New life, new town: let the countdown begin
Our house is starting to feel claustrophobic.
Boxes are piled up along walls, so it’s as if the rooms are shrinking. Clearance around tables and beds and dog kennels and computers is just wide enough to walk (or, in Lucy’s case, toddle) through.
The countdown has begun. Just five days until Ajax becomes another pinhead on our ‘where we lived’ map and we start a new life in a new town.
I regret not taking photos of this place before it became a chaotic mess of cardboard boxes. More telling would have been before we listed it, even. But there’s no sense mourning what can’t be changed now. Now we have our memories: game nights, family barbeques, emotional pregnancy breakdowns, driving the porcelain bus after some wild nights, six giant paint jobs, Eric finding hobby bliss in model airplanes again, and breaking in my green thumb.
And oh, what family joy and trauma these walls house. This was our first home after (and, ahem, before) we got married. Spencer’s first fenced yard. Lucy was conceived here. Eric and I earned our Newborn Parent badges pacing these hallways with Lucy in our arms.
Last night I was washing dishes at the kitchen sink, and a flicker behind me drew my eyes to the hallway near the bathroom. The spot where Lucy took her first steps, the length of hardwood where Spencer would run between Eric and I in glee, the 11 steps from front door to kitchen tread so many times laden with groceries.
I’ll miss our neighbours, the acquaintances we met while touring the streets first with Spencer then with Lucy, too.
But I don’t feel sad. Not yet, anyways. The enormity of moving is surpressing the emotional attachment I know I have to this house. The same thing happened when we left our condo in downtown Toronto four years ago: I was fine until it was empty and echoing and I realized the next time I slipped the key in the door would be the last.
Here there are more memories and it will be harder. But our Forever House beckons with its huge yard and ample space and promises of love and life and laughter.
Soon.
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There are currently 4 responses
What is it they say? When one door closes…another opens.
We have moved 3 times in our 24 yrs together so I know what you mean about the last time you lock the door. You close the door on so many memories. Thankfully there are many more beautiful memories to be made in your new home.
Enjoy~
Hi Carly,
We just celebrated our first anniversary being in a new home, new city and new province. I too remember very well packing up our belongings at our old place last year – it was where we too had many firsts: first mortgage, first pet, first garden, first baby – I thought I would be an emotional wreck when it came time to say good-bye, but I actually wasn’t. There was so much to look forward to at the new place – particularily a heck of a lot more square footage and a larger yard – that it wasn’t that hard to say good-bye. And I can honestly say that a day has not passed by that I wished I was back in that tiny, tiny cramped house. Hopefully you will have the same experience with your new home. Congrats and good luck with the move. I hope it all goes smoothly.
Thanks, Angie!
I do wish you were still here, though : (
I hear ya… we are moving on Friday and my house is packed with oodles of boxes!! Here at work today I realized that I packed my good sandals already and the only ones that matched my outfit today with $6.99 Old Navy flip flops… oh well…
Luckily I don’t have to change day cares for Jackson but I did register him for Junior kindergarten… wait until that day comes for Lucy! WOW!!
I too will miss the first home that I lived in with my son, shared special moments with him, and supported myself in.
But it had a tie to it that I would rather forget, so fo rnow it’s on to greener pastures!! ..and I cannot wait!!!