Tag Archives: real estate

January 6, 2015 · 3:31 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – You can’t go home again

Cleaning my office the first day back from the holidays, this picture fell out of a file folder onto my keyboard.

The Big 540… my childhood home.

The same house that we sold a few months ago. The process of selling was rather unpleasant, the details remaining unwritten. Use your imagination if you do not know the details. The process of dismantling it was long and arduous, as my parents had lived there for 60 years. But it was a labor of love. By the time we signed on the dotted line it was more of a relief than anything else.

Oddly, a few weeks after closing I had the most bizarre dream. I was showering in my parents’ bathroom and suddenly realized that we no longer owned the house (oops). Yep, wrapped in a towel in someone else’s bathroom and they walked in the back door. The classic version of the ‘I forgot to study for the test’ dream.

A few weeks later I had another dream that I was hanging out in the house and all of the new owners’ relatives started showing up with furniture and started yelling at me and threatening to call the cops. Again, I had forgotten that this was no longer ‘our house’ (yes, I am way crazier than I let on).

I don’t have to be a therapist to know that the loss of this house is obviously effecting me more than I realized. I have never lived without this home – quite something for someone of ‘my age’. This is where I grew up, where the family gathered, where my mom planted. And planted. And planted. Where my history lived in the walls. And although my current home has been in my life almost half as long as this one has, there is something unnerving about losing this place.

I know ‘home’ is not the building. And Lord knows I have brought enough of the stuff from that house here (anyone want to help me go through 14 crates of photos). It is hard to explain how I feel.

Maybe it is simply the knowledge that I can’t go home again.

6 Comments

Filed under aging parents, grief, homeowner, loss, real estate, Time to Cry Tuesdays

Tagged as aging, grief, home, loss, parents, real estate

October 13, 2014 · 5:32 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – On Doors Closing and Opening

I always loved the phrase: When one door closes another one opens.

Last week I experienced an uber (no, not that Uber) example of those proverbial doors. I tried my very best to keep my emotions under the drama bar and go with the flow. This, by the way, does nothing more than exhaust you beyond description and is simply a control freak’s illusion, but I seem most comfortable in this state.

As with most of my life, the sequence of my doors were reversed. But this saying made for a nice thread for this post, so let’s go with it.

On Thursday, a door opened. Big time. The one to my daughter Jana’s new apartment. The apartment that she will be sharing with the love of her life – the young man who she has spent many long years waiting to live in the same city with, let alone under the same roof. In reality, the door to this apartment made it a challenge to get a queen-sized box spring through it and up the stairs to her bedroom, but this was the small stuff. (Rectified, btw, by sofasurgery.com. Quick plug for an amazing service that solved the problem in less than 2 hours from call to completion).

The opening of this door was one to the beginning of a wonderful life together and the joy I feel for them is beyond description. (And contrary to those who question this, his mother and I will not be living with them)

On Friday, a door closed. Big time. After many months of listings, contracts, deals, stops and starts, boiler and oil tank replacements, clean-outs, boxes, yards of bubble wrap, sorting, reminiscing, sales, dumpsters, tears, laughs, one broken toe and one tennis/schlepping elbow… we closed on the sale of my childhood home. With each stage of this process, no matter how much stuff we took out of this house, it still felt like the home of my childhood. My family is embedded in the walls of this place. Even that very last day, the one when the house was completely empty except for the bottle of Stoli in the freezer that we toasted one last time to my mom with, we could not help but feel that she would somehow come walking out of that kitchen.

The closing of this door? Well it certainly carries with it a bag of mixed emotions. I walked out of that closing (both the real estate deal and the door) with an odd sense of calm coupled with an overwhelming exhaustion. I certainly have said my goodbyes to that house, that life, that anchor. I am happy to be rid of the process. But there is a lingering phantom pain surrounding never being able to ‘go home again’.

Ok, so maybe I crossed over the drama bar for a moment.

The net of all this (other than my overuse of cliché and devices)? I am a women who loves signs and juxtapositions. I thrive on the meant to be and the alignment of stars. To close on 10.10 at 10am at 1010 Northern Blvd. rang that bell big time. And it was my grandfather’s birthday to boot.

But nothing rang the bell more than the site of my girl in her beginning as I was tying up an ending.

One door opens and another one closes… maybe it is ok to reverse that saying, after all.

9 Comments

Filed under aging parents, childhood, cliches, doors, family, sentimentalites

Tagged as aging parents, apartments, childhood, cliche, doors, family, grief, home, houses, loss, love, real estate, sentimentalities, signs

September 23, 2010 · 9:13 pm

Grateful Debt

Jerry Garcia AP photo

Jerry Garcia’s last home is up for sale at the cool price of $4 mil.

Ok so, I know I have 2 kids in college but I really want this house.

There was a facebook suggestion that we could turn this into the Touch of Grey Timeshare. (cool idea, Rina).

The previous owner sold many of the fixtures, including the toilet, to raise funds for charity. So if you were considering purchasing this place, keep in mind you will not be using the original American(Beauty) Standard crapper that Jerry did.

Dr. Jimmy? Chez Cortez West?

2 Comments

Filed under dr. jimmy, music

Tagged as jerry garcia, Marin County California, real estate

March 27, 2010 · 10:21 pm

Florida Real Estate

Florida: Day 3

A constant source of entertainment here in South Florida are the names of the planned communities. Like the famous Del Boca Vista of Seinfeld, the naming conventions are quite comical.

Driving home from dinner with my aunt and uncle we passed a favorite: Villagio. Not to be confused with Bellagio. It seems they start to run out of names so they create hybrids. Which is a bit scary since everyone is sort of hard of hearing and could easily wind up in the wrong place.

Here you can also find Valencia Isles, Valencia Lakes, Valencia Pointe and Valencia Shores. My uncle told us that the fire department got fed up and asked them to change things up because it was becoming too confusing.

So they built Greystone.

It would appear that if you live in one of the Valencias chances are your house could burn down before they find you. Something to consider when looking at Greystone.

But our favorite community of all would have to be…

Journey’s End.

Seriously, why not just name the place G-d’s Waiting Room.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.