Our house...
... in the middle of our street! Well actually we're not we're near the end going down the slope towards the shops. Anyway enough of this Madness... (get it!)
It was 20 years ago today Mrs F, myself and a wee 18 month old toddler that is somehow now the lanky bearded thing that is Son-of-Furtheron moved into the house we now live in... *fanfare in background*
I feel in love with our house the moment we walked into it - it ticked the boxes in terms of location, size, style etc. Only problem... Well there were a lot actually, someone had put some awful slatted wood up the side of the staircase, the wiring was a deathtrap (despite the previous owner claiming the multitude of additional sockets was a selling point), the back of the garage - well wasn't it was some old dividing internal doors someone had put there when they were no longer needed between the dining room and the lounge, the bathroom was awful - a deep blue suite, yes remember the 70s? Etc. etc. widows needed replacing etc. However there was just something that felt right about it. I'm glad I stuck with that gut feeling bought it and over the years did all that we needed to - by now actually there is little of the original house remaining other than the walls! New windows, front door, front garage door, new wall and door to rear of garage, new roof on the extension, new stair-rail, new heating and hot water system, new bathroom suite and retitled bathroom, all internal doors replaced, new kitchen installed, all electrics replaced...
However the one thing it has always been for me is home. That is disticntly different from "a house we currently live in". The kids have grown up in there, one has even now semi flown the coup to university and it'll not be long before he's fully gone, my daughter came home a little bundle in a blanket to that house, we've had kids parties, 21st parties, our 25th wedding anniversary, I had my final breakdown with the booze in the bedroom that my daughter now occupies and sobbed my heart out before going off to rehab etc. it has all those memories and more.
"Home is where the heart is and where the heart is there is home"
It was 20 years ago today Mrs F, myself and a wee 18 month old toddler that is somehow now the lanky bearded thing that is Son-of-Furtheron moved into the house we now live in... *fanfare in background*
I feel in love with our house the moment we walked into it - it ticked the boxes in terms of location, size, style etc. Only problem... Well there were a lot actually, someone had put some awful slatted wood up the side of the staircase, the wiring was a deathtrap (despite the previous owner claiming the multitude of additional sockets was a selling point), the back of the garage - well wasn't it was some old dividing internal doors someone had put there when they were no longer needed between the dining room and the lounge, the bathroom was awful - a deep blue suite, yes remember the 70s? Etc. etc. widows needed replacing etc. However there was just something that felt right about it. I'm glad I stuck with that gut feeling bought it and over the years did all that we needed to - by now actually there is little of the original house remaining other than the walls! New windows, front door, front garage door, new wall and door to rear of garage, new roof on the extension, new stair-rail, new heating and hot water system, new bathroom suite and retitled bathroom, all internal doors replaced, new kitchen installed, all electrics replaced...
However the one thing it has always been for me is home. That is disticntly different from "a house we currently live in". The kids have grown up in there, one has even now semi flown the coup to university and it'll not be long before he's fully gone, my daughter came home a little bundle in a blanket to that house, we've had kids parties, 21st parties, our 25th wedding anniversary, I had my final breakdown with the booze in the bedroom that my daughter now occupies and sobbed my heart out before going off to rehab etc. it has all those memories and more.
"Home is where the heart is and where the heart is there is home"
That sounds a great house, I hope you get to stay there for many more years :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is a very sweet post. I look at our older home and tend to focus on the things the previous owners did that I wouldn't have (paint over wallpaper?) but your approach makes much more sense. Thanks for the dose of gratitude.
ReplyDeleteNothin' like "owning your own".
ReplyDeleteI bought HBAG in 1994. It had just been remodeled to a contemporary style - light colors, etc., but the floor plan was EXACTLY what I was after.
Over the past 17 years, whenever I get in a "project state of mind", I tear something out, and revert it back to a 1970's Tavern style, lol !!
ONLY 3 ROOMS LEFT TO GO !
Well put F-Ron, we moved into where we are now as 3 of us - Mrs M, myself and the youngest (two at the time) from a one bedroomed flat. This terraced 3 bedroomer seemed like a palace at the time, but we soon outgrew it and filled it with clutter and another son.
ReplyDeleteBut we're still here, and 13 years ago I/we really wouldn't want to live anywhere else
Such a lovely post. A well loved home is just like a member of the family. It's a part of you. Congrats on this happy anniversary! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post. Sounds like a house full of love, loved ones, memories and experience.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way when I saw the house we bought. It was mine before I left when we first looked at it. Lots of things were wrong, but it was soooo right. It was 75-yrs-old when we moved in. It is now 109-yrs-old,falling down and I still love it.
ReplyDeleteThe 20-month-old girl learned from day 1 to negotiate stairs. The 5-yr-old girl and I fell up them, and the 9-yr-old boy jumped to touch the ceiling of the stairs, the second floor that was over the stairs.
The title of the post has me singing in my head.