Making a House a Home

I always wonder with these longer posts how many people actually read the whole thing. I'll tell you right up front that I'm feeling particularly reflective today and it's OK if you don't make it to the end...I'll never know.  If you do hang in there you will see that we have come full circle.

Since we left our dorm rooms Paul and I have lived in seven different houses.  Our first apartment was in Nashville, TN where Paul and I went to graduate school. It was an amazing place....up the narrow back spiral staircase off the kitchen in the servants quarters of a large southern home in Belle Meade.  And if you know Nashville you know this is where the big southern mansions are....the ones with the big pillars and long driveways.  Two sisters, Mary and Martha lived in the main home and were about as down to earth, unpretentious and progressive as anyone I know.  We paid $150 a month....utilities included...for a fully furnished apartment. Just perfect for young newlyweds starting from scratch.

We haven't owned all our houses. Because Paul is a minister...the list includes two parsonages, which is a church provided home, and of course the first rented apartment.  Each house has been different and a few of them not all that attractive...but it has been one of my joys in life to make all our houses a home.

So....from the first apartment in 1981...to the present....here's the Shupe tour of homes.

This is the only picture I could find of the house/apartment in Nashville. 

That upstairs window on the right was ours.  This is actually the back of the house.

After a year or so Mary and Martha included an extra room for us upstairs....that whole middle section which more than doubled our apartment.  In lieu of extra rent we did chores for them on Saturdays which included polishing a dozen or so brass doorknobs.  

Our first whole house...the church parsonage on Foreside Road in Cumberland, Maine.  The original part the house was built in 1740 and had the original wide pumpkin pine floors and an old cooking fireplace with the swing arm cook pot holder.  There was a living room addition off the back. It was a great place to live...and we were walking distance to the Casco Bay.

Hallmark Road in Cumberland Maine....suburbia at its finest.

This is the first house we owned after the church sold the parsonage.  We took out most of those overgrown evergreens and planted a couple of nice maple trees in the front yard.  We drive by every once in a while to see how they are doing.

Woodmont Street in Portland, Maine...one of my favorites on a dead end tree lined street. It was a good move for the family from the suburbs to the city.  

Deerwood drive in Madison, WI...at the top of a hill on a cul-de-sac of sorts.

It was really good space and close to my family and good friend Becky...which was awesome.  It had the best 3 season room in the back...I loved it!

Our current home on Hancock Street in Lexington, MA  (the church parsonage) 

It's a great house in a great town!  We can walk to almost everything...including a little movie theater and the Lexington Battle Green.  How lucky are we!

Our current weekend/vacation home on Sprague St in South Portland, ME.  You may have noticed that I had a small picture of this house at the top of this post.  Well...that's because as of a few days ago we have come full circle.

We had this house on the market in order to free up our equity to invest in a house that we see could see ourselves retiring into while interest rates were low.  We got 4 offers and a contract on the very first day.  But much to our surprise after the inspection, our buyers backed out.  Our real estate agent kept saying "trust the process"....and little did he know the process would take us right back where we started.  It was the WHOLE process of listing and looking at other houses that pushed us to take a closer look at what we already had.

We are going to invest into this house to fix some of the issues...and eventually make some changes that might make it work for long term.  We are choosing...for now...to make THIS house a home.