It Comes Down to This

May 3rd, 2022

Our house was built in 1999. We moved in on Halloween of that year. The house is on a cul-de-sac. It took all day to make trips moving our belongings from an apartment using “Two Men and a Truck”. Zach and Tyler missed Trick or Treating, but the new neighbor ladies in our circle gathered two bags of candy for them.

I lived here for almost 23 years. Zach was here almost that long, but moved into an apartment a month ago. Tyler left for the last time during his sophomore year of college at the University of Colorado.

The picture below, shows the house now, as it is emptied out for the closing sale this Friday.

Zach’s bedroom was just repainted at request of the realtor. She wanted a neutral color, not the yellow that we painted it in 2003, when Zach was into ocean animals, and my sister made valances with coral fish and seahorses. We hung photos of dolphins on the walls. Later that was replaced with posters of Marvel comic heroes, rock and roll bands, and characters from popular video games.

Tyler’s room started out as my office. He shared bunk beds with Zach. He got his own room in 2004, when I finished a recreation room in the basement and move my computer desk there. Recently, I reclaimed Tyler’s room and it again became my office. There wasn’t much recreation going on in the basement any more.

The rooms are nearly empty now, as are the kitchen and living room.

We spent a majority of our time in the kitchen. It is where we cooked and ate of course. But most memories are about card games we played late into the evenings when my parents or sisters visited. There were many meals of turkey, lasagna, and pizza at the holidays. School projects were completed there.

In 2002, Zach and Tyler’s mother, my wife, left. After that it was just the three of us living in a bachelor pad. My sister, Dawn visited. At the time, every room in the house was white. The décor was white, silver, and black. My ex-wife’s preference. Dawn complained that it looked like a hospital. So, my sisters and mother paid a visit and redecorated. Dawn wanted warm colors. She picked colors for the living room. Her and my mother made the curtains and valances. Some of my things long stored reappeared. They hung the mount of a 10 pound rainbow trout I caught on a fishing trip with my dad in 1981. My father hung a wooden model of a canoe above the fireplace. My niece, Marisa provided a hand painted beach scene. Above the sofa was a campfire scene in the woods. In the kitchen, hand carved loons swam on the dinette. An old fashion creel and flyrod were on either side of the painting of a brown trout. My father sanded off the “distressed” green dining room chairs and painted them blue. Only when he turned one over did he see the plaque noting they were made and distressed in Florence, Italy. Painted a nice blue, they no longer looked like a farmer dragged them down a gravel road with his tractor.

It comes down to this. The house is just a shell now. Nearly all the furniture and possessions gathered over 20 years are gone. Three young Cuban ladies showed up to buy a chair and ended up leaving with half a house of furniture. They thought they got the deal of their life. One of them hugged me 3 times before they left.

The furniture meant nothing to me. The house really means nothing to me. It was a warm place to sleep at night and that is about it. What meant a lot, was the memories my boys and I have from our time here. Those memories are of things we did and people we knew. They are of my family, their school friends, baseball coaches, girlfriends, and neighbors. Zach and Tyler grew up here. I hope they were good years full of great memories for them too.

On Friday, I will hand the keys to the new owner and drive away. Hopefully, I will make more memories in my new home. And this one will be wherever I happen to park it.