Grateful for: the nest
(All pictures are our new place.)
After Emily died and Carl effectively moved to Ottawa and the property next to ours sold to a developer and we put our house on the market, there was that sense that we would never have a home like that again. After all, not only was our previous (and first owned) house ecclectic with an unusual lot, but it was also the site where the system came into its own, so to speak.
That house had the room that Carl and Teresa renovated together and Teresa painstakingly rag-painted light green (about a year behind the trend, so that it was a bit dated, but no one cared) that was to eventually be designated as Emily’s, and the office where Lyr designed a custom-shaped desk and where one of my first actions once re-encorporated was to paint the walls and shelves a grey-purple called in its light form fairy dust and in its darker rainy day. And then of course there was the renovation during Emily’s pregnancy: the tile floor Carl painstakingly and beautifully put in, and the new carpets and linoleum.
That there was also a rather hellish basement and two closets of any sort in the entire house was a whole other thing. It was our nest and the decison to sell it was made maybe a bit cavallierly. In our (the system’s) usual sort of glacial pace of emotional processing, it is still taking some time to get over that loss of hearth and home.
Maybe the challenges of its uniqueness informed our second choice of home though, which is a very, very standard 1960s bungalow (well, standard if you ignore some of the weird renovating that’s taken place and which we fully intend to undo… someday.) We’ve been quick to make it far more “decent” than our old home; there are no odd holes in the walls or ceilings, only a small bit of missing woodwork in the basement, and all the taps have cold water coming from the right hand side.
It’s a great home for having young kids, I have to say. The first floor having the bedrooms, kitchen, and living room all together makes for a sense of connection no matter where someone is working. The large eat-in kitchen means space for trains! in the living room. And the large basement provides excellent work space for Carl and a nice hang out area for watching TV. We still have a “disaster room,” the kitchen down there where the cat took the dropped ceiling down, but it’s nicely hidden away in a corner.
In terms of size it’s still a little big for us, but it is incredibly easy to maintain in many ways. The 1960s spaces - smallish bedrooms, smallish but functional closets, totally ungrand entryways - are easy to clean and the floors are hardwood and ceramic upstairs; berber carpet down the stairs and in most of the rooms down there. Basic tubs, basic sinks, basic countertops.
And yet we’re still warming up to it (and some parts, like the kitchen, require renovation before we really do). But we are. It is starting to feel like home, and we’re gradually finding ways to make it a little bit more us. I am grateful for it, and although its location is occasionally frustratingly far from downtown, the lake makes up for everything.
There are nooks that are becoming us, or maybe that we are becoming, and here are two. The living room is the big one. Lyr and I decorated it together: the leather and attempt at “adult friendly toy storage” is mine; the addition of red and choice of rug is all hers and isn’t she smart about it?
The other big addition is the dining room table, again, last night (sorry for the quality here and on all of these). We’ve gone from a very inexpensive Ikea set that seated 6 at most… if you didn’t mind being a bit squashed… to this large table with its leather chairs. We did get this set used and actually, I confess, the chairs are not as comfortable as I would eventually like once I win the lottery. But the big thing is the size of the table (I laughed when I found it also is from Ikea - we can’t even escape our flat pack destiny by buying from Craigslist). Like this it really can almost seat 10, but there are also two leaves and I can see squishing even 14 people around it.
Even scarier, the way it opens up and holds the leaves underneath, we can stow our power supplies under it and every evening that Carl and I end up communing over our laptops (err, like 80% of the time), it’s totally ready to go. Family and work combined! And yes, it’s a bit odd to squish it against the wall but… that leaves way more space for driving one’s toddler car around, you see. One day we will have a nice light fixture there and it will be properly set out. Really. 2020 maybe?
Then of course there are all the corners that are Noah’s. We still haven’t really addressed his room - that’s probably our holiday project - but nonetheless the sense of toddler is everywhere. This is that funny little space in the kitchen that may become a pantry some day, but right now it stores some of my stuff, some craft supplies, and Noah’s own Ikea table that he either sits at right there, or sometimes we drag it out into the larger space for say, bean washing. Or finger painting.
So gradually this place is becoming home. There may be a change on the horizon eventually: if my job continues to work out so well, it may become hard to ignore that between my office and Carl’s office there are several nice neighbourhoods that would put us both at an under-20-min commute, and at least one of us could take transit.
But they have no lakes there!
Comments
One Response to “Grateful for: the nest”
Leave a Reply
Admittedly I love these peeks into other people’s homes, but I do think these are beautiful spaces. I love the colors.