Writing 101, Day Seven

After three and half years, it’s time to give up city living and return to life in suburbia. While a house in the suburbs isn’t exactly country living, it’s going to be a significant change in our lives.

We moved to our early 1900s city home with just a few pieces of furniture that Doug had acquired for his bachelor apartment years earlier (none of which are still around, by the way) and many boxes containing all our worldly possessions. Since then we have accumulated a lot of “stuff” and definitely a lot more furniture. Even so, we now find ourselves needing to buy more furniture to fit our new home and we are preparing to once again sort through our belongings to identify those that will stick around in the new place and those that just don’t “go” with the surroundings. Some things just won’t make the cut, and I’m sure we’ll find there are things we didn’t need in the old house but will need now.

There are many things we’ll miss about our current city home. And plenty more we’ll be glad to leave behind.

We will miss: our cozy living room affectionately referred to as “the conversation pit,” where we’ve had many intimate discussions and spent numerous evenings in the company of friends and family, with candles glowing and music playing on the turntable.

We will not miss: having to wrap up in a blanket during the winter, not because it makes us feel cozier and warmer, but because the room is so cold you can’t stand to be in it for long without putting on your coat.

Hate to leave behind: our front porch. We’ve spent countless hours on that porch; sipping coffee in the morning, still in our pajamas; reading a book or strumming a guitar on lazy afternoons; enjoying a late-night cocktail before turning in for the night.

And yet: many of those otherwise peaceful hours were interrupted by noisy neighbors. It seems our neighbors can only communicate in very loud decibels. And they like to do it constantly. Oh, and did I mention one of them just got out of jail?

Downtown perks: we can leave our car behind and walk down the street to a high school football game or the holiday parade.

Downtown disadvantage: everyone else thinks it’s a great idea to grab your parking space so they can do that too.

Of course, there is plenty about the new home in the suburbs that we’re looking forward to.

• Lots more space. The new house has more bedrooms, a large deck, and a second full bathroom. These will feel luxurious. Until we have to furnish them anyway. Then they will just feel expensive. And we have to clean them.
• A kitchen with an island and lots of counter and cabinet space. Nope – no downside here. (Except that the refrigerator in this house apparently doesn’t have a working ice maker either.)
• This house does have a front porch too. Time will tell as far as whether its design will be conducive to whiling away the hours on our porch rockers, or whether we’ll retreat to the back deck instead. But it’s not very relaxing to watch the rain fall on a Friday night if you’re getting wet while doing so.
• We can’t walk to the Farmer’s Market for our vegetables or to Hyperion for our morning cup of coffee, but we can walk to the pool on steamy summer days and Jeremy can walk to school. Not a bad trade-off, I suppose.

So as we fill up the last few boxes and dismantle our furniture, we are doing so with mixed emotions. We know it’s not a final goodbye to downtown Fredericksburg, but more of a “see you later”. We’ll be around. You know we can’t stay away from J Brian’s for too long.