Can you believe we’ve been doing this nonsense for a year?

On August 1st of last year — as both a long-term memory aid and as an exercise in stress management — we started writing about our adventures in real estate.   In the beginning, it was only accessible to our kids and parents.  (A notion that many of you think should be revisited.)  But we opened it up to the public with this post a few months later and never looked back.

In the 151 posts that have followed, we’ve name checked Damien Hirst, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg and Michael Chabon among others.  We’ve mocked Central Maine Power and Fairpoint with such gusto that we’ve often wondered if the next email was coming from their respective attorneys.  (Which was different than the local bank whose attorney DID call.)  We’ve embarrassed our children on many wonderful occasions.  And we’ve barely warmed up.

Mindless trivia from our first year :

• We’ve had readers from 35 countries.  Sure, the USA has the majority of visits (U-S-A! U-S-A!), but we’ve got regular traffic from Sweden (Nate’s nice parents), Japan (Steve’s office) and there seems to be someone from Jamaica who checks in nearly every day.  We can’t even begin to explain the other 31 countries.

• For the SEO nerds among us, people are finding their way to the site in the craziest ways.  MOST of the traffic is some variation of “direct load.”  They type “A House in A Field” into their browser or some variation of that phrase.  But here are some of the other phrases that readers have typed to get here :
  • “The house in the field lower mast landing Freeport”  The analogy would be typing “I just saw a McDonalds” into your phone as you drove by…
  • “Dasha drivay”  Welcome to the blog, Dasha Gaiazova.  (We name dropped her during the great Driveway Debate and she must have been following up.)
  • “Train wreck strip club.”  Our personal favorite.  Might be the name of our new band.
  • “Giant worksheets knockers.”  Second favorite.
  • “What is this ugly pine”  Google works in mysterious ways.

• While the content might be thin (or — according to our co-editor “moronic and childish”), here are the Top 5 articles from the past year :
  • House Plans – #1 with a bullet
  • “Who Wants To Live On Flying Point Road” – Also our favorite.  Didn’t work.  But still our favorite.
  • The article that can’t be named about the bank that can’t be named.  (See paragraph #3 above)
  • Construction Schedule — Which, ironically, is the only true fiction on the blog.
  • “Almost like this, but definitely different.”  Unexpected, but totally get it.  More pictures, fewer words, less sass.

The bad news?  We have at least three months of this silliness left to go.  Tomorrow effectively begins the “next phase” of Dash Landing.  We’ll bring in the insulators followed by the long, slow dance known as “finish work.”

God help us all…