Letting Go of Old Things.

We have decided to sell our house and buy one here on the hill. Our lease on the townhouse is up in August, so we have to get the house sold, and one bought between now and then. We have had offers on our house. It’s in a prime location and the lot is huge. So, I think once we actually put the for sale sign out, it will go quickly. It’s just that I bought that house before the accident. I worked two jobs and saved like crazy and paid half of the money down. It was an old house and in a rural town and the market price was 20000 dollars. It has three bedrooms, a kitchen, a huge bathroom, and huge living room, and a kitchen d/room combination, there is a walk in closet in the hallway that was a bathroom and can easily be converted into a small bathroom. The house is old, solid wood, I know, because I watched as they cut into the wall to open the space between the living room and the little hallway. There isn’t one place in that house where you can’t nail into wood, except in the bathroom, it’s new and while it has a lot of wood; it also has gaps, where the sheetrock covers it, like houses today. The house appraised at 50000 dollars the last time we had it appraised. We are going to ask 40000.

I remember the first night in the house. I bought it, got the keys, and my children and I camped out in the living room without electricity, water, or gas. I filled an ice chest with lunch meat and milk and cokes and we had candles. That first night in our new house, I told them about the old house I grew up in, and how old houses can be made special. It was the first old house they had ever lived in and they were scared. But then, outside my son’s bedroom window were mimosa trees and the leaves looked like ferns and he said it made him feel like he lived in a tropical place. My daughter had huge flowery bushes outside her window and she opened the window and the smell of spice filled her room, and she said it made her feel like she was in a fairy tale with all the flowers and the way the old windows were big and allowed in so much light. I took the smaller bedroom, but it also had six windows, just right for me.

Two nights after we moved in and had all our utilities turned on, and we were unpacked, I made celebratory feasts. The children invited over their friends and we watched movies and ate and for the first time in almost a decade, we felt like we belonged. The house became ours and it was as if it had been built and was waiting on us. Even our dog and cat fit right in and claimed the yard as theirs.

Last night, I told my son that I was selling; he said he felt like it needed to stay in our family and he wished he could buy it. While the idea is noble, he is too young to be tied down to an old house. I reminded him about college and his future and how an old house can drain you. He agreed, plus, he is transferring up here for a degree in architecture or something like that, and he would live here and pay a house payment, not wise. So, hopefully by the end of summer, I will own a new old house and some sweet family will be living in my old house. I hope they have a dog and cat and their children have lots of friends, that’s what the house is accustomed to, lots of laughter and lots of youth.