Saturday, October 12, 2024

Part Two


When we bought the house on Edenfield Road, that area to the right of the brick walkway was not cemented over and the original owners had planted boxwoods on both sides of the brick walkway. 
Boxwoods.
Nothing says tropical paradise like scraggly ass boxwoods. Not that what I did said Tropical Paradise either but I hired a nephew of Glen's to get rid of those boxwoods and clear those areas. Eventually, I had them planted in flowers and herbs and a few vegetables. It was beautiful to me. My next door neighbor called it an English garden and I have no idea about that but there was no real rhyme or reason, much less pattern to what I planted. It was all just a joyous jumble. I had some elephant ears that had the biggest leaves I've ever seen. Enormous! I had heirloom roses climbing the fence that used to be there and an African basil plant that was bigger than my kitchen table.

The people who bought the house from us, did a lot of construction and put on additions, so many of the rooms you see on the listing site had not been built when we lived there. This is NOT to say that it wasn't a big house. It was. But not as big as it is now. And yes, it was a lot to take care of and throw in all the acres around it and I have no idea how I did it. Let me add here that at this time, Glen was selling cars in a new business of his own and every other week he was gone for three nights and four days to go to the auto auctions in Central Florida to buy them. Of course I had no cleaning help nor did I have any yard help after the boxwoods were removed. Mr. Moon tilled up an area behind the house for a vegetable garden and we both worked in that. The former owners, who had built the house, had no trees within striking distance of it. The man spent his life in insurance and I guess he knew very well what a tree can do to a house. 
And I hated that. There were beautiful trees on the property but none right by the house so it baked in the summer with no shade to provide any relief. Of course I planted a live oak in the front yard as well as some olive trees and I don't even remember what. 


I do believe I may have planted this fig tree.

I did become accustomed to so much sky though, and to me, it always looked like a great bowl of sky and that was beauty in its own way. 
Another thing I came to love about the house was that Mr. Moon had the pool house made into a sort of office for me and oh, how I loved that! I wrote most of a novel in that room of my own. 
Also, Jessie and Lily had their own rooms which was wonderful. There was a huge attic that led off of Lily's room and she may or may not have spent a lot of time in that attic, doing things that perhaps she knew her parents would not approve of. 

As teenagers are wont to do. As teenagers, it would seem, must do. God knows I did.

Hank and May had already moved out of the house when we lived on Edenfield but Hank did come and stay with us for awhile. He lived in the basement. We barely knew he was there although he cheerfully babysat when we need him to. For awhile, a girlfriend of his lived there with him and therein lies another whole story which I might or might not tell someday. I'd have to run that past Hank because it's really his story. 

I tell you who really loved that house- Lis. To this day we joke that she made me buy it and mostly for the wallpaper in the dining room which was a green and cream toile. It also lined the hallway too. It was SO not me but as I have often said, Lis is the boss of me.
And I have to say that Lon and Lis and Glen and I had some fabulous times in that house when they came to visit. I would be flat-out lying if I said we didn't. 

But.
I don't know. I never had a good night's sleep in that house. I have no idea why. We moved the bed from one wall to another and none of that made any difference. And sound traveled from downstairs to upstairs in such a way that napping was impossible. There was unlimited closet and storage space in the house which I'm sure the former owners/builders put in there thinking that it would be enough to hold their collections. 
It wasn't. Not nearly. And I just saw myself filling up those closets and cabinets and, and, and...
Would I be the next person to live there with fifty sets of Blue Willow china and enough quilts to keep fifty people cozy? 
My neighbor whom I'd fallen in mutual love with when we first moved in suddenly went cold on me. To this day I do not know why. But it was the weirdest, hardest thing. I saw her once long after we moved and she apologized over and over for being a "bad neighbor" but she never explained what had happened. 

It was all just getting weird. And Glen had promised me that we wouldn't have to live there for long if I didn't want to. 
And we both felt like we needed something closer to town and smaller. We had rooms that no one ever ventured in. The big living room was only used at Christmas and not even always then. 

