Hey! Where Is Best?

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The Reapp Post

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Elmo is a simple man. He has daddy's money to keep him going, meaning he really did not need to work if his dad's money could be used instead. But one evening at the beginning of January on the day of New Years, He hadn't worked the candyman peddler job long enough on the train, and his dad did not really care. He broke the news and told him that if Elmo was to stay married with the wife that he had engaged several years prior, then he couldn't stay housing in his mansion.

What his dad did offer though, was a chance to go and find another place to live, and that he'd pay for it. Thank the above starry skies or whatever the heck people say these days, he didn't have to pull out his massive wealth (that came from his own father and partially from ripping kids off on the train) to pay for a house.

Elmo and his wife made it to America after spending days deciding that houses in the United Kingdom were not satisfactory enough. Elmo wanted a lot of land but also to live close to stores that sold sweets and candies, a tourist trap area, because after all, it is a tourist trap kind of thing to do to rip people off and profit off of this act.

His wife, on the other hand, wanted to be along the edge of the ocean and wanted the salt air and the cries of the gull and wanted to look out a kitchen window that watched the waves rise and fall. Elmo did not know much about what it was like in Maine, as he didn't know anyone there. Or anyone that had visited anyways.

However, when he did arrive with his wife Debbie, he had his motorcycle, a magical vehicle that he often kept in his dad's mansion's garage (number seven) with the exception of using it to get to the Hogwarts Express when they were at the station. They knowingly were coming to Maine, so with his dad's help, he had his motorcycle and his wife hopped on. They vroom vroomed all the way down the road towards Bar Harbor, noticing that they were indeed surrounded by what felt like an endless tunnel of pine on both sides of the road. And while the trees didn't thin out all too much, he noticed a large opening with a bunch of light colored houses that were not used as houses but rather as whatever airbnbs were and hotels.

Bar Harbor was not.. a collection of trees at all. Impressive. He felt his pupils grow a bit as he got hit with the sunshine from the clear sky in the opening where houses and storefronts and restaurants sat. The sky was so blue, the water reflecting brightly. It was winter, so if this was a touristy town, they must be in a dead end right now, or are going through their down time as he vroom vroomed his way down the streets to look around.

Colorful storefronts lined the street with ice cream shops, candy stores, and souvenir places. The sidewalks did have people walking down them, but not as many as he would picture for a tourist town, and they held cameras taking pictures of the view. Shame, Elmo wanted to buy a Wizarding Camera so he could pretend to be cool like them too.

The air smelt like salt and butter from the lobster shacks that rested at the pier, there was a sign hanging outside of the ice cream shop boasting lobster ice cream, and beyond all of that man-made view, would come Debbie's soft breathing, almost as if breathless commanding Elmo to look. "Oh Elmo, look at it." Elmo turned to look at the ocean stretching out with boats that bobbed gently in the harbor, as the gulls wheeled overhead and squacked loudly, swirling the lobster shack. Elmo grumbled at the sight of the gulls. "Bloody oversized chickens." Debbie didn't hear him, but they got off of the motorcycle and walked towards the pier.

Their shoes crunched on the thin layer of the frost that clung to the planks of the pier, and Elmo shoved his hands deep in his jacket pocket trying to appear as if he belonged, as if he was always here and not someone new. Elmo watched his wife lean against the railing, her hair whipped around her face as the breeze from the ocean air came through. She stared out to the waves, looking happy, peaceful. It was like she found the place she'd been dreaming of in this little hallmark touristy town.

It was a small, bright and scenic place that Debbie would fall in love with immediately, Elmo would definitely buy a house here if she liked it, and she did. Elmo was more excited about getting a job in town so he could rip people off for the scoops of candy that they might want to make, or he could be a door to door candyman if no one wants to hire him yet.

Debbie turned back to him. "Elmo," Her voice was soft, still as breathless as it was earlier, "I think this is it. I think this is where we're meant to be." Elmo nodded as he pretended to listen and be wise and thoughtful instead of being the person that was actively calculating how much money he could make selling authentic saltwater taffy to people, and he was. He had a lot to learn about Maine, and he didn't know that Mainers seem to like blueberry flavored things and things made with blueberries, just as much as they pride themselves with the lobsters.

"Yeah," Elmo said finally snapping back to reality. "Yeah, Debbie, this will do."

For the next three days (January 4th-7th) they'd buy a house big enough for a large family and even to have room for guests. If truth be told, they just offered the owner of an airbnb place with three stories and about 5 rooms each floor plus a basement and rooftop, nearly 2 million dollars and perhaps that was enough to own a property, but Elmo felt it was both very high but very low. Regardless, it wasn't his money, it was his dad that was paying for it. Their house would overlook the water and town, which Debbie loved the most. Elmo was just happy that it was in the town, so he didn't have to pay to fuel the motorcycle nor would he have to do anything other than walk around. (Now, if he knocked on doors, he would so be riding the motorcycle)

(I don't feel like writing out a whole process honestly but I would like to say that he and his wife got a passport and are considered dual citizens for sake of simplicity)
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Anyways he's moving to Bar Harbor, Maine.
I name and mention his wife (of a year) for the first time; Debbie.
He no longer lives with his dad.

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(this next one is an older picture but the buildings iirc are still there, just with vines and broken windows and spray paint on them, some still in business. Again, could be wrong, I don't live in North Carolina.)

Reapp Writing

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Elmo is a simple man. He has daddy's money to keep him going, meaning he really did not need to work if his dad's money could be used instead. But one evening at the beginning of January on the day of New Years, He hadn't worked the candyman peddler job long enough on the train, and his dad did not really care. He broke the news and told him that if Elmo was to stay married with the wife that he had engaged several years prior, then he couldn't stay housing in his mansion.

