Farewell to the ’78 Ranch

Memories and Moving On

It’s time.  It’s time to move on and say farewell to the only home we have ever owned. My husband and I bought this house in 1995.  We were so excited.  It had everything we wanted and more.  A brick ranch with 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, open concept, a shop for him and 5 acres in the country.  Plus, the most important thing to this girl who grew up in tornado alley…a full basement.

Or what we say around here, a “fraidy hole”.  At the time, Randy didn’t understand my obsession of insisting on a basement.  He grew up on the East Coast where tornadoes do happen, but certainly aren’t a way of life like they are here.  Well, lo and behold, not even a month after we had moved in, guess what came racing through the back of our property?  Yep…needless to say, he quickly saw my point on the fraidy hole.

When we bought this house, we were just starting out.  We saw our future in the plans that WE were making.  Unbeknownst to us, God had other plans.  For instance, we thought we would possibly have at least one little munchkin to add to our lives who we could raise in this house.  And even though we knew the odds were slim, we hoped anyway to no avail.

Fast forward to today and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Our lives are full in so many ways.  We certainly have never lacked in having lots of kids in our lives.  We are certain we have paid our fair share of braces, dance lessons, and back to school clothes for all the kids in our life.  This house has been full of kids over the years.  We have comforted them with skinned knees (after a run in with a four wheeler) snuggled them for spend the night parties, fed them whatever, and I do mean, WHATEVER they wanted morning, noon and night.  I once even served orange sherbert for breakfast and justified it by saying…it is orange, let it melt then all you’ve really got is orange juice!

We have loved many dogs and cats over the years in this house too. Each adding something to our lives that we will forever cherish. Under a special tree out back is their final resting place. And I can’t think of anywhere more beautiful than being where the Ozark Mountain view is spectacular in every season and the river runs down below.

We have loved in this house.  We have fought in this house.  We have hosted our friends and family in this house.  We have made memories and mistakes in this house. We have remodeled, cleaned and YES…organized this house.  We have poured our hearts into this house.

But now that it’s time to say goodbye, I’m starting to think about all the things I will never have to do in this house again.  All the faults and quirks.  It’s our chance to start fresh on another house and correct those idiosyncrasies that drive me bananas.  And for all of the things I see wrong, this darling new couple buying it sees nothing but potential, hope and their future.

They are so happy to bring their 3 little munchkins to this house and raise them up right.  They see their future here.  Just like we did all those years ago.  It makes Randy and I happy to know that this house makes them happy.

I will miss it.  More than I probably want to admit.  And even though it was just a house to us when we bought it, we made it our HOME.  Here’s to the next House2Home.

xo – Betsy