A New Home
Photo by Tom Swinnen on Unsplash
How does this change feel?
After my post last week about the power of living spaces, my husband and I find ourselves making an enormous change in our spaces and our lifestyle.
In just a few weeks, we are moving out of our house of 20 years and opting into a more urban lifestyle (aka smaller house, small yard) a few miles away from where we are. The change is happening very quickly due to the tight real estate market here in the DC metro area, and we will move into our new place in about three weeks then sell our current home.
There is a lot I could write about packing up a house of 20 years. The boxes, the stuff, the overwhelm, the insomnia, and the logistics. But that is just a list of things that must get done, and they will.
I want to write about how the change feels. The change feels bittersweet because to me our house represents love, memories, family, youth, hard work, safety, and stability. We are leaving a rich and important phase of our lives behind. This house has been the center of our family life for two decades: our parents often came for holidays or to see our children’s events; our friends came for dinners and cocktail parties; our children used the yard and the basement with their friends; we decorated and landscaped (endlessly!); we gave our pets excellent homes - we even found our cat under our shed when he was a kitten. This is where we raised our children into adulthood, and their independence from us makes it easier for us to move to the next phase.
Twenty years in one place is really comfortable, but the house (to me in particular) has felt too big for some time. However, it is a known quantity and life here is lovely and familiar in many ways. Once my children were out of college they were only here for very short bursts of time and it began to feel, to me, like too much house. All the familiarity began to feel a bit stifling because along with my children, I was moving into a new phase of life where being their mother required a lot less time and energy. Now they were REALLY gone - into jobs where they did not have summers off and a month at home for Christmas.
By making this change, what are my husband and I saying yes to? A new lifestyle, one that feels lighter, with less stuff. A lifestyle that enables us to walk to restaurants and a farmers market. A lifestyle that makes it easier to take advantage of all that the DC area has to offer with fewer worries about sitting in traffic. A lifestyle where we make new friends, get involved in new activities, find new grocery stores and places to eat. Feels scary, AND it feels like an adventure.
Will we feel sad to go? Undoubtedly. Will we feel excited for a new start? Undoubtedly. Good or necessary changes usually evoke conflicting feelings. One chapter closes, one opens.
