In the beginning

I was twenty-five years old when I bought my first house. My father had terminal cancer and I was desperate to find a place before he passed away. I wanted, NEEDED him to see I was responsible and capable of taking care of myself, and it was essential that I did this one last thing that would merit me the approval and pride from him I had always coveted. Unfortunately, he passed away before I signed the papers and he never did see it, and I know he would have found a million reasons for me not to buy this particular house, but at the time, she was perfect - and she was all mine.

Over the next 25 years, she wore various shades of paint, both inside and out. She was the safe space our children came home from the Hospital to and grew up in. She encouraged rollerblading down her long hallway and didn't mind that Tonka trucks, tire swings, and plastic furniture littered her backyard for decades. Pet fur clung to all her crevices and the shiny wood floors wore down to a soft, mellow hue that no amount of scrubbing seemed to get clean. The basement door provided the perfect backdrop for height lines, including the dogs, up until both children outgrew the frame. The family room turned into a garage into a gym. The walls were painted every color of the sun and our children's friends called her 'the rainbow house' and said she made them happy to visit. The roof leaked, so did the basement. The second bathroom only worked for the first 15 years. A woodpecker made a home in our attic once. The slider was on backward. The living room smelled like wood smoke and incense all year round. 

She was a diamond in the rough, but she became a conduit, a haven for our family to grow up in, despite her imperfections, and we made her a home. A real home, where love and memories were made, tears and laughter echoed off her walls, and dinner conversations filled with hopes and dreams seeped through the floors. We filled her bones with our whole world, and she protected us from storms and hurricanes and tornadoes while we slept. 

We have grown to love her in ways only a home, like her, can be loved. 

However, the time has come to pass her on to the next family. We are empty nesters now, both our children are just beginning their own lives, in their own homes. So we have decided to sell our imperfectly-perfect little home. Our next adventure and our next home are waiting for us.

This is the story as it unfolds....

MOOD: Committed

LISTENING TO: Crave You, Flight Facilities

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle, and best at the end.”

— Robin Sharma