Four Beds and Two Baths

It's been a funny couple of weeks here. The house has been put up for sale. I know this because it's in the paper today. It was odd looking at it looking back at me. Even though it's there it doesn't feel real at the moment. I guess that when there has been a couple of viewings and (hopefully) an offer or two it will.

I cast a look around all of our stuff and panic. How on earth am I going to pack this lot away when the time comes? I am still planning on having a yard sale in April, because there is yet more of it in the attic and it has to go. There are boxes up there that haven't been unpacked since we moved here, for goodness sake.

There is no telling how long we may be here. Even with a recovering housing market, houses don't tend to fly off the shelf here in St Ives. So it could be months. Months of keeping on top of the house in readiness for potential viewings. Months of hassling the boys to keep their rooms in some kind of order. You know, so I don't start crying ten minutes before a potential buyer comes round to look  "Ah yes, the line of apple cores on the window sill. We feel it adds a certain ambiance to the room..."

I have decided that some of the garden will be coming with me when we leave. I shall be making a list to go on the fixtures and fittings form - fridge, freezer, master bedroom light, three rose bushes, two gooseberry plants and approximately fifty Dahlia plants. Marc has promised me another greenhouse if there isn't one where we end up. I'm not sure we are keen on moving a greenhouse. Marc says that is was the most ridiculous thing he has ever had to put together, and that included IKEA furniture.

We have lived here for twelve and a half years. I have bought two of my children home from from the maternity hospital into this house. It has utterly changed from the house we bought. We have knocked down walls, extended, ripped out and replaced, painted, plastered, tiled and re-worked every last inch of this place. We are very proud of our little house. Much of the work we did ourselves.It's only in the last couple of years that we have employed other people to do the work for us. All I can say is that I am extremely lucky to be married to a man who is both a perfectionist and can turn his hand to anything. Me? I can't even wire a plug. I am the window dresser.

I'm not sure how I'll feel when I shut our front door for the last time. I am looking froward to creating a new home. I am excited about a bigger project and new family adventures. And I know that I'll be taking all that I love with me. Not just the plants or the pottery. But all of us. Who knows what challenges this next chapter will bring.
 

All I know is that whoever finally moves into this house will have bought a place that embraces. A place that is warm in the winter and cool in summer. That allows children to play in one room, while Mum can keep a discreet eye from the kitchen. That makes for great train track, scalextrix and scootering possibilities. That can fit and entertain a lot of people, and whose downstairs makes for a great dance floor. Is local to and yet far enough away from town. That is light and bright and airy.

But above all else is a wonderful family home.

Leanne xx