Old Houses

I started to write this in response to Chris's post, inspired by Dixie's post. It grew.

We had a house that we literally built ourselves and loved. We used salvage from both an old farmhouse that we took down and construction leftovers. We had lots of friends in construction at the time (we were in our 20s), and bought things like leftover paint at a huge discount. Our studs were the two by fours that are usually nailed together (you can get them apart) and placed under trusses when they are shipped. They're basically waste, except that they are 2x4s. Unlike studs, which are shorter than 8 ft so you get an 8 ft ceiling when you build the frame, ours really were 8 ft. It gave us nice, high ceilings.

We built it to not need air conditioning. We had a wood stove, along with back up heat in the bedrooms. We did add central heat and air the year before we put it on the market, but we never used the AC until July. We didn't need it. We had big windows, cross ventilation and lots of insulation. The house was all living space. We didn't have a bunch of wasted nooks and hallways. The washing machine and dryer were tucked under the stairs. It was like the opposite of the crap they built around us later: more bells and whistles than quality, giant houses on tiny lots. We had a unique, efficient house, 5 wooded acres of lowland and we loved it.

I raised my kids there and still miss it, but the once-rural neighborhood got overrun by McMansion subdivisions. Constant traffic, too much runoff, leaf blower and yard care junkies, no more peace and quiet. And the developer was the personification of evil. I loved my home, but was full of resentment.

The house we bought in TN was the opposite of the old one. Until we added one, there were NO windows in the living room, only a set of glass doors for light. The ceilings are low. The old part of the house, which was built for cross ventilation because it's from 1940, had all the windows painted shut. The addition they put on is a hack job. We've had plumbing problems. My once-low power bills are high. Instead of trees to protect the home and mellow the climate, the ground was mowed flat, right up to the house. Acres of it.

But the hills are gorgeous and the peace of mind is worth it. Three years later, bushes that we planted hug the house. We add a tree every year. In time, they will give us shade, and fruit from some of them. The open land where the previous owners had a garden was pushed so heavily with chemicals that it's practically dead. It is recovering, but meanwhile, I'm gardening city style, in raised beds that we compost. We're adding a chicken coop.

I do sometimes resent that we moved. I left a place where I had laid down roots. I had a solid professional reputation and lots of connections, whereas here, employment is lower wage and harder to come by. Even with the population explosion, I still knew people wherever I went.

But I still have my memories, and our empty nest years are not spent looking backward at a job well done, but moving forward into a new adventure.