Ardis's house

[edenfalling]

A while back Dad sent me a link to the real estate listing for Ardis's old house -- the people who bought it after she died are now moving and therefore it's on the market again. It's weird to click through the photos, both because there's been extensive remodeling and because I know kinesthetically exactly how big the space isn't so the angles used to make the rooms feel bigger are VERY obvious.

The major changes are to the overall color scheme (a general shift from dark brown to light tan), removal of carpeting in favor of wood floors, and some landscaping alterations. The big tree in the front yard that made it impossible to keep a lawn seems to be gone, and there are little brick patios both beside the front door and in the back yard, complete with lawn furniture and a wooden trellis.

That last change led to the odd realization that I had never been into Grandpa and Ardis's back yard. I visited that house for over twenty-five years! And I never set so much as a toe out there. Not once. I couldn't even tell you what they did or didn't do by way of landscaping on that side of the house. All our visits were centered indoors.

Habit is a funny thing.

Comments

[marmota_b]

I think I know a little of that habit. Over the years I've travelled back to the city of my birth (but not life) where my grandparents live, I've seen very little of the city. So despite the fact that I've been there many, many times, if you asked me to show you around, I could not.

[edenfalling]

There are significant parts of both my childhood hometown and Ithaca that I couldn't tell you anything about, having never been to those streets or businesses or whatever. Occasionally I feel bad about this and attempt to do a little map memorization for street names and such, but mostly those places are just irrelevant to my life (many of them because they're only reachable by car, and I have no car, so).