April is the 21st anniversary in our home…21 years! We moved around a lot in the first 18 years of our marriage, beginning in the typical apartment to starter home and moving on up from there. All in all we moved 8 times with a few temporary houses in between. We always built rather than buying something a little older and remodeling…Gregger always wanted to attempt that, but he never had time. Building from the ground up was difficult enough with his schedule, but somehow we made it work.
Our first big investment was in 1978 when we purchased a Suggs semi-custom in McCormick Ranch. It had the best of the 80’s…drab olive, burnt orange and horrific plaids! It was a huge stretch for our budget but we convinced our young 24-year old selves that it was going to be the best investment we ever made. We carefully selected carpet, cabinets, and all the trimmings making it our perfect first house and the perfect place to start our family. But…after 2 years, we were ready to move on, and ready to “add on.” This seemed to be our pattern for the next ten years. I think it was the years of “building fever.” It seemed that just as soon as we got settled somewhere we would sell and start from the ground up again. Along with the building “fever” came “baby fever” – our family had suddenly grown from two to five.
Once the kids started school we settled down a bit. They had neighborhood friends and, back in those days, they could play outside, ride their bikes, and pretty much come and go without much worry. The boys were getting extremely involved in sports, but starting to focus intensely on tennis. We were spending our weekends traveling from one tournament to the next and weekdays were consumed with lessons and drills. We thought it would be so great to have our own court where they could practice and play ALL the time, so the hunt was on! We broke ground sometime in the summer of 1993 and the house was finished just in time to debut for Ryan’s Bar Mitzvah in April 1994.
A House is Made of Bricks and Beams…A Home is Made of Hopes and Dreams
The memories behind these walls are priceless…so many changes over so little time. The kids have grown from youngsters and teens to adults. Gregger and I went from full-time parenting to empty nesters. Adam and Ashley were married. We became grandparents to two beautiful children. The parties…if walls could talk! We had so many wonderful parties for us, the kids, and friends. I walk from room to room, I look out the window, I hear the voices, I see the faces. It is heart wrenching to let it go. But it is time. It is just too much for me without the one person who made this a home. This was OUR HOME. All of the other places became houses once we moved here. Gregger and I talked about moving for a very long time. We were going to move closer to store to make his life easier, but we never did. We were going to remodel, update, do this or that. We never did. This was still OUR HOME. It was a place filled with so much love, so many memories, something no one will ever take away from me. But at some point I must walk away and start over somewhere else. It just is not the same without Gregger. It is quiet. It is empty. I miss the noise. I miss the laughter. I miss there being more than just me. But it is still, and always will be, my HOME.
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