It's a very strange feeling to sit on the floor in an empty house and know that you will be one of the first two people ever to live in it.

[caption id="attachment_297" align="alignright" width="300" caption="From the front to the back"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DSC_0208.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-297" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DSC_0208-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

My wife and I bought a house last week, a brand new house in which we hope to live for the rest of our lives. No one else has ever lived in it and no one will for as long as we're there. We will design it to our own style -- actually Nicole will design it to her own style, but that's fine with me -- and we will enjoy the heck out of it.

There's plenty of room for children and grandchildren to visit, even if we are only planning to use one of the two extra bedrooms as a guest room. We'll have two bedrooms, two offices and plenty of space for living in the rest of the house.

If you look all the way to the back of the photo, you'll see that we also have a sun room. It's a good-sized room -- about 150 square feet -- and it'll be a nice place to relax at the end of the day.

The only strange part of it all is that it will be nearly a year until we actually occupy the house. We'll be spending the next summer, fall and winter here in California and then moving across the country to our new home in Georgia early next year.

It's odd. I actually met several of our neighbors and talked with them, but it will be a tremendous accomplishment if I remember their names until next year.

By the time we move, I will have spent nearly 21 years living in Southern California. I spent 15 years planning to work my way across the country and accomplishing it, and I never imagined that I would ever move back. But California in 2010 isn't what it was 40 years ago or even 20, and except for a few things, I don't think I will miss it all that much.

No, I think I will enjoy living in Georgia a lot.

The people are very nice, and in the two visits we have made this month, Nicole and I have seen nothing but hospitality and graciousness.

I think a little of that is just what we need.