After having their house on the market for what must seem like "forever" to them, my son and his wife finally sold their small, 3 bedroom ranch on a corner lot. The purchased a BIG, older home in midtown. It's a beauty! It has two living rooms, a dining room, a huge kitchen another room that I think was meant to be a parlor, and 4 large bedrooms upstairs. Complete with a large back yard, fenced, and a garage. It sits next to a house that burned beyond repair recently, and will be torn down in the near future. The kids have the first chance at buying the lot, which will make them on another nice corner lot. If they fence it, the little ones will have even more room to play.
Moving for them has been a trying experience. They have gobs of friends, all or most who said they would help with the move. They hired a moving company to move the house stuff and the garage was theirs to move. Well, first of all, most of the friends they counted on to help fizzled out on them. Secondly, the movers either misunderstood or just were being "butts" and refused to move the boxes; they moved only the heavy furniture. So, with the help of a few able bodies from our church, and the two of them, they have been using a U-Haul truck to move the rest. Imagine if you,will, two packrats, and 3 children who have almost every toy from Toys-r-Us, living in this tiny house. It was bursting at the seams. I don't know how many boxes of books alone the two adults have accumulated, but a gob lot, the way it looks. Plus, they both love to cook so they own a lot of cooking gadgets and kitchen stuff! Need I continue.
The two older children have been staying with the grandparents on the other side of town for the last few days. The baby has to stay close to Mommy because of frequent feeding times, but I did keep him for several hours yesterday afternoon and evening, with Mommy stopping and feeding and hauling him back and forth.
Tonight they hope to be done. I certainly hope they reach their goal. I feel guilty because I have not been able to help them because of my back and shoulder problems. I cannot lift and tug anymore. So keeping the baby was the best I could do and they seemed relieved that I took that on myself, at least for a few hours.
When they are all there, whether unpacked or not, it will be a relief to them. My son told me that he NEVER intends to move again, and he just turned 38 last week. We'll see how that goes for him! LOL! When I was his age, my wife and I had moved 3 times, and when I was 47, we moved where I live now. I told the kids that this is where I stay until my good friend, the local undertaker, takes me out one last time toes up!
Peace,
JE
4 comments:
After living here for 25 odd years, I told hubby that if he wants to move he better find someone that wants to buy this place lock, stock and barrell. Minus the personal stuff of course. That way we won't have to move furniture. Plus I could get all new. Win,win for me!
It sounds like a great house!! Part of me would love having an old house, but the problem with old houses is usually either it's "fixer-upper" and needs an enormous amount of work or it's in great shape because someone else did all the fixing-up but that has pushed the price through the roof (so to speak!) We don't have the energy for the fixing-up and we don't have the money for the "done" version. So, my wish to have a big old house with remain just that....a wish!
Mel,
Both of my kids were raised in a big old house from childhood on up until my son graduated HS. It was definitely a fixer upper, and believe me, I got real tired of the fixing up, and I was a lot younger. I know that's why my son yearned for a big older home, so his kids might experience that joy of having lots of space. There's has been well cared for, but will always need things done. They have big plans for redoing the kitchen (picture old aqua formica counters with the stainless steel edging there now, and knotty pine walls.) And they will have fun doing those things. I don't envy them the heating and cooling bills with 10 or 12 ft. ceilings, but they will manage. I think it's just what they need while the kids are growing.
We do what we can. I would be pretty useless at helping with a move.
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