Our House...

 ...is a very special house! Great lyrics and appropriate for our first home.

A new home isn't an easy decision to make. In our case the decision was a lot easier than the hunt!

Through work, Grace new someone that was a realtor. We contacted her and got together for a sit-down. our wants were fairly basic, something not requiring huge amounts of remodeling and ready to move into. The rest negotiable. So began the trek.

The short sweet version of this is, "not gonna happen"! Agent a very "sit-down" type of gal...she sits, we hunt! So on that premise we went off  on our own. Week-end after week-end, neighborhood by neighborhood we searched. "For sale", notes taken, calls made, MLS checked and houses visited. No sale!

This routine was our weekend vigil for a few months, until totally depressed I spy another "open house" sign. We turn down the street and the first thing we see is a huge bluff at the end. The street dead-ends against the Lynn Woods. Impressive. Another turn and we are in front of a cute little cottage with a wrap around porch. Mission complete! We are home!We were married on that front porch!

Naturally the "sit-down " gal now wants to split the commission. We let the selling agent deal with that and finalized the deal.

Before leaving, many years later for Rome, that little house was the hub of our universe. Parties, celebrations, holidays, beers on the front porch we enjoyed our place. Nice neighborhood, new friends it was a joy.

It was where Grace and I started our annual tree trimming party that first Christmas. Not very big that first year, but it grew! Now the number of attendees is in the thirties. I can remember the look on Ricks' face when we gave him our first Flamingo...he has a small fetish! The kids running room to room, up and down the stairs, dragging poor 'Raz. Easter egg hunts in the back yard, even my brother Tom was involved. One other memory was just how much stuff we had accumulated when the time to move on came.The warm spot in our hearts is a lasting memory also.

This year we are a long way from that little cottage and a lot warmer. But the tree trimming party wasn't as much fun . Grace was knocked flat by a lung infection, so her sisters and I ended up decorating the tree while the Doctors and nurses tended to Grace. Well, there's always next year!