Which led to us looking here and there at houses and one night we were out on a date and I'd seen a classified ad in the paper (this WAS over twenty years ago) for an old, historical house in Lloyd and curious, we hopped on the interstate and found the house. It was dark, the Beatles were playing on the radio and I fell in love, just looking at the house in the night, called the next morning and went to see it. 
The house was not quite as big as the one on Edenfield but it was a lot farther from town. And as much as I had not wanted to move into the house with the pool, Mr. Moon did not want to move into this house. 
Again. There were tears. SO MANY TEARS. Mine, not his. I made promises that I've tried to keep and mostly have but Glen knew how much work it would take to keep this old house standing and in decent repair.
Finally, though, after he insisted that I crawl with him UNDER THE HOUSE which is a scary undertaking in every way because there's almost no room and you have to scoot on your back, and he showed me all of the wood that eventually was going to need replacing and I replied, "But look at all the good wood!" he caved. 

And that's been 21 years next year. 

Never once have I regretted moving here although I'm sure Glen has. I occasionally dream about the house with the pool and I know that I did love that pool and there were certain things about the house that I very much enjoyed, especially the huge back porch. 


Sigh. 
But this house, our house in Lloyd, has made me feel as if I am home ever since we moved in. Although I tried to funk-up the Edenfield house, it just was not built for funkiness. I did my best. With this house the funk is built in. I have never once looked around me and wondered what in hell I was doing here. People always ask if it's haunted and I tell them the truth- I have never felt anything but peace and protection here. 

I am not sure our house sagas are completely over. In fact, I doubt very much they are. But no matter what, this house has held my heart so gently and so sweetly, like no other home I've ever had. It is the house my grandchildren have always known. I think I am very lucky to have found the place I truly know as home. 
And I surely do sleep deeply here. Every night. 




But yeah, I fucking miss that pool. 

Love...Ms. Moon




38 comments:

  1. It's so easy to be head over heels and soul deep in love with a house. I can barely remember my first house, where I raised my girls, but was in love with my second house we lived in for thirty odd years. The one my grands remember. And I didn't even find it; my sister's dog did.

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  2. Odd that the bigger place didn't feel right. I think houses have a psychic presence. Maybe that one suited mr Moon more than it did you.
    For me it would be too much house.

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    1. When Glen was growing up in his part of Tennessee, owning a big impressive house was a sure sign of success and I think that's what that house represented to him. I got it, I get it.

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  3. I'm just happy that you are where you are......!
    Susan M

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    1. I've probably told this story more than once but this time there were pictures!

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  5. I agree, some houses just feel right. As lovely as your previous house was it clearly did not work for you.
    You are lucky to have found your Lloyd house. As for the missing pool, there is always the option of adding it.

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    1. Yes, m'am, and I wonder why I'm waiting to do that.

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  6. For a lot of years, I lived in a house that was not a home. When we moved, I was not sorry, so I get it. It didn't even have a pool.

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    1. Some houses need to be appreciated for the shelter they give when we live in them but it sure doesn't mean we have to love them.

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  7. Our house here in Portland is the first house that felt like home to me (for all the reasons, I suppose). It's old, and falling apart, and likely will slide off the hill into the street at some point in the future, and all the floors slant and you can hear the 19 bus as if it's driving into the living room, but it's the house R. and I have raised our boys the past 11 years in, and I know we'll have to sell it eventually (the thirty steps up to the front door don't seem like they'll be tenable when we're older) but it feels safe and homey like no other house has.

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    1. We are much alike in this regard. And your comment about the 19 bus reminds me to say that there is literally a train track in our back yard and yes, trains run daily.

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  8. That was a beautiful home. The pool is lovely. Does it have a deep end.? I didn't notice a diving board. Did you use the fireplace(s)? I think houses are like people...some you like....some you don't. They all have different personalities.
    Paranormal John

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    1. It definitely had an end that was deeper than the other but no, we did not have a diving board. Those can be very dangerous and I had no desire for one.
      We tried to use that ginormous fireplace once and about smoked ourselves out. Never again did we repeat that experiment.
      You are so right about personalities.

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  9. It's definitely home when a house lets you sleep deeply and peacefully from the first night. At the Edenfield house, what your neighbour called an English Garden is what I know as a Cottage Garden. It's where flowers and herbs are all grown together in a riotous jumble of prettiness with maybe a few vegetables included so as to invite as many bees as possible and to confuse pests that love long straight rows of anything so they can snack from one end to the other and ruin the crop. A mixed cottage garden means the pests have more trouble finding what they like so they'll move on.

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    1. A cottage garden! Okay. Maybe he said an "English Cottage garden." It's been a long while. And your description sounds exactly like what I had.

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  10. I’d fucking miss the pool, too. But your current house wins my heart. The house on Edenfield Road is simply not you. SG’s sister asked us once when we thought we found a home in San Francisco, “Does it sing to you?” That was the perfect question.

