Our home is for sale! We’ve buffed, polished, spiffed and shined everything in sight. We can still open the closets without too much falling out, although the hall linen closet does test that claim. While we’ve removed nearly all traces of us, make no mistake, this home is full of memories.
We’ve got Lucy’s heart painting in the kitchen, sort of hiding the stand mixer and definitely not hiding the dog treats. Missed those! Tommy’s Matisse-inspired craft paper collage is in the family room. His work served as the inspiration for the color scheme in the entire home. If you walked room to room with the framed 5th-grade assignment in hand, you would see it. The orange-y red chair in the master set against the silver gray wall. The pink and cream tones in Lucy’s room. The natural brown and blue motif in the dining area. Lucy’s art and Tommy’s art are the heart of our home.
One day soon, a lucky family will buy this home from us. They will make an offer and we will sign the papers. We will cut out the planks from the closet where we have measured Tommy’s and Lucy’s heights. We will take every book down from the shelves. We will pull out every towel, game and dish from the cabinets. The new owners will bask in the abundant natural light. They will see the entire living space from a series of different vantage points. They will love their new neighbors. And, they will make this place their own, changing the very things we began changing in 2004 to make this our home.
We wish them as much happiness as we have had, as many laughs as we have laughed, and every tear that we have shed. This is both a great house and a good house. Our offer to buy it in 2004 was accompanied by a letter imploring the owners to take our bid as we envisioned raising our children here. It worked. The letter worked in securing a signed contract and the house worked in helping us raise our children. And now, our kids have grown so big that we have outgrown this beautiful small house.
As we look forward to our move to a bigger house with more space for our sprawling teenagers, there is no doubt we will miss 445 Bianca Avenue and all the memories we made here.
