Who leaves Easy Street?
Easy Street…it was fun having an address there. And since joining forces with my hubby and becoming a Mom…I found that we quickly out grew that house and since then we have moved into a much bigger house relatively close by. We had work to do…to get Easy Street ready to sell, but we finally did and we put it on the market last fall. We had no real action for months and months…we chalked it up to the economy and running into cold weather. However with that house payment and double utilities, two yards and two gardens to maintain along with all our other responsibilities, it’s been a drain. Still, I love my little house on Easy Street. Well we just sold it, and are now waiting on closing. So I go from the stress of not selling it to the emotions I have at selling it. Please indulge me as I emote…
I remember looking at the house for the first time. It was such a grand step up for me and my late husband. It was the best house ever and we couldn’t believe we could swing it. I started redecorating it right away before we even moved in, to which my late husband just shook his head in wonder, disbelief and confusion. He was a guy, he didn’t get it. I remember us toasting a cheer in the middle of the dining room floor in this totally empty house celebrating our accomplishment! He unfortunately only got to live in that house with me for about a year and a half, all in bad health, then he passed away. My German Shepard and me threw ourselves into tending that house. We added eight flower garden areas, I learned most of what I know about gardening during that time, from e dear friend. I had disposable income then that I poured into the house, making it my own and just the way I wanted it. I coasted by that way for years. Then came the next chapter in the life of Easy Street…..
Once my husband and I met, he and the kids started to spend quite a good bit of time at my place. It breathed life back into the house. We’d sit together legs entwined watching tv…or play outside…once we decided to get married, we knew that of the two houses it made more sense for us to live in mine, because it was bigger and also because of my attachment to the house. Besides, who wouldn’t want to live on Easy Street, right? We were engaged for a year, but as soon as school let out that summer before we married, they all moved in. I talk about that in a previous post “they’re moving in”. From that point forward I look back and we made so many memories there. So many firsts. First girlfriends, first boyfriends, first hickeys. My husband coming to grips with the girls getting their periods. First jobs, first lost jobs, first drivers license, first wrecked car, first ticket. We’d make smores in the fireplace and eat watermelon outside and spit seeds. We fought over hot water for showers…argued about the fact that you’re supposed to wear jackets when it’s 15 degrees outside and over what the girls were NOT going to wear that day. We lost two pets…thought we’d lost two more. We went through two sets of braces…countless flu bugs all taking turns taking care of each other. We had a number of Christmases here, with our gigantuan Christmas tree stuffed into the front room. We played trivia during dinnertime. We had our first dances, first crushes and no doubt first kisses too.
We got married and came home to this house to start our new life together. We had family holiday dinners and trick or treaters galore. We erected a giant basketball goal so the kids could play. My husband made several improvements to the house, things he designed and built. We lost several crops of tomatoes, fought the rabbits every year for the strawberries. We had our one and only pregnancy in this house and brought our baby home to this house. He had his first danged near everything I this house. Now he runs through it as it’s empty and we show it and says…Mom this is really a cool house, can it be ours?
When my husband proposed to me my thoughts were…yeah… I’m so happy and then, I don’t want to leave my house. Once the baby was almost here, I could see the writing on the wall though. The kids were getting older and were constantly wanting to have friends over….they all had tiny bedrooms…not much space at all and we were just sitting on top of each other as it was. Once we knew we were expecting the little one, we knew we had no room for a nursery so the baby bed was in our room. The baby came with stuff. Swings, bouncers, walkers, play pens etc., it was crowded for sure and only going to get worse. That’s when we began planning to make a change.
We ended up moving and starting the long drawn out process of getting Easy Street ready to sell. We had a final sale of items we needed to part with. It was an absolute carnival! We did a lot of cleaning, patching, painting, mending and finally put her on the market. So we went through all that. Then we began to wait for the occasional call…not much action. But then again people don’t look much during fall and certainly winter, we began to get some action, had a pipe burst through the ceiling…repair! Got into the upkeep of two yards, two sets of gardens…open houses…it was really taking it’s toll both financially and physically. Neither one of us was saying it out loud to the other one but we were both really concerned that this house wasn’t going to sell anytime soon. The activity picked up as we swung into summer. And then, it happened. She called. The houses on either side of ours were up for sale too. We knew one had sold already and the other one we knew wasn’t as nice as ours. She called my husband and said, tomorrow I will be buying a house on Easy Street. Maybe it will be yours, maybe it will be your neighbors…but I won’t leave town without buying one. My husband asked..when can we show it to you? This lady called on a Friday, looked at the house with her rep the next morning. By that afternoon she had a signed offer delivered to our house, we countered that evening, she accepted the next morning. We signed paperwork that day, she began her inspections that next day, she meant business. This morning we signed at the title company. She wants to close and take possession at the end of this month. We are giddy, our heads are spinning and now…I shift from fear it wouldn’t sell to mourning it’s loss. That’s just me. I am actually so happy there will be a little family in this house again. It deserves someone in it who will take care of it, and have good times in it again. So as this lady moves on to Easy Street we say goodbye. I take comfort in that I took care of her. I left her better than when I found her and left a little of my family behind…and we will always have her with us as a place near and dear to us …where we ended and where we began!
Lessons learned
It’s ok to personify your home. Its ok to be sad when you move.
Home is where you are..it’s the people in your life and what you do together that really matters.
Memories stay with you…no one can take them away from you no matter where you go.
You have to move forward….even if it is painful or scary…you have to move forward. And it’ll be ok.
Good stepmom
