This old house

When we pulled into this driveway for the first time, I knew we were home. It was perfect. An acre of land, a creek in the back, an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere with stairs painted purple...purple fucking stairs! I distinctly remember grabbing my husband on the landing and fervently whispering "This is it. This is our fucking house."

It's not just a house, it was a home to the same family for 100 years. You can feel the weight of thousands of memories pressing into you from every side, and it's overwhelming at first. So much so that when B and I got drunk with his brother a few months after we moved in, his comments on the "energy" of the place had me convinced there were Paranormal Activity-type beings present who were going to eat our baby at 3:33 am or whenever the fuck the devil eats babies. I was legitimately afraid to be upstairs alone at night for weeks. In reality, I think he's right...but it's most definitely a good energy. 

Last winter, a pipe burst in the upstairs bathroom, ruining the ceiling and walls in two rooms downstairs.  Getting the house remodeled was a two month walking disaster that still makes my left eye twitch when I think about it. We learned our lesson, and the sink in said bathroom is stained yellow from the steady drip drip drip of running well water, because heating this leaky behemoth in the winter is a cluster fuck. Wood, fans, heaters, thermostats. (See blog "Eff you, Jack Frost" for details.)

The basement is disgusting and a bit moldy, and we caught no fewer than 7 mice down there in 3 days. The windows need replaced in nearly every room. The carpet needs replaced upstairs.  I'd like to murder the wallpaper in the living room. It's a bitch keeping up with the wood stove. I have a vendetta against the squirrel population. 

We love the apple trees. We loved letting our toddler run around stark naked last summer, far from the prying eyes of nosy neighbors. We embrace its awkward floor plan and the seven different doors that lead outside. When given the choice to repaint the stairs, I decided to keep them the exact same shade of eggplant purple.

We should have found a newer, more practical house that was closer to our jobs and our families...but it wouldn't have been our home.