A Tearful Farewell

The old family house is sold, and this Friday is moving day for Mom and Deb. I realize that change is part of life, but some changes are more difficult than others; this is one of those. I'm having a hard time letting go of that house, and with Mom moving out of town... it's a double whammy. It's almost like cutting the physical ties from Dad all over again, and with Mom leaving... I'm pretty emotional right now.


I thought I'd better take some pictures before I ran out of time. As I took these pictures, I cried. I'm such a baby!

The house is old, built in the early 70's and it has seen better days. Once Dad was gone, we couldn't maintain the upkeep and the poor house has lots of issues. It's in need of new carpeting, a new bathroom floor and toilet, it has termites, the roofing needs fixed, etc... but it was our family's house for almost 20 years... lots of memories in that house.


The main house is a large 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a garage, a storage shed, and an covered boat parking area with stairs off the back patio leading up to the one bedroom guest house. For years I lived in the main house with my kids and my parents lived in the little house upstairs. After Dad passed away, Mom moved in with me for awhile, until my sister moved in with us, then Mom and Deb moved upstairs to the little house.


The main house is still in the process of getting cleaned, so excuse the boxes, etc. The little house... well they are still living there as they pack and prepare for the big moving day Friday, so excuse their mess as well.

main house, front porch

 main house from the main drive way

 from front entry looking into living room

living room

 the view from the living room

This is the original "front" entry, but it wasn't used much; we used the porch entry by the garage.The living room is to the left; the hallway to the bedroom is to the right, and the dining room is straight ahead across from the door (below).

dining/kitchen

kitchen

 kitchen, pantry area with temporary window covering

 master bedroom with the original orange shag carpet... eeow! LOL

2 entries to this bedroom (1 from the hall & 1 from the dining room) 

it has 2 closets, and a small bathroom

the larger of the other two other bedrooms

 smallest bedroom

 hall bathroom (wallpaper is not child proof LOL)

 hall bathroom

 master bedroom's bathroom 

(tiny with a shower, no tub... has a leak in the wall, hence the patch job)

 the cabinets in the master bath... I painted the flowers years ago

 hallway, from bedrooms looking into living room

 small laundry room

 nice big 2 car garage

 garage, front view

 back patio of main house with stairs going to small house

 boat parking area

 the stairs to the small house

 back patio again, from the other end

 view of little house from back of main house

 view of big house from the top of the stairs

 little house

 little house from drive way

 back of the little house

 looking down from the back yard of the little house

 main house, coming up the drive way

 bank side of the little house

 the little house from the main drive way

 the kitchen/dining in the little house

 living room from the kitchen

 bathroom entry from kitchen/dining

 big bedroom

 bedroom, entry to bathroom (left) and walk-in closet on the right

 living room, different view

 kitchen/dining, different view

living room, different view

It's in an awesome location, across the park's lake, set back from the road and surrounded by pine trees. The place has lots of wildlife to enjoy. Elk used to walk through our yard, and one Thanksgiving a fox sat on our back patio watching us eat dinner through the arcadia door.

Coyotes often yip and howl through the night, and one Summer a bear walked through the yard. Every night a family of raccoons visit to snag the cat food left out for the feral cats.... and the javelina as well. Rabbits, squirrels, doves, and quail are frequent callers.  We've even had a Mountain Lion come visit, and an occasional owl.

Oh, let's not forget the Bald Eagle! The main house has a huge window with a gorgeous view of the lake, and whenever the local Bald Eagle goes fishing, you can watch it from the living room; I loved watching that Eagle.  

Yep, I going to really miss that house!