From City to Burbs

That's right.  We're going burbs.

Currently I'm drinking tea in a fairly vacant living room in our Minneapolis house.  It is the last weekend of living here, and Jeff and I couldn't be more excited to move on to our next adventure.

At first I thought I would be sentimental.  This 1927 Craftsman Bungalow has a lot of charm with the built in buffet, crown molding, lovely wooden floors and arches.  Located near beautiful city parks, friendly neighbors, and close to downtown . . .why on earth are we moving?

Lets just say we're over the city life.  As wonderful as it has been, I'm so ready to get into my car and drive away from it all.  Ahead of us: space, a house with less maintenance required, beautiful regional parks with my favorite kind of running trails, and close access to lakes that aren't crowded with people.  Attached garage, new roof, furnace, windows, etc.--ALUMINUM SIDING--it's enough to make this girl giddy.

And the irony is that you don't appreciate these features until you've gone to war with your own fixer upper.  Storm windows from the 40s, windows with broken sash chords, windows that don't open, actual window replacements, ice dams, no AC, the endless fight against mold in the basement, weeding, more weeding, pruning, raking, pruning, raking again, painting stucco that should never have been painted in the first place, grinding out roots from your sewer line because of all those damn trees in your yard, efflorescence because of previous water damage when house was vacant, rusted out gutters, replacing gutters, concrete floor scraping/painting/maintenance in the basement, the same for the porch, putting plastic over your 19 drafty windows in the winter, taking it down in the spring, and on it goes.

For this next house we just get to move in and unpack.  After that, we can play outside and spend more time with friends again.  We get our lives back!