grownup houses

i think i was in my 20s watching hgtv or tlc when i first heard the term starter home; my mom (and dad) basically moved from an apartment to their starter home where they stayed.

It's a hundred & fifty years old and my mom last week had an issue with a possum moseying through basement to get some cat food. That kind of thing. Wiring from the 1930s, windows from god knows when.


Dan and i rented a house during our engagement & early marriage; it was a cute cape cod off a main road - small, but we didn't use the upstairs rooms much as the main bedroom was downstairs.

Then we bought our house where we live now because it was a quarter acre with a lake view at a foreclosure rate.

We redid the roof, some of the electrical (we paid to have it all done but i don't really know the quality of the work, the dude absconded a bit), some siding, furnace & hot water, added a dishwasher, painted the walls/removed peeling wallpaper/added crown molding, finished the kitchen flooor (from its terrible carpet).

It's an old home with charm but also skunks, and I wish it were a grownup house, but it's full of toys and old carpet and well loved furniture.

And, well, it keeps us warm. It didn't blow down in the hurricane strength winds. we can keep fixing one thing at a time.