Where It All Began

Ken and I moved to Maine in May of 1978.  I had visited the state three times before we moved here, and while I was delighted with my new home state I wanted a home to call my own.  I casually started looking at houses in July, and then we got serious and started checking out neighborhoods.  It wasn't long before we found the perfect house, as in we walked into the kitchen and knew it was the one.  We moved in the first weekend in October, less than five months after we moved to Maine.

Over the years we painted and papered, remodeled and repurposed.  I knew every inch of the house because in one way or another I had had my hands on every wall, ceiling, and floor.  The house changed as our family grew.  We would briefly consider moving and then decide there really was no reason to - we liked our home and the neighborhood.  The house was a big part of where our life began as a family.

We lived there for 29 years.  Our move to our current home wasn't as much a decision as it was a series of circumstances that lined up and worked out just right.  We started looking at real estate on a lark and by chance found the next perfect house for us, as in we walked in and fell in love with the place.  It was February 2007, the same month our daughter found out she would be moving back to do her residency just a mile from where she grew up.  She wanted to buy our house, and a local bank worked with her to do just that.  The house has taken care of her just like it took care of our family all those years.

Our daughter has lived there for 7 years.  She would rather not leave the house or the neighborhood, but her current job is located 80 miles away, that's 800 miles on the road every week.  She looked at houses in communities a more reasonable distance from work but didn't find anything that fit the bill.

Or didn't until Tuesday May 27.  Out of curiosity she and I took a look at a couple houses in a planned community less than an hour from her job.  Bingo.  Thursday that week she talked to a realtor about putting her house on the market, and he thought it had a good chance of selling if she could get it ready as soon as possible, like in two weeks.

Remember when I wrote here that life was good but busy busy?  That's because the Wednesday between the Tuesday of-the-looking and the Thursday of-the-decision-to-sell was the day I got the call for a job interview for the following Tuesday.  Why not have an interview in the midst of helping my daughter get her house ready to sell?

Tuesday evening after the interview was when I took myself to the movies.  It was the calmest two hours I have had in the last two weeks.

Yes, it's only been two weeks.  We worked hard and we got it done.  As of yesterday, exactly two weeks after the realtor's visit, my daughter's house was listed for sale.  In the words of a friend who looked at the listing online, the house looks clean, refreshing, bright, light, and organized.  High praise indeed.

This hasn't been an easy decision for my daughter.  The neighbors are friends who have known her her entire life.  It's hard to think about not having a connection to a place we've loved for 36 years.  It's also exciting to think about her having a place that's all her own where she makes new memories.

My daughter said it was okay for me to share what's been going on.  We hope the next announcement will be that someone walked into her kitchen and knew it is the perfect house for them....