We’re moving tomorrow. We’ve bought our dream house on a lake and are starting a new chapter. It’s 6:00 in the morning and I can’t sleep. I’m excited, happy, apprehensive and a little melancholy. So many emotions. We moved into this house in January of 1989. It was supposed to be a temporary move. We were married for three years and this was our third home. We had originally bought another home, one with a pool, but once we had it inspected we found it needed structural work and at the time we didn’t have boat loads of money to fix the issues. We settled on this home with the mindset that we were going to flip it. Ha! Three months after we moved in, I became pregnant with our first born and we never left.
There was a period of time when we looked at other houses. Ask my sister Denise, we looked at least 15 houses in her neighborhood. Nothing ever suited us. About 20 years ago, we decided to renovate our kitchen. Have you ever heard of the saying “might as well”? Renovating the kitchen turned into renovating the entire house - “might as well”. We made our house into our dream home, knocking down walls, adding on a master suite and a family room, it was everything we wanted.
One of the reasons we originally fell in love with this house was the backyard. We have an acre of land with spectacular views. Large evergreens, gardens, woods at the perimeter - pure serenity. We have watched Mother Nature at her best over the years. Each day there was always something to fill me with awe. From woodland animals to the landscape. Each season brought its own beauty. I think my favorite was when it snowed. I would look out and see the evergreens ladened in white and feel peace.
Beautiful nature isn’t the only reason I’m sad to leave, this house is where we created our family. All three of our children were born and raised here. All attended St. Regis which is literally right down the street. I worked there for 9 years, leaving when Riley graduated from 8th grade. Thirty-one years of precious memories. Birthdays, holiday gatherings, parties galore, watching my boys set “chipmunk traps”, playing outside when it snowed, diving into the massive leaf piles, having fires every Saturday and watching television as a family, nightly family meals around our kitchen table, witnessing my children grow into phenomenal adults. This house gave all of this to me. This temporary move became a lifetime of memories.
We’re not moving far, we’ll be 15 minutes away. I’ll admit I’ll miss my “corner”. Everyone has a “corner” - the place where you do your shopping. I’ve had Nino’s, Trader Joes, Plum, Kroger, CVS, Leo’s and Rite Aid all within a two minute drive. I won’t have that in my new home. I’ll have to find a new “corner” and create a new normal. There is some fear, fear of the unknown and new. But then the excitement comes in. Bob and I looked at each other last night and said - is this really happening? We’ve dreamed of this for so long. We’ve looked for three years, okay not consistently, cancer might have sidetracked us for a little bit, but actively searched for the last year and a half. There were many Sunday drives exploring different lakes. We had a patient realtor who showed us house after house. I saw the house we bought on zillow and originally thought nope. Then we were on the lake one day, motored past it and decided it was worth a look. We walked in and that was it, we’d found our home. We sold our existing home before the sign went up. It was meant to be.
So after packing up 31 years of living (130 boxes!) we are moving. We are saying goodbye to our home that gave us a wonderful life. A new family is moving in, they have a two year old and an infant. They are just beginning their journey, they will be creating their own memories. And we are moving on to the next chapter in our life. I’m sure there will be a few times when I turn to Bob and say “I want to go home” because change is scary. But I know it’s time for a new adventure, time to realize a new dream. There are new memories to create, new friends to make, a fresh start. Thank you 4027 Lincoln for everything you have given to us. We are forever grateful.