This past summer, I took one last look around our house, lingering in rooms I knew I would especially miss. Then, when it was time to go, I locked the front door and bid the house farewell.
Ten years ago, my husband and I had settled into the plantation-style home in the Central West End after moving here from New York City. I remember being instantly smitten. I loved the house’s front porch and stately columns, the entry foyer’s quarter-sawn oak floors that led up a staircase to the second floor. Outside the master bedroom window, a leafy tree conveyed a sense of peace and calm.
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Over the next decade, the house became ours, a place for celebrating important milestones, including the birth of our two children, those first days of school, holiday dinners with family and friends. Forest Park was our playground, our neighbors our confidants.
Then, earlier this year, after a decade in the house, we decided to test the real estate market. As we attended open houses and scrolled through photos on Zillow, I repeated what came to be a mantra: “I won’t leave this house unless I find one that I love just as much or more.”
Houses—big or small, historic or new, urban or suburban—have the capacity to take hold of our hearts.
In the midst of reporting this month’s cover story, I paid an unexpected visit to a house two blocks from our front door. There it was, graceful and inviting, that rarity of a home that exhibits a melding of historic and modern, turn-of-the-century craftsmanship with contemporary touches.
As I write this, the moving boxes are mostly gone. The basement has been cleared of high chairs and baby clothes. In front of me is the prospect of creating something new and different. Like so many of the homeowners in this issue, it’s time to take a chance. I look forward to embracing our new home, with all its quirks and mysteries.
Here’s to all of those special places that make us feel welcome, that make us feel at home.