What his dad did offer though, was a chance to go and find another place to live, and that he'd pay for it. Thank the above starry skies or whatever the heck people say these days, he didn't have to pull out his massive wealth (that came from his own father and partially from ripping kids off on the train) to pay for a house.

Elmo and his wife made it to America after spending days deciding that houses in the United Kingdom were not satisfactory enough. Elmo wanted a lot of land but also to live close to stores that sold sweets and candies, a tourist trap area, because after all, it is a tourist trap kind of thing to do to rip people off and profit off of this act.

His wife, on the other hand, wanted a house that wasn't too large but had enough room to raise at least six, seven kids if they ever had that much. She wanted a farm, chickens in a coop outside, a full corn field and a garden in front of the kitchen window for veggies.

So, where were they to get this? In America? According to the review from his first cousin (this being where Octavius and Ronnie visited on their wedding in 2025), Cherokee, North Carolina was a place to go see.

According to Ronnie, Oconaluftee Visitor Center was a small but cool stop to go see; the boars in the pen, the 19th century farm tools utilized and a farmland with standing buildings. There was a trail slightly off the beaten path that'd take you to see the intersection of the rivers that flow from Oconaluftee through Cherokee, meaning it wasn't too far away if they wanted to do anything scenic.

His wife was definitely into the scenic stuff, him not so much but it was alright, he didn't need to worry about it. If his wife liked it, and this place was decent, maybe they could move here.

If Elmo had to be honest, since they literally just arrived in North Carolina, he really just wanted to get to a place and sleep. That was the important part of his search today. Of course, he owled his own father and demanded that he pay for the motel stays that he stayed at, saying it was horrible in comparison to his luxious mansion wife and that he needed to be paid galleons for every night he stayed in a motel waiting for a place to live at.

It's been 3 days of searching and finally his wife found a property that looked like it had enough room for whatever she wanted, like corn and all. He should buy the property itself then erect a house on it. That'd be smart right? Hopefully there no bills to pay with that and all? This man would learn about property taxes, and boy would he take it personally. He had the money converted during the first of the days of searching for property in Cherokee and was happy he had done so, so he paid for the property and after waiting a bit longer, it was finally his and his wife's. His dad paid him back, but said that he will give Elmo a year to get his life together, to build a family, to improve or else he was being cut off completely from the family fortune. The thought of not having a ton of galleons was horrible. How could someone do this to him? He couldn't be OCTAVIUS? Maybe he would need to shape up, but he wans't going to tell his dad that, so all he did was say, in an owl responding back, okay dad.

He began to wonder how the heck he was going to build a house. He had never once in his life touched a hammer and used it correctly. He didn't know what a philips screwdriver was and if someone asked him for a nail, he probably would've given them screws.

Then something caught his eyes. It was visible in the distance, over past the field his wife wanted to turn into a cornfield. It was in that moment that he realized that asides from whatever caught his eye, his wife was going to be expecting him to do the work of the house elves for the farm boys.

He grumbled. A soft mutter. 'Thanks dad. For nothing. You [explicit] good for nothing cruel person."

Elmo walked towards what caught his eye, a small white building in the distance with a metal roof that was shining bright in the distance. "Hey, Debbie... did you know that we had a building on the property?" He asked, she only nodded. "Yes honey. I saw it earlier. I thought you'd want to store your moonshine in there."

He sighed. He really was so blind and so distracted. He fired back, not intending to harm her. "Well, that's our new house right now. I'll expand it out later. I'll start working on it tomorrow but now we can finally get out of the motels!" It was a moment of celebration for him, but a sign of disappointment between him and his wife because they now had to lose their luxurious living to sleep on the maybe-dusty wooden floor in a small shed that Elmo promised to start extending out so they had a livable house in the next few days. Or at least a place that was big enough to fit a bed for him and his wife, and then a place to cook meals. He taught History of Magic, unfortunately he knew a bit about people using little tubs and washboards and clothing line to wash and dry clothes and that would have to be what they do until things can be done.

---
Over the next few days, several bruised finger and patchy nails sticking out of the external and internal walls, he managed to expand the shed out to be able to fit the oven and sink in, also paid for by his father, and then within the next month of working hard on the biggest part of the expansion that he had done, he added a bedroom.

Just to ensure his wife regretted a farm, which she probably wouldn't, he was not building a bathroom inside. Instead, with the help of the people he met at the home improvement stores, he built an outhouse.

His wife, Debbie, had a guy come over carrying a mattress in the bed of his pickup truck, and they unloaded it into the bedroom, placed it on the ground as they still haven't got a bedframe. And all the helpers left, and Elmo was still there wondering why the kitchen felt like it was missing something, and when it dawned on him, he needed to get a shelf for the (nonperishable) food and make a makeshift table so they could make eat at it and also use it as if it were a counter, at least for now.

---
He now has a small house and a large property in Cherokee North Carolina. As of February 12th 2026, anyways. Well, there might be lots of leaking when it rains and cold breezes in the winter, of which it is, as the house was made a little too quickly and too unprofessionally.

Timeline of this
-> Arrive in NC after New Years
-> Spend 3 days in motels searching for property (let’s say January 5th is the day he buys the property)
-> Buys the land and discovers the shed
-> January 6th, he starts construction for the kitchen
-> January 7th, he finishes construction for the kitchen section
-> January 8th, he starts construction for the bedroom
-> February 6th, as an off project, he makes the outhouse with assistance
-> February 8th, he finishes the construction on the bedroom
-> His wife has the mattress delivered February 10th
-> He makes the table and shelf for the kitchen sometimes between February 8th-12th.