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    1. Does it sing to you?
      Beautiful. Just beautiful. This one sings to me, at least. The Edenfield house had what I can only describe as a rather dull, tuneless humming, if it had anything.

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  11. As you say the big house is absolutely beautiful (but so much upkeep) and I think you just know when a place is right for you. We saw this place on a Sunday and made an offer on the Tuesday (we hadn't even been to the bank at that point). BUT in our case, it wasn't the house it was the location and that still holds true for me today!

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  12. Your Lloyd house is lovely and enjoys human proportions as well as history. Why don't you create a swimming pool in your yard? It's big enough. Damn the expense!

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  13. I think your home in Lloyd suits you better. Except a pool would be nice, especially in the heat.
    My ex-husband tried to get me to move to a fancy house once but I refused. Too big, too much cleaning, and we would need so much more furniture. Fortunately he let go of the idea fairly quickly.

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    1. A pool would be heaven.
      The thought never occurred to me that I could refuse to move into that house. Maybe because I knew Glen was not going to give up on it.

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  14. I've only thought of homes in a practical way - can we all fit and can we afford it? You are more romantic about your home, I think, which is a lovely thing.
    That other home doesn't look like you at all, Mary, or at least the Mary I see in the home you live in now. Now I understand why you want a pool where those trees were taken down. Do it!

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    1. Yes. I am a very home-based woman in so many ways. Home is where I get my comfort, my peace, my sustenance.

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  15. My old house, over 100 years when we moved in, in one of the oldest parts of the city that we lived in for over 40 years was like that for me. I loved that house and my little inner city neighborhood. it was so hard leaving that house but we didn't have the money to maintain it and termites had had their way with it and the neighborhood was being gentrified and the new people moving in were not like the live and let live people they were replacing. I do love this house out here where we are now out in the county, not as old but older built in the 50s with it's eaves and lots of windows and a big yard and no neighbors crowding you but still have neighbors that I've gotten to know and get along with.

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    1. I know you miss that house, Ellen. I surely do understand that. And a house built in the 50's is still a house that was built well and has human-friendly elements to it. I think I would like your house very much.

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  16. Genuine and real- charming and homey, history , good vibes- can'[t beat it! I LOVE where you live now- the other house was lovely too but not as deep, without soul I would say.
    The house we live in was all compromise and I have never felt at home in it . It has become worse since Dennis has retired and taken the helm. The only thing I love about this house is the bath tub.

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    1. That's just not fair. I'm sorry. You have the right to love your house too, I believe.
      Well, at least you have a bath tub you like. That ain't nothing.

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  17. It's interesting reading about your history with that house and your family's experiences living there, but weirdly, it's very hard for me to envision you in it. It seems so NOT you. The huge pristine back porch is nice on one hand, but also seems like...a nursing home, maybe? Know what I mean? Kind of just BIG and even a little institutional.

    Maybe that's because in my mind you have been forever associated with Lloyd, for better or worse! :)

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    1. I believe I was destined to live in the small villages. Roseland, Lloyd. And I see what you mean about the porch. I mean, it was great and as you can imagine I had a LOT of plants out there but really- who needs a porch that big?

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  18. You live in a house that your grandchildren love to come to and stay over with you in and that says so much about the spirit of the place where you now live. Plus, your trees. Your beautiful trees. And you may not have the pool but there is always the Wicassa. Another kind of magic. But these house stories are fascinating windows onto the stages of a life. I often look back on my life now and it feels as if some passages happened to someone else. Such a weird disconnect. I do love your current house. It holds such stories.

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    1. I know EXACTLY what you mean about looking back and feeling as if it were a completely different person living that part of my life. Sort of like watching a movie.
      This house does hold a lot of stories and I like all the ones I know of it.

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  19. Glad everyone in Roseland is okay. Your former place is certainly nice but I don’t think you can beat an old home with history. Only old homes seem warm to me. Clearly the cat is very comfortable and at home in the Lloyd house as well. Cats sense good (and bad!) energy. I once made the mistake of doing Buddhist chanting with a feline nearby. Good Lord! Fucker chanted right along and it threw me off my game.

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  20. Every Home has it's Special appeals and Memories to it. There are things we will always Miss about each and things we appreciate where we're at. I prefer Old Homes, Historic ones particularly, but a nice Vintage Home that doesn't need any Restoration and has had the right amount of Remodeling is just right at this Season of our Lives. I do Love our Pool, it's the first Home we've Owned that has had one.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.