago, especially being right downtown with Grant Park as our front yard, with so much culture, diversity and all of the wonderful restaurants. But we had to make a choice regarding our retirement years. For us it was either continue to live in Chicago and never venture outside the city limits OR we could relocate to Lionville where the cost of living is more affordable and would allow us to travel. I must admit that it did take some smooth talking on my part to convince Captain Mark to purchase this house…it was in dire need of updating and pretty much required a total overhaul of all the major components like heating/plumbing/roofing/siding to say nothing of the decorating. I was able to convince him by appealing to the accountant (frugal/cheap) aspect of his personality by pointing out that in remodeling this house we would have a home (with no mortgage) that would be exactly what we want. It would cost considerably less over the remainder of our lifetime than keeping the condo in Chicago especially when one factored in the monthly maintenance fees that were over and above our mortgage.
So it was in 2003 that we purchased the house and began what would be a four year renovation. The house was originally built in 1905, and it was important to us that through the renovation process we keep the original flavor of the house. We did this by updating the infrastructure that could be hidden while maintaining the plaster and lathe walls, woodwork, and basic framework of the house. 
While Lionville does not have multiple ethnic eateries or a world-class symphony or dance lessons/movies/festivals in the park or a lakefront like Chicago, it does have several things that make it uniquely appealing and that one would never find in Chicago…Amish buggies that travel each day in front of our house, lightening bugs and butterflies in the summer and most of all stars that fill the night sky. Best of all, with only three stop lights in town that are totally synchronized, rush hour traffic is a piece of cake. Never once have we regretted our decision and it has proven to have been one of the best decisions that we have made in our forty-two years together. 
Yes, we have cougars or mountain lions or whatever you want to call them. This photo was taken about five miles from our home in the fall of 2009.
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