DIMUENDO
Our house has outgrown us!
It's the second time such thing has happened to us. The house in which we have lived for the past ten years, a modern rancher, has become too much . Houses do that, you know. We lived in an on old 1895 farmhouse, with a selection of out-buildings all-round, before moving here. I lived there thirty-four years without a disagreeable word with neighbors on either side or across the road, which was a vacant field.
But, the house changed.
Houses will do that, you know. What seems just right - something to “grow into” serves well and then, suddenly, you realize it has become too large for you. We came to find that to properly manage a twelve room frame house, a barn, chicken sheds, three garages, a grain storage room, another hang cured meats, a shop, a wash house - took more time and effort as we went along. We got out from under all thirty-three acres of the place and moved to a smaller house on the edge of our small Virginia town .
It, too, has served us well, with only nineteen trees and a smaller yard to mow and rake, but now that we are getting older we find we don't use much of it. A much smaller yard to mow and rake. Only nineteen trees. We either can't or don't use some of the features we have enjoyed. Since I had an encounter with some major surgery, and had to stop driving. We no longer needed a two-car garage. It's easy enough to pass a '69 Chevy Pick-Up along to a grandson, but what do you do with a left-over garage? It takes care of itself, I find, and automatically fills up with furniture and an astonished array of someone's “collectibles.” It doesn't take long for them to fill every square foot of garage space and on top of work tables as well. It covered the work tables as well, like Kudzu ivy.. We have trouble fitting just one car in. With sliding doors, it works well, but not with doors that open outward.
There were twelve steps down the basement... a long recreation room with pool table,. Sofas,.chairs, and entertainment. There was a second kitchen in the back room, plus a hobby area and lots of storage shelves. That quickly turns into an “attic”in the:basement, as any honest rat-packer will tell, At the far end of the rec room there is a “multiple purpose” room which, technically, cannot be termed as a “bedroom” because it does not have properly sized windows. It became a sewing room, with a double bed, a dresser, chest and other such furnishings. The big closest became what I called a “piece goods supply house” feeding the sewing machine. The paneled walls were fitted with shelves and bookcases, with books, on all sides except the north end which was hogged up by the brick fireplace Through a utility room, one entered the garage area.
We are looking forward to a smaller house - small yard, no basement, no garden, three trees, no attic, three small trees and about thirty feet of snow-area between the garage door and the street in snow time.
So, another house has outgrown us. I can honestly say that I don't want to go. I didn't want to leave the old farmhouse, either, but we have a specific house nearby in mind and are prepared to make the change.
We now have to build a new “home” in that next “house.”
I'll let you know the new address when we get moved.
A.L.M. March 12, 2003 [c610ds]
