Farewell
Definition: An act of departure; A wish of well-being at parting; A formal occasion honoring a person about to leave or retire.
Farewell Little House
We closed on our little house today. After the flurry of packing, moving and cleaning, I wanted to pause to celebrate the 15 years I have loved living in this house.
We put a lot of ourselves, both our ideas and labor, into this place but it has always had a wonderful presence on its own. When we did work on the house, we always were careful to make the best possible choices to maintain its integrity. We probably could have saved ourselves some money, but it didn’t seem right to cut corners when it was so well crafted.
A lot of people have asked me if I am sad to leave it. That is a surprisingly hard question to answer. We are very sad to leave the neighborhood and our neighbors. We will stay connected to these wonderful people, so I don’t feel like we will be losing their friendship. It is hard to think that a new owner may not hold this place in such high esteem. But, from what we have gleaned, the new owner is thrilled to have the place. A while back, when we were about to put the house on the market, I had flashes of “what am I doing?”, but I haven’t felt that panic for many months.
In the last couple weeks we have been moving our stuff out of the house. It started to have a very different quality. It slowly started to feel like it wasn’t our house anymore. It became particularly apparent when the artwork was packed away and the rooms had a hollow echo.
Empty house
It isn’t that I didn’t love the place or that I won’t miss it. I think it comes down to being so excited about what is next. We are starting on a Big Ass Adventure.
Thank you, little house, for many happy holidays, cozy nights and lovely dinners. Thank you, most of all, for giving us an inspiring place to call home. Farewell.
B. A. B. 
Testing out my new “Gravatar” and also to say – we don’t mind “cold-y”. Just as long as there is no “ghost-y” to go along with it!!
We were glad to spend one more “vacation” in the little house on Jackson Ave. It holds many wonderful memories for us – for me especially. Until I met Jim – I hadn’t traveled much outside of the off-trip to Dallas. St. Louis and spending time with you guys opened up a whole new world to me. (Mostly in the food and wine arena, ha-ha!) While I’ll miss the little house – I’m really excited to watch and even be a part of your journey to your new life in the B.A.B.!
It’s a confusing feeling, there’s solace in the regularity of a home. Darcy & I were glad that we were able to come stay in your “cozy cottage” one last time.
This will be your greatest adventure.
Thanks Jim – we hope you’re willing to downgrade a bit from “cozy” to “cold-y” while we are getting the new place renovated. BTW, there was an interesting article in the New York Times today, right in line with what you said about “solace” of a home.
Here’s the article…
No problem, as Darcy mentioned, with downgrading for us…did you forget about the first house we lived in? No baseboards, trim, unfinished nasty wood floors, we’re fine. Well until “critters” start creepie-crawling over us at night, might have to draw the line at that.
That article was quite an eye opener, glad I don’t deal with coop’s.