1. List 5 things you love about your home.
I think I complain a lot about my home because it’s messy and I find I have an impossible time keeping up with the mess. The problem is that I might clean up very nicely on Monday, but do you know that come Tuesday I have to clean it all over again? And so on and so forth? I prefer to celebrate the good job I did cleaning on Monday and then have it stay clean for a month or so before I’m required to tackle the job again.
But in this sick game of adulting I am required to upkeep the cleaning I did every. single. day. And all day long. I was being generous by saying the house is messy again by Tuesday. The house is actually messy again an hour after I have declared it clean. I wish the problem just stopped at the cleaning aspect, but no. Things break in this house. I have cracked walls caused by years of running a home daycare and allowing kids to roller skate and throw balls and what not. One of my kids tried swinging from a towel rack upstairs. It ripped from the wall and was never repaired. The sliding pantry door is unhinged, my hardwood floors are destroyed, and everything is outdated.
Today I offered Pat the option of just selling our house, pay off debt with the equity and then go live in my mom’s basement. He was thrilled with the idea! I don’t think we need to tell my Mom. We’ll just show up in the driveaway unexpected with our luggage and surprise her.
All that being said, I do love our house. I love:
1. The People And Pets In It (Usually)
I love that our home has been filled with humans and pets. From every Greyhound and foster kitten to dozens of daycare kids and of course all of the permanent residents together have made this house a home. There is always a wagging tail and a laughing child to be had and I will always love that.
2. Space
I’m not sure that Pat and I knew 18 years ago when we purchased this home, that we would be in it forever. I’m glad we chose something that was too big for us back then, because now with three kids and various litters of kittens, we do manage to fill it right up!
3. Location Location Location
If I could have a do-over, I might prefer a rambler on a larger piece of property sort of tucked away. I like the feeling of living in the country without actually being in the country and I think stairs are entirely overrated. We live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood where all the houses look the same on smaller plots of land. While that’s not my favorite, I do love that our kids have grown up with a neighborhood full of friends to ride bikes with like the old days.
4. When It’s Clean It’s Pretty
That Monday clean job DOES look awfully nice!
5. It’s a Forever Home
Despite my grand plan to move in with my Mom, I actually love the idea of growing old in this house. I told my kids that I will forever memorialize their bedrooms. I will keep the decor exactly as it is when they leave for college. They will always have a room to come home to and if they ever have kids I am determined to be a primary cargiver if they need one. They will sleep in their parents room and I will LOVE reliving my baby-raising days with mini versions of my own kids.
There is still a lot of life left to live in this house and that’s so exciting to me! I just don’t want to clean it.
Now it’s your turn!
Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back to add your name to the link list below. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!
The Prompts:
1. List 5 things you love about your home.
2. Write about the last thing you purchased on Amazon.
3. Share the mose recent book(s) you read. What’s next on your to-read list?
4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: unexpected.
5. What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you fulfill that dream in any capacity?
6. Pick up your phone, tell us about the last text exchange you had.
7. If you could have given yourself a snapshot five years ago of what your life is like now, what would the picture be of and how do you think you would have felt about it?
Cathy Kennedy says
Kat,
I love your list! Unfortunately we did not think big when we bought this place more than 40 years ago. Now with retirement facing us we are actively looking for a new place that’s bigger to not only accommodate what we have stashed in every nook and cranny, we need the extra room for our adult children, their significant others, and a granddaughter. If I could go back in time, this is one thing I’d tell myself to keep in mind even though way back then neither of us had a desire to be parents but things have a way of changing. Have a terrific day!
Mama Kat says
Have you considered adding on to your current home or converting a garage to living space? Maybe stick a tiny house out back for a small family to live in when they visit. Or do you have people moving back full time? It’s a shame you’d have to leave an otherwise perfect (and paid off) location!
John Holton says
Mary’s not fond of cleaning, either. Nor am I, for that matter… It’s nice to have a place you can call “home” and really mean it, isn’t it?
Do you get calls and text messages from realtors who want to sell your house?
Mama Kat says
At least it’s just the two of you to clean up after. No guessing “who made this mess?” I’m hoping when it’s just me and Pat in the house I won’t struggle to manage it so much, but then of course I’ll be missing all the kids at home. It’s a lose lose! ;) No real estate agents call to sell our house. Kind of surprising considering the market is really in need of sellers right now! I’d be tempted if it wasn’t so much work and if I wasn’t already attached to the idea of growing old here. Financially it would be a smart move for us!