A few days ago marked an anniversary. Very Excellent Husband Don and I have owned our house for 25 years. No, really. Who has lived in the same house for 25 years? We’re like dinosaurs.
Long story short – Don and I met and married in Colorado, Soon after we married, we moved to New Jersey. Soon after we arrived in New Jersey, I realized I really, really, REALLY did not want to live there. Additionally, to seal the deal, we were going to have a baby. Not an East Coast baby. A Westerner – knew it in my soul. We needed to go home. We flew back to Colorado for a house hunting trip.
This house was the last place we looked at – we probably wouldn’t have taken the time except it was on the way to the airport. It was ugly, small, outside the city limits and good grief what were we going to do with an acre of land?
First impression – where’s the house? The front yard was bigger than most of the entire lots of the city houses.
We’ve put in new trees almost every year. There IS a house in there somewhere.
Yet something about this house spoke to us. We both heard it. We looked past the ugly interior and saw family and friends around a dining room table. That big flat lawn was screaming for kids swinging on a playset and jumping on a trampoline. We put in an offer, got on the plane to head back to New Jersey for the LAST TIME. Don tried to draw the floor plan on the little cocktail napkin. We could barely remember what it looked like.
We bought this? Really? What were we thinking?
Not perfect. But comfortable, like a favorite pair of jeans.
We paid what seemed like millions and now seems like nothing. We hired a friend to be our architect and another to be our contractor. As my belly grew larger, we were reduced to living in one tiny bedroom. No kitchen. Barely functioning bathroom. (Did I mention I was pregnant?)
We told our friend the contractor he needed to finish before the baby came. Excellent Daughter Libby came three weeks early. We came home to construction dust and put that beautiful girl in a cradle my dad made. She didn’t seem to mind the finish carpenter working around her.
Fast forward through two more babies being put into that same cradle. Then first steps, first days of kindergarten, riding bicycles, skinned knees, popsicles on the patio, always a house full of kids and friends. Then all of a sudden a high school graduation party for our youngest, Excellent Son Sawyer. It all happened in this one place in the blink of an eye. Blink. Of. An. Eye.
This little outbuilding was soon dubbed “The Hotel”.
It’s been an office, a bedroom, a playhouse for the kids and a guest room!
The house and the acre, through all of this, loved us. Loved our friends, loved our family. We remodeled and landscaped. We buried pets under big trees. We camped in the backyard. We sat by the firepit on warm summer nights. We threw parties – big parties. At my 50th birthday party, I danced on my dining room table. (I briefly thought about including that photo. Very briefly.)
Sometimes I think I can feel the house smile.
I got a wild hair and decided I needed some chickens. We built a coop. Then came the pig and the goat and more chickens and more goats and a bigger barnyard and this blog.
Were there visions of farm animals dancing in my head 25 years ago?
Happy animals live there now!
I have a hard time separating this house and this yard from who I am.
So happy anniversary, house. Thank you for being the backbone for the best 25 years any girl could ever ask for.
(Shared at From The Farm Hop, Old-Fashioned Friday, Simple Lives Thursday, HomeAcre Hop, Down Home Hop, Maple Hill Hop, Tuesdays With A Twist, Backyard Farming Connection, Homestead Barn Hop, Clever Chicks Hop, Heritage Homesteaders Hop and Simple Saturdays)
Lovely post – so much beauty and happiness on one acre. My husband and I also live on one acre (in Southern California so definitely not green and lush!) but I just can’t see ever going back to live on anything smaller – at least not for a very long time.
Great post, Joan! You’re an inspiration!
You need to update your “About” page now – 25 full years in the house! ( I remember my early years there, playing in the sandbox, the “wall o’ art,” the trampoline…)
Done! And yes, your family and our long friendship is a part of this place, too. One more reason to smile 🙂
I believe we originally referred to the place as “Ranchita Velveeta” given the watered down yellow-orange color when we moved in. It has since been gray, green and blue on the outside I think, but it has always been home. The inside has had walls pushed this way and that to accommodate the needs of our ever-changing life including the ability for the boys to run, bicycle or skateboard the kitchen and dining room traffic loop. And I still have the “5 Year Plan” for our landscaping, most of which never happened. So much for plans, better sometimes to just take it day by day.
We done good, my love.
Joan I love all of your post, we must be kindred spirits. We too have lived in our home for an eternity; 27 yrs. now. We’ve not only lived in the same house forever but we have managed to stay married too. That seems to be a dinosaur’ish as well. Our houses are a lot like us, they grow and change with us as the years pass by, taking on the happy times and weathering the storms along the way. We have a nice level 1 acre lot just 10 miles SE of Washington, D.C. Back then the area was mostly small tobacco farms and today is urban sprawl. Fortunately our lot is zoned Rural Residential which allows us to keep chickens and rooster and some livestock. I’m thrilled to have the privilege of keeping chickens in what is now an urban setting. Presently we have 18 chickens and they bring much joy to my life. They’re a bit like a dog in the sense that they’re always glad to see me. 😀
Whoa! That is crazy similar to us in every way!
I agree about the chickens. There is something magical about a chicken that you know is glad to see you 🙂
What a lovely post. I think houses do that to you – you just know, and the most unlikely seeming house becomes your place of safety, often for a lifetime. Happened to me too, twice, once with my home in the UK (which I can’t bear to sell even though we now live in Italy) and once with my home here in Italy. All this land, an olive grove, orchard, sunflower field, veggie plot, chicken coop and run, dogs, cats, chickens – who’d have thought?
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I really admire your special character…Thank you for sharing your lovely and inspiring story:)
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It is the 25 years of memories that makes your house your home!
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Love this post! It’s so great when a house is well-loved. You’re right, most folks don’t stay put for that long! I’m hoping our next house is the last one! Enjoy!
What a great post! Thanks for sharing, it reminds me of how much I need more room!
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I read this post three times – and enjoyed it every time. You see we have had 14 addresses in our 23 years of marriage. I hope to never move again. We bought this house (on 1.5 acres) with the idea of it being the last home we ever live in. I cannot wait to be able to one day tell a story like you did here. Thank you so much for sharing at Simple Lives Thursday, this is at the core of simple living. We hope to see you back again this week.
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