The Little Things

It's funny how the prospect of moving on provokes you to start counting off the things you won't miss where you're currently at.  This happened when I moved off to college eleven years ago and when I considered moving to a different school a few years back, and it's happening now that I may or may not be buying a house.

I'll be glad not to occasionally get locked out of the house simply because the lock decides not to work.  I'll be glad not to have to mow the lawn anymore, or to endure neighbors' sharp glares when I don't mow it.  I'll be glad that my toilet doesn't ring when I flush it.  I'll be glad that my kitchen cabinets won't come off the hinges.  I'll be glad that my A/C doesn't make knocking sounds in the middle of the night.  I'll be glad not to be eaten by a thousand mosquitoes every time I walk out my back door.  In fact, I'll be glad that I won't have to walk out my back door as much because my washer and dryer will be inside of the house.

Of course, there will be plenty of new things that I don't even know about yet.  New houses (especially the ones that are actually really old) come with a host of quirks that one discovers over time.  "Quirks" may be understating it.  Hopefully "hugely inconvenient and expensive repairs" is overstating it.

As I start this slow parting of ways, my heart is a little torn.  Despite all these things I won't miss, there are plenty of things I will.  Most of all, I will miss the fact that every night when I pull into the driveway, walk up the stairs, enter the screen porch, and open the door, that I am home.  I have lived here in this house for the last three and a half years, and it has been more like home than any other place I've lived since I was seventeen.  I have had awesome years and tough years while living here, and it has always been my place of refuge, where I come back to when I need some quiet time.  I will miss that, but I know that having my own house--owning my own house--gives me the opportunity to create home somewhere new.  And to stay.

I have to remember, though, that just like when I considered switching jobs, that sometimes, a planned move doesn't pan out.  Sometimes you realize that where you're at is most likely better than where you considered going.  I have more than 30 days until closing on this house, a chinese drywall inspection to hope turns up negative, and a lot of negotiation to do in the next week.  By Friday, I should know whether or not this house is a go.  It won't be definite until I hand over that check on Halloween, but at least I'll know enough to start saying goodbye to this wonderful house, to my home.

Home at the "Jolly Wilson"
(Yep, we named our house)