This was our first house just inside the Baltimore City line. I loved this house even though it was a duplex. We had tons of privacy. We had two fireplaces. It was huge! It doesn't look it but it was. Both boys, Nathan and Brian, were born while we lived in this house. So, we had many good memories. We loved fixing it up. I remember my father in law, who was a realtor at the time, cringing when we wanted to paint the trim a dark blue! I was pregnant and so Mark acquiesced to my wishes. We think the dark trim turned out pretty good! Nathan will kill me for posting the next two photos but they give a little bit of an idea of how the trim looked. We also completely remodeled the tiny kitchen. When we first moved in the kitchen only had a few cabinets on one wall. I completely re-designed the kitchen so as to have cabinets on both sides. We hand tiled the counters. It was beautiful. I've looked for pics but can't find any. We also renovated the basement and we were able to rent it out to supplement the mortgage. It, too, had a full working fireplace and Mark built a kitchen down there too. Gosh, I loved that house. I hated to move.
Because our first house was in the city, we were concerned about schooling for the boys. If schooling hadn't been such a concern, I'm not sure we would've ever moved from that first house. I loved that house. We had great neighbors. Across the street was a national cemetery full of war veterans (one happened to be my cousin who died fighting in WWII). So, it was pretty quiet. We loved walking in that cemetery.
Anyhow, below was our next house. Because I don't know how to use computers as well as I should, sadly, the "after" picture is posted before the "before" picture. We moved out to the country not too far south of Gettysburg. We were still in Maryland though. Oh, goodness. If this house could talk it would speak of all kinds of joy and truly happy memories. The boys started to grow in this house. They started school. They started to make friends. I can't tell you how depressed I was when we had to move from this house. We had so many parties here. A few of the most memorable ones were my sister's wedding reception, a welcome home party for my brother-in-law from Desert Storm, Christmas Tree cutting parties, Christmas cookie exchanges, 4th of July's, oh...... we had enough space we could have horseshoes, wiffle ball and croquet all going on at the same time. I included a couple of pictures of Brian. The balloon picture was taken one Sunday morning when Mark looked out our kitchen window and spotted it landing in the corn field behind us. Now, that is something to wake up to! How cool is that? Mark built the swing set that was 3 tiers. At the time I thought it a tad dangerous.
Another very special thing about this house was it was historic. Because the walls were stone our window sills were 2 feet deep. In the basement the sills were triangular and the windows were slits. The historical society said they were built that way so as to put a musket through and still be able to shoot out at all angles. It was pretty darn cool.
Anyhow, my point being that as much as I hate leaving this house (the one here in Florida) I realize life will go on. The grandbabies will grow just as Nathan and Brian did. It's not where you live, it's where you love that counts.I do so hate moving but as far as leaving this house. I can't wait. As one door closes another will open and Denise would so much want us to be happy. I think this house obviously has bad Karma if there is such a thing. So good riddance and on to happier days.
added edit: No! We're not moving far. We'll still be around. I couldn't think of leaving the kids unless of course we have to.
