Now that we are safe in our new home, it is much easier for me to focus on things both big and small. In the old house, I was simply surviving. I was in a constant state of having to respond to whatever crisis the neighbors inflicted on us for the day. Their attacks with the boom cars and other methods of harassment were daily.

There were times when I would be cooking food on the stove, and I would have to turn off the food, and we had to go to the basement for safety. The food often spoiled. There were times when I could not eat because it was not safe enough for me to be in the kitchen long enough to cook something due to active gunfire or other threats.

Aside from upgrading all the plumbing in that house from galvanized steel, everything else that was done to that house was repairs from deliberate damage that was done by the neighbors. That house has new front steps and a new porch from when they drove their truck through the front. It had repair work to the chimney from fireworks damage due to attempted arson. That’s just some of the damage I repaired.

In the new house, no one is deliberately damaging this house. No one is physically attacking and injuring us. We are safe. This gives me freedom to live life. I’m no longer just trying to survive and avoid daily threats to our physical safety.

This means I can make actual upgrades to the new house. I can respond to needs both big and small. This house had plumbing issues that were supposed to be addressed by the sellers before we moved in. They were not addressed. I ended up replacing the toilet and fixing the shower drain that was leaking into the basement. 

This spring, I had the septic tank pumped. It was long overdue and on the verge of being an emergency. This is my first time living someplace that has a septic and is not on municipal sewer. I was very proud that I was able to correctly ascertain it needed to be done before it became an emergency and that I was able to locate where they needed to dig before I called for service.

As mentioned in a previous post, the furnace died. I had the furnace replaced and converted from oil to propane. That was a very big project. It is not completely done yet. I still must get the oil and oil tank out of the basement. But we do now have a working furnace again so when it cools down, we will have heat.

For such a big project, I was able to take it in stride. If that had happened at the old house, it would have been a major crisis that I probably would not have been able to deal with. Every single day in that old house, I had to alter my behavior and all my plans based on when the neighbors decided to start attacking us. A broken furnace would not have been something I would have been able to deal with when we were fighting for physical safety every single day.

I now have the ability to address the little things too. 

The ring pulls on the top drawer of my dresser broke a few years ago when we were in the old house. The ring on the left was partially broken and hanging precariously. The ring on the right was completely gone. Without the ring pulls, I was left trying to open that drawer by pulling it open from the bottom. It was a pain. It made it hard to get to my clothes. 

Broken ring pulls was not something I could handle when our lives were literally being threatened daily at the old house. I was constantly either trying to recover from injuries they inflicted or hiding in the basement with the cats to avoid being injured again or worse. 

Now that we are safe in the new house, I have time and energy to fix small things like my top dresser drawer. Instead of the ring pulls, I decided to install knobs. Now that the drawer has two well attached knobs, it is very easy for me to open the drawer to access my clothes. 

I even had the time and energy to be thoughtful about the knobs I installed. I chose knobs that I enjoy that go with my décor. They are not only functional, but they delight me as well. It is making me happy to see them. 

If I wanted to go the extra mile and find vintage ring pulls to install instead, I have the time and energy to do that. I could even try to track down a set of ring pulls to replace the exact ones that were on the dresser originally. I have the freedom to do that if I want.

 I decided to upgrade to drawer knobs instead of trying to find vintage replacement ring pulls. It may sound small, but this is living. It is not just surviving. Sometimes living can look like an inch and a half piece of mint colored wood. I am no longer just surviving with a broken dresser because I am too exhausted from daily neighbor attacks. 

I vividly remember this time last year. Every single night, the neighbors would pound on the door, scream “FIRE!”, and run away. It was all on my security cameras. They did it every single night from July 7, 2025 until the day in August when we left for safe housing. I never knew what time they were going to pound on the door and ring the doorbell screaming “FIRE!” until they did it. It could be 10 pm, 2 am, 3 am. That was the whole point.

The point was to prevent me from sleeping. 

In some countries, preventing someone from sleeping is a form of torture. In the USA, it’s just another day. When I was growing up, if someone yelled “FIRE!” in a movie theatre when there was no fire, it was illegal. Yet, it is perfectly legal to pound on a house door every single night screaming “FIRE!” when there was no fire. The local sheriff department there said there is nothing preventing people from knocking on your door. They have that right. 

Besides, I always had to ascertain if there was a fire or not. They tried repeatedly to burn the house down and even lit parts of the tree in front on fire in their attempts. I could not just go back to sleep after they pounded on the door. I literally had to check the house everywhere to see if they had lit it on fire or not. There was fire damage to the exterior of that house that was flagged in the final inspection when I sold it. 

It just got to the point where I could not keep up with the property damage they were causing and try to get us all out of there safely before we were murdered. I only broke even when I sold that house due to all the damage I had to repair. 

Being safe in our new home, I can respond to the little things. The big things are still challenging, but they are not a crisis. No one is damaging this house. Things I am fixing are maintenance items that need to be fixed due to normal wear and tear of living in a home. 

I can repair things in a way that I enjoy and delight me like the dresser drawer knobs. When the furnace died, I was able to research and decide to convert from oil to propane. I can make better choices because I am not trying to keep us safe from physical injuries every day. 

Even walking down the street here is safe. I no longer have children chasing me on bicycles and throwing rocks at me like they did at the old house (they were children of the house that attempted arson). Children here wave at me. I even helped one with air in their bicycle tire last week. I was outside at the same time they were, and they were trying to walk the bike with a flat tire. I have the air machine for my car, and it works for bicycles too. The child is riding the bike again instead of pushing it home. 

Helping with a child’s bicycle tire is another one of the little things I can do now that we live someplace safe and are not being attacked daily by the people across the street. 

The little things like bicycle tires and drawer pulls are precious. I did not have this freedom before. It reminds me of what life was like before those problem neighbors started. All because I reported their dog fighting ring. 

I have no regrets. 

Another positive of little things is connected to minimalism. I have one dresser for clothes. When the ring pulls broke, I was able to repair the drawer. When you are a minimalist, you have fewer items. You can have higher quality items because you have less of them. You can also take better care of things when you have less. 

I can imagine that if someone had three or four dressers and a drawer broke, they would probably just get rid of the entire dresser or replace the entire dresser. I repaired the drawer and kept the same unit. 

The dresser has been with me for over 20 years. They don’t make them like that anymore. It’s been good to me. So, I repaired the drawer. I kept the unit and now it delights me. 

The little things are a luxury when you have the freedom to enjoy life and not just survive. May you know this freedom.