Our House

After my son graduated from college and had packed up to move into his first apartment, we were sitting on the sofa talking. From out of the blue he said, “You know, this is really the only home I have ever known.” He was almost twenty-two and we had moved in just before his fifth birthday. Seventeen years in the same house. I hadn’t thought about it. That was two years ago and so this summer we celebrate nineteen years in our home. Where has the time gone?

In the fall of 1990, we began searching for our dream home, but my husband and I were dreaming of different things! I was dreaming of raising our children on a small farm with a restored old farmhouse. Unfortunately, everything we found that was already restored had a price tag that was way beyond what we could have afforded. My husband was dreaming of a house with no maintenance. The compromise was a four acre lot in the southwest corner of the county and a house that was partially under construction.

Since the house was not yet finished, we were able to make some adjustments to the design to make it more compatible with our lifestyle. We moved in the day before settlement which was scheduled for June 1, 1990. It felt so good to be settled. We were in our home-the place where we would establish our family traditions and raise our children. Our daughter was eight years old and our son was four. The thought of their growing up and leaving home never crossed my mind. That was a lifetime away.

We spent our first summer planting grass and trying to establish things like a lawn and flower beds. My kids discovered that their favorite place to play was at the stream near the end of our lot. They made friends with the neighbors and I painted rooms and hung curtains. Eventually, we began adding things to the house like a deck and patio. Years later a fenced yard and a barn for the horses my daughter and I had always dreamed of having.

The grass took root as did some small trees. The bulbs I had so carefully planted that first year continued to produce beautiful flowers each year. Summer, fall, winter and spring each held household traditions. Summer was for play and for swimming. Fall was back to school and Halloween. Winter brought snow storms and snow days. And every spring our little place on earth sprouted bright green once again.

There were happy days and sad days, busy days and lazy days. The trees and the flowers grew, and so did my children. When they left for college, I wondered how the time had gone by so quickly. The house changed. It had more quiet times. There were still those bursts of activity and noise each holiday break and summer vacation, but the quiet days became more frequent.

Today as I sip my coffee and look out at our property, the tall trees shade the backyard. My flower beds are beaming with brilliant color. The lawn is a beautiful lush green and well trimmed, the way my husband likes it. The house is quiet except for the thumping of the tail of a very contented dog. And I wonder where all that time went.

This post appeared in my column "The Empty Nest" in the Frederick News Post on Sunday July 4, 2010.