Dream House

Our House as Google Found It in 2011!

It was our Dream House in 2004 when we first arrived in Grand Rapids. Situated only five minutes from church, five minutes from work, five minutes from all the shopping in the world, and only fifteen minutes to the Cultural Center of the Universe (also known as Downtown).

It was a pretty little house, with plenty of space for a young, vibrant family of six. Three bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, a living room, a family room, a formal dining room, an unfinished basement. A nicely landscaped front yard. A spacious, unfenced back yard with a deck. Three-car garage.

We've enjoyed the house over these past fourteen years. Mostly. Things have fallen apart. Things had to be fixed, painted, caulked, replaced, repainted. The back deck didn't get painted soon enough; the boards dried up and cracked in the harsh sunlight of its southern exposure. The yard didn't drain correctly and needed surgery to avoid becoming a swamp (and still bears the diagonal scar of that surgery even after twelve years). The underground sprinkler system had numerous issues, chiefly the damage incurred by the neighbor's lawn mower when it came into contact with the sprinkler heads. The lovely trees were actually planted too close to the house and the root systems are threatening the foundation. The landscaping wasn't maintained, especially the bark we were supposed to put down every couple years. The house didn't come with gutters, which meant we had to install them ourselves (as we did on the front) or have someone else do it (as we did on the back). The vinyl siding on the shaded side (the front) grew mold; apparently we're also supposed to get the house washed with a high-pressure sprayer every couple years.

Then there's the appliances: the HVAC unit's condensor fan needed replacement at the ten-year mark, and the evaporator coils in the basement were rusting out five years ago; the water heater is fifteen years old, just about at the limit of its lifetime; the sump pump is over its expected 5-year lifetime.

And let's not even mention the basement.

If there is one thing I have learned over the past fourteen years, it is that we can't keep up with the maintenance requirements of such a large house. It is (was) a lovely house. It was a very good house in which to raise children. Excellent neighborhood, close to schools, shopping, churches, hiking/biking trails. Perfect for people who have the time and inclination to take advantage of such things.

We are not those people; at least, not anymore. Not at this point in our lives.

As part of my overall scheme to simplify our lives, I'm trying to figure out what kind of domicile would work for us. It needs to be smaller than our current house, but it can't be too small: we still need some space to do the things we do.

I still find it interesting to observe the areas of the house we use, and those we don't, now that the children are (mostly) gone. Mostly we use the family room to sit and play on our computers while watching TV or listening to the radio; the dining room to eat; the kitchen to cook; the bedroom to sleep; and ... that's about it. We don't use the living room or the spare bedrooms. We converted Adam's old room to an office and Deb's old room to the craft room, which is about all the 'extra' room we need. Once Mary is done with school and moved out on her own (as we expect she probably will), her room will be vacant. Once Adam is done with school and moves out on his own (as we suppose he might), the entire basement will be (mostly) unused.

Once they are all really gone, well over half the house will be unused. And I don't want to live in a house which mostly goes unused, even for those times when children and grandchildren visit.

Of course, we're not moving anytime soon, not with all these little maintenance issues we have to take care of. We'll work on it all spring and summer and then see where we're at. There will undoubtedly be interruptions here and there, little things that get in the way of all those tasks, and then a sudden mad-dash, last-minute kinds of panic mode if we get to the point of needing to move again.

If we do have to move somewhere else (because of a new job, for example), we're probably going to rent for a while until we are sure we'll be there for awhile. We certainly will never buy a house of this size again, not unless all the kids come home and we all live together like some big commune. Which is highly doubtful. Unless the world economy collapses and everyone is out of work. In which case we'll have to figure out a way to turn our clay-based backyard into a working farm.