Thanks for my house

My house is relatively small to hold 6 people. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. No yard to speak of, no garage. Our bikes live in a tent outside. The living room is big enough for 2 couches and a piano and maybe some people. The dining table and chairs are from a thrift store. The kitchen and bathrooms we remodeled ourselves on a mega-budget. The carpet needs replacing. The walls need re-painting.

So why is it the coziest and dearest house I can imagine? Well, besides the people in it... the bedrooms fit two to a room quite nicely. The backyard is... well it’s always nice to have a project, right! The 8-year-old couches still bounce back when my kids jump on them. Someone plays the piano every day (usually while someone else is jumping on the couches). I’d say we’re getting the best possible cost per use on our “temporary” dining set. In the kitchen and bathroom, Matt laid the tiles and installed the fixtures, I painted the cabinets and the walls. My dad put in the countertops. The carpet gets new spills and stains every day. So do the walls.

The kids’ school is across the street. Matt’s work is down the street. We take our bikes out regularly. The neighborhood is full of kids similarly crammed into townhouses and eager to roam the cul-de-sacs together. We brought home two new babies to this house (having first brought two old babies to it in 2010) and helped most of them learn to eat, sleep, walk, talk, read, all here in this house. It’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It’s rarely quiet. It’s rarely clean.

In Pride and Prejudice (the movie of course. Sorry, I never could get thru the book or the miniseries) Charlotte says to her best friend, “Oh Lizzie it’s such a pleasure to run my own home.” I couldn’t agree more!