9 weeks ago tomorrow, we moved into our split-level home, with the help of a fabulous crew of humans.
I can hardly believe that 9 weeks ago, I woke up in my townhome. I lived there for almost 7 years, how am I not there anymore? It also feels like we've been in the house for a while now too. Such is any change in life, we can hardly comprehend it's arrival, then it's gone and hardly a thought that passes through our minds.
I could write another book (these imaginary books I'm referring to would be really boring, by the way, and I'm not confident in my comma usage, so book-writing is something I don't see happening for me) on the topic of my townhome, which I love. But let's focus on the house.
Things I new I would love, but love all the more now that they are a reality:
1. The walk from the kitchen to the outside garbage is about 1/20th of the distance it was at the townhome, maybe even 1/30th. Sometimes, I take recyclables out there three, four times a day. It used to be that old stinky garbage bags, boxes, plastic containers would build up over days. Finally, while the kids napped (or I'd have to take them with me), I'd load up the wagon and wheel my garbage down a city block to the garbage corral. Add in the endless MN winter and you can imagine the physical struggle. I've never been more excited to pay for anything in my like than I am to pay for garbage removal. However.......I never thought a garbage corral would have any perks, but sometimes, when you have like 50 boxes from moving, it's nice to be able to throw them all in at once!
2. I can drive my car into my garage, open the trunk, and take my groceries up 8 steps to the kitchen. I don't have to wait for the kids to nap, get the trusty wagon out and make 3 trips up and down the side walk to get my groceries in to the 4X4 foyer of the townhome. Again, throw in MN winter and it just makes it all the more sweeter to have an attached garage.
3. Space. Just room to be and move and live. We don't even use the downstairs family room, days go by without even entering it. But for each child to have their own room and for us to have our bedroom floor back, and for a living space with room to breathe, ahhhh, it's just the best. Nothing is decorated. I'd rather create a new family budget than figure out what to do with a giant blank wall. The downstairs has no furniture. I had to call my dad to come help put up a small shelf. It doesn't matter though. The space is so fantastic! Someday it'll be more put together, but for now it's clean, organized, and spacious! The first thing Chris and Audrey did was create a game called 'Dog-Catcher'. She is the loose dog and he is the catcher. Do you think we had room to play dog-catcher at the townhome....no, we did not.
4. A yard, oh a precious yard! Our area of grass at the townhome was probably like 12X6 feet. We specifically told our realtor, 'Don't even bother if the yard isn't usable, if there's a hill, it's not for us.' When we saw our house online for the first time, we thought it looked great, but we couldn't see the backyard from the pictures. We were anxious to get here and check out the yard, because after all the extensive searching we did, we could tell from pictures that this house could be it.....but how was the yard? When we got here with our realtor, all I did was run in, up the steps, through the kitchen, and out the deck door to see the yard. "The back yard is flat Chris!!!!!!.....Sylvia (our realtor), we'll take it!" Seriously, if we were gonna have a yard, we were gonna be able to use it. I love it. I love that within a few days we had a beautiful new swing set from my parents, a pool set up and neighbors already over to play. I know Chris and I both felt it, when we saw Audrey run and play and swim and giggle with new friends, a feeling of, 'yesssssss, this is what all the effort was for, she is freeeeeeeeeee!' I also love how Chris has taken an interest in the yard. He's been weed killing, trimming, seeding, and mowing. Things I'm interested in for sure, but would never find the time to do. He's doing a great job with it. And bonus, we got a $10 mower at a garage sale that is like new.
5. A sense of settledness. I know that's not a word. We now feel like we have a place to be. We still like to eat out, go places, and visit people. But now, after supper, the first thing on our minds is not, 'what on earth are we doing to do tonight, were can we go?' Now we're just more content to be home. Audrey can go play with the neighbors, we can sit outside and play with Carson, and play pretend basketball (no hoop yet). There are just more options, it feels open and bright and spacious. We have endless great memories of the townhome and the silly things we did there with the kids. The games we played in the small living room; the dance parties after supper. But it got small and dark and boring rather quickly.
I hope I don't come off as spoiled. As if our townhome life was this horrible existence and now we finally got what we deserve. I realize I deserve nothing, but we worked and dreamed for something a bit more for our family of four. We were really quite trapped there at the townhome (that's another book and it features topics like housing bubble burst and Fannie Mae and 'how on earth did this happen to us') and the only way out was renting it, so that's what we finally did. So actually, we own two homes. I sometimes forget that now. After a really trying 2012/2013 in which I spent more hours on the phone than not, we finally made the move.
I prayed (and prayed and prayed and prayed) that God would give us the desire of our hearts to make a home for our kids that they could flourish in, not because we deserved it, but because it was only silly things out of our control holding us back. And He did and we are so thrilled and grateful.
