Wednesday, October 21, 2009

A dash of FATE and a sprinkle of change

A lot of you know the story of how we came to live in the house that we live in. For those of you who don't, I will try to make it brief. The house that my husband and I bought 9 years ago as newlyweds, just happens to be my Grandparents "old" house. (built by my great uncle Joe in around 1955). The house my Mother grew up in. The house that as a child, I would run up the path from my house whenever I had the chance, to visit with grampa hoddie and gramma claire. Heck I practically lived in their in-ground pool during the summers (which caused my blonde hair to turn green every year). The accessibility that I had to family on our street was one of my favorite things - and still is today. It is a perk to living on land that was once a part of the "family farm". Well, when Great Grampa Frank passed away, my grandparent's decision to sell their home and move 2 houses up to the farm house was a necessary one for them. I was about 11 or 12 years old at the time. **sniff**...no more pool, the path was no longer traveled, and I missed that house. I missed the bathroom mirror that opened so far you could see all around your head, I missed the memories of how cold it felt to come in from the pool into the air conditioned living room, the memories of learning to ride my bike in the driveway, and jumping all around the lawn on my pogo stick, and being paid 50 cents per bag of leaves that I could rake up. Yup - they sold the house to a family from "the city" - they were pretty nice i guess, they borrowed stuff once in a while, but sadly, I never went there again. eventually,after about 11 more years, that family fell on hard times and illness. and the house fell into Foreclosure. JUST so happens this was all falling into place the year Gary and I were getting married and wondering where we were going to call home. It started out a long and involved process of "finessing" the bank into a short sale of the property. TO US! I think the first correspondence was in February of 2000, and we finally had the closing that Fall. It was Fate! - and it was ours. to be honest, at first it didn't really feel like our's. It was in need of such fixing up, that it didn't feel like Grandmas anymore either. but as we dove into the repairs, I found myself wanting to keep the silly things that I remembered as a child the same. The bathroom mirror was still there - I painted it up pretty again and requested it be back in the bathroom. Unfortunately the pool had been destroyed, and with lack of funds to replace it, we filled in the hole - but the landscaping around it is untouched, and I have other plans for the "silly" looking circle we have in the backyard. All of these "un-changes" were reminders of my childhood. As the nine years have gone by, and our family has blossomed, Their are a lot of things I realize we need to change. But their is so much that I am glad remains the same - My kids are learning to ride their bikes in the same driveway - Kyle bounces all over the yard on his pogo stick. The path between us and my Mother's house is worn again, and the same easy access to family brings me all the comfort in the world.
The reason I got thinking about all of this and wanted to blog it, was because we Just had another major change. The yard has always been outlined with tall spruce trees. They were planted when I was just a baby - or maybe before, I'm not sure. they were great for privacy, they were great for assurance that no kids could get to the busy street. What they were not great for, was the power company. After years of the power company going by and butchering cutting them away from the power lines, they died. They were resembling skeletons of trees past.

They were pretty ugly. So we contacted the power company last year and asked if they would just cut them down next time. They agreed that the next time they were scheduled to cut on our street, that they would take care of whatever would fit in the chipper. That time was today! major major change to our yard. - Although I think it is a good one - my mind is reeling about how I am going to utilize the front yard now - what landscaping I will dedicate next summer to. It is very exciting. Don't worry - I took pictures (for you Janie!) as you can see, there is still a lot of cleanup to do on our part. I will update you in the spring.

now if I could only talk the power company into putting the lines under ground so they weren't so .......... power liney looking!

7 comments:

CynthiaK said...

Wow, I didn't know the backstory about the house before. That's really amazing that you've ended up there again! A great tale!

Sad about the trees, though. It's hard when things have to change the look of a place you love. But, next summer you'll be able to tackle it and before you know it, you'll have a new landscape around the house and it will be yours.

Jennifer W said...

Oh. My. Lord. What a difference! Did they get the forsythia too? ;-)

Mark W. said...

I remember when those trees were planted. I even helped your grandfather put some of them in. I was about 10.

Allison said...

Jennifer - Forsythia is a little damaged, but it won't hurt it - But it will need to be moved to other sections of the yard. - more than enough if you want some!

mark - Are you as sad about it as Corin? Thanks for clearing up the time frame for when they were planted - I was way off.

corin said...

Can't believe that with all the trees cut down, I still cant actually see your house from my front porch.

Sad about trees??? grief does weird stuff to people. It is obnoxious to think that we can keep our surroundings the same as they were in March of 2005. But with each change it seems Grampa gets further away from us. I guess I will focus on the bright side that we now see his stonework as the focal part of your yard.

Thanks for telling that story too...Love you.

Janie said...

Thanks for taking the pictures. I too remember when they were planted and I remember when all of that stonework was done. And they were a beautiful backdrop for my wedding pictures (I wish I had some) And what memories that mirror brings back. I think I cried when I realized you had kept it. In fact, your blog brought back a lot of great memories that I cherish.

Nishant said...

Lord. What a difference! Did they get the forsythia too? ;-)
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