Sunday, January 6, 2013

our house.

a few random thoughts.

i was born and lived in the same house for almost 22 years. the time my parents sold it was one of the hardest transitions for me. it was devastating leaving that place, the memories, my room, my favorite places, favorite trees, our pets in the yard, the familiarity. i was so angry at them. i didn't understand.

i know my aunt can relate. it was only a year or so before that my grandparents house (my dad's childhood home) was sold. it was just as hard to say goodbye to that house. the yard, the junk, the basement smell, the kitchen. it sat just a few miles away from our house...dad never got far (distance wise) from his home, and i loved that.

i wanted that for me, for my kids.

except once my childhood home sold in 2004, i have lived in 8 different places. (not including summers at camp) that's about one place a year! and a lot of those were before i married an army boy!

eliza has already lived in 4 places and she's only 3! we watch home videos and she says "where was that?" "what house was that?!"

with his contract coming to and end, and all the work he did to rebuild this home, i don't think we'll be going anywhere and i love that.

so this house? our home? we wanted to find a place that had some land. a place that was established. we randomly stumbled across this farmhouse soon after we got back from korea, almost 9 months after we closed on it we were able to move in.

that was after james took it down to the outside walls, dirt floor, and roof. it's been quite the transformation, and i'm so proud of him. he put so many late nights in, and figured out a lot of it on his own, and made it ours.

the lady we bought it from lived here for over 35 years. this little place was where she raised her family with the love of her life. i love that james can say "granville and doris' old place" and people know exactly what house we live in.

i think about the life they lived here, the memories and how it must have been hard to leave, just as it was when my parents sold our house. it didn't seem that way during closing and the times doris has stopped by (her husband has already passed, we never met him) she's such a sweet lady, and i think excited to see a young family take care of it, but we have changed EVERYTHING, but the outside.

one of her son's (john) lives next door to us, and james has become friends with him. they help each other out with neighbor things. it's quite nice.

as he was over there yesterday, eliza asked where daddy was and i told her. she said "john?"  and i told her that he used to live here. she replied "when he was a baby?!" exactly...and a big kid! it got me thinking again about all the things this house has seen.

then james came back and said "john told his mom that there were Christmas lights on the house for the first time since he was a kid...and they looked the same as they did then. i guess she started bawling."

and i totally understood.
i'm so happy we found this place, a place that we can continue to grow in (even if there isn't much room!) and make more memories. a place we can stay...for good!

2 comments:

Stephanie Hildebrandt said...

shel, it is special when you can watch your kids - kids play in the same house and yard they did :)one thing that's neat for me is now measuring the grandkids on the same WALL in the utility room and comparing :) start your WALL, if you haven't already :)

nancy said...

...or a pantry door : )

And yes, I can relate.

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