The Last Time

I have been helping my son move for the last few days.  It has been a chore to get everything together.  It makes me quite sad.  We moved into that house when my children were 3 and 13 after our mobile home, that was paid for, had been destroyed by Hurricane Opal in 1995.  They are now 16 and almost 26.  The house originally belonged to my in-laws, but they built them a very nice new house without stairs.  They were getting on up in age and needed an easier place to take care of.  Their new house was actually the last house my FIL ever built.  We rented the A-frame from my father-in-law.  Their new house was two doors down.  Only a church was between us.  I have been with my husband over half of my life, his family is my family, so I didn't mind living close to them at all. My beloved father-in-law and his sons (Hubby included) built the A-frame.  He was a contractor with only a 4th grade education.  He supported a wife and nine children on his meager earnings as a contractor. He salvaged the material to build the A-frame from two older houses in our town that were over 100 years old.  He contracted to do the work to tear them down and built the A-frame out of that material.   This pic shows closeup of tongue-and-groove paneling.     This pic shows the pine flooring in the living room (the hardwood flooring is upstairs under carpet as well).     Fireplaces are built out of antique bricks from old houses. The A-frame boasts tongue-and-groove heart of pine paneling and pine hardwood floors in parts of the house.  He never had a blueprint for the house.  I find that amazing, being that he only had a 4th grade education.  The house has 2.5 bathrooms, two fireplaces built out of the antique bricks, and two bedrooms.  It has a large kitchen/dining area, an L-shaped living room, a large laundry room, and a family room.  Off the back was a patio, and off the second story was my most favorite place, a screened-in deck.  My family and I spent many happy hours on that deck.   Patio was under the deck.   Great place for plants in the summer. I remember reading chapter after chapter of many books, playing with my cats on that deck, and entertaining on that deck.   Sometimes we had meals on the deck, sometimes it was just us, sometimes with other family or friends.  I can also remember after one of my surgeries during the Spring of the year, I sat out on the deck recuperating.  I could hear the birds singing, the sky was blue, and the temperature was perfect.  It was a perfectly beautiful day.  There is a catfish pond behind the house the deck overlooks.  I remember feeling so happy that day.  I will sorely miss that deck.   View of pond from the deck-this was taken after a severe thunderstorm and pond was quite muddy. One of my daughter's friends and I spent a lot of time talking sitting on that deck.  When I think of him, I will choose to remember him fondly.  One of the last times he came over, he sat and played for her with a guitar she and his Dad went in together to buy for him because he had lost the one he loved due to unforeseen circumstances.  I searched high and low for a replacement guitar for him and had almost given up hope when one fell into my lap.  It's actually smaller than what I wanted, but the sound when played was so rich and resonated well, I prayed he would like it.  I lied and told him it was for my daughter and that she wanted to take guitar lessons.  I told him I needed him to check it out for me and tell me if it was a good deal or not.  After he played it that day and gave me his opinion of it, he made the statement to my daughter that he wanted that guitar.  It's so funny because it was for him all along.  It gave me such joy to be able to do that for him after the way he lost the Santa Rosa acoustic he loved so much.  My only regret is not getting to hear him play it more.  I have strayed from the subject again.  ::sigh::  I swear as I get older, I cannot concentrate well at all.  I have so many nitpicky medical conditions that are so aggravating. I just basically wanted to say how I got to sit on my deck once more today during a wonderful thunderstorm (I love storms, yeah, I am weird like that).  The rain cooled it off considerably.  A nice wind was blowing across the deck.  It made me really, really sad to know that is probably the last time I will ever sit on that deck, the deck my father-in-law and his sons built. I remember our first Christmas in the house in 1995, my daughter was only 3.  She got one of her presents from under the tree unbeknownst to us.  I noticed her missing and went to find her.  As I got to the top of the stairs, I noticed her sitting just inside her bedroom door with her back to me.  She had torn the packaging off of one of her presents, a Barbie doll she had asked for.  When she saw me, she held it up and said, "Pretty!"  I couldn't help but laugh and, of course, I let her finish opening it. There are so many wonderful memories tied up for me in that house.  We had many family Christmases there when my in-laws lived there.  I have many pics to look back on and remember those wonderful times when we gathered as a family to celebrate the holidays, the many Thanksgivings, Christmases, Easter Egg hunts, and other holidays as well. Even with my own family, we had get-togethers there with friends.  Usually, our biggest get-together was on New Year's Eve.  I would cook, ask friends and family to bring a covered dish, and we would bring in the New Year together.  Such wonderful times of fellowship. There was a time I wanted to own that house more than I wanted anything else in the world.  We gave up that dream to move to Colorado.  After living in Colorado, my dreams have changed.  I no longer want that house, but I will miss it terribly, especially the fireplaces and the deck. After we moved to Colorado, my son and daughter-in-law bought the house from my FIL.  They were living there when she left him.  Unfortunately for him, he has many bad memories associated with the house, which iswhy he wanted to sell it. I have been told the new homeowner plans to dismantle the garage.  He is giving the wood to his Dad who plans to take it to south Alabama to use it for something.  I watched my father-in-law build that garage from wood off of the 18 acres he owned.  He used his chainsaw to cut down the trees he needed.  I watched him use his primitive tools to scrape the bark from the trees and I watched him turn those trees into wood planks to make up the garage.  It makes me sad to know it will soon be gone just like my father-in-law.  He passed away in October of 2006. The new owner has already started making some changes, changes I do not like.  He sheetrocked over the tongue-and-groove paneling in the front bedroom.  I feel that takes away from the rustic look of the house.  He is changing the half-bath in the master suite into a full bathroom.  It really takes away from the roominess of the master suite.  I don't understand why the house needs another bathroom when it already had two others.  Oh well, it isn't my house any more or my son's.  We should finish up getting the rest of his belongings out tomorrow.  I do admit to feeling somewhat melancholy, but, at the same time, I look forward to what God has planned for my family and I next.  Hopefully, it will be the move to South Carolina or, even better, Colorado. We have moved six times since November 2001.  The 3 years and 4 months we lived in Colorado were the happiest time of my life.  Tomorrow, I will most likely walk through the door of the A-frame for the last time and, even though the house is no longer in our family, I will carry many wonderful memories with me.  I am looking forward to the future and where it might take us.  It has been nice being home with our family and friends these last three years, but now it is time to move on... Blessings!~ Susan