They grew up with front stairs and back stairs, a third floor packed with toys and craft supplies, a springhouse, pasture, woods ripe for exploration, a massive warehouse of a barn, acreage, a creek, numerous pets and a very large rock that is semi-famous. As babies are prone to doing, they grew up. We brought two babies home to this house. It turns out that if you undertake a large and very old home renovation with nothing but a shoestring budget and seriously misplaced enthusiasm, people eat that up. I would later write of family, parenting and errant goats. To be honest it was a humorous essay, however.Īs time went on, the little attacks of charm that come with home ownership would prove to be my bread and butter in the publishing world. To be fair we were in House Beautiful within a few years. I would be Better Homes and Gardens perfect in just a few years. With the naivete of youth, I knew better, of course. At that time she assured me she had moved into her home in 1953 and was still waiting for that magical moment of completion.
We bought a “fixer-upper” in 1996 and had a five-year plan to “fix it up!” That was 25 years ago, and we may be just about, almost (maybe halfway?) done. I realized that all this was happening in view of the house that helped build and shelter our family all these years. I held the camera aloft and I realized that the baby (spoiler alert: it was a girl) now stood on roughly the same spot having her engagement photos taken. I vividly remember searing that moment into my consciousness. I had a strong feeling, at that moment, of contentment. It needed more work than I even understood (then or now). I don’t recall what, but I imagine it involved more work to be done.Īs our son clambered between us, I glanced up at the house on the hill. Wonderful had called me down to the creek to see something. Over two decades ago, I stood in that same spot, with a watchful eye ensuring our toddler didn’t tumble headlong into the creek, wondering if our soon-to-be-born second baby was a boy or a girl. Then again, sometimes the outtakes are what really bring photos - and relationships - into focus. She turned for just a moment to look up the hill toward the house, and instinctively, I snapped the shot. Our daughter, so young and blonde and pretty, stood in a white sundress, her handsome fiance standing a few feet away. We were looking for the next shot and trying to capture that best pose. We stood in our lower front yard, an area more field than yard, actually. “If I could walk around, I swear I’ll leave won’t take nothin’ but a memory from the house that built me.”
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