This old house...

It's going to be very emotional for me to sell this house. This is our first real house. Judah was born here. Literally. Right here on this very spot on the living room floor. I have poured my heart and soul into reclaiming this place from the hell-hole to which it had sunk under it's previous owners. And it's CUTE. It's a super cute house. It has a big front porch, roses growing up the front, a wood stove, wood floors and a blue and white kitchen. It's tiny, but well-laid out with nine-foot ceilings that make it seem bigger than it really is and keep it surprisingly cool in the summer. It's like a little European cottage-- complete with an herb garden and fish pond out back.

Perhaps I shouldn't worry about who will live here after we move, but I can't help it. We've lived here so happily for so long, and so much of what this house is now is also uniquely Us, it seems almost like inviting strangers to live with Us. Live here and judge us. Because, in addition to all it's cuteness, this house is also... hmmm... Well, there's almost no closet space, only half the windows have been replaced, the painting is perpetually unfinished, the bathroom remodeling died out about $500o short of finished and there are only two small bedrooms. But there's a blue and white kitchen! With plates on the walls over the cabinets.

I'm worried that some set of careless college students looking for a place to store their beer will end up here. They'll scuff up my floors, ground out their cigarettes in my flower beds and scrawl graffiti on my beautifully glazed walls.

Or maybe some modern, childless Artists will move in and frown upon the wood stove and cozy cottage feel, and will paint black and white stripes over my blue glaze and tear off my toille wallpaper. They'll rip up my roses and plant... exotic grasses, or something.

But maybe, just maybe (please, God...) A nice young couple with a baby on the way will find our house. They'll keep the swings up and add a slide and a sandbox. They'll put up a toy shelf in my old studio and fill the woodbox up. They settle into this cozy cottage and in the spring they might paint the back bedroom pink, or blue, and buy a rocker for the porch.

They might even have a rich relative willing to help them pay our asking price!