Apologies for missing the last two months. We were busy as a family. After 17 years in the same house, we’re saying goodbye to the home that has held our memories, laughter, and tears. We got married in this house, had our daughter, 14 puppies were born here (three we’ve kept.)
All of us are sad to leave this house, especially kiddo. The walls have seen the first days of school, the first steps, and the first drawings. She had her first Christmas mornings running down to open gifts, first snowmen and snow balls in the back yard. We built forts out of pillows, couch cushions and blankets in the family room. She learned to hit a baseball here, to play soccer, and shoot basketballs.
Moving also means we’re leaving our 1930’s all brick, plaster walls, slate roof, no plywood anywhere house. I joke you could drop an elephant on the roof and it would roll off it’s so well built. Yes there are older home problems too – the wiring is old, the pipes are 90 years old and spring leaks at random times – but it always felt solid. We had firm foundation on which to build our life together.
The new home is a newer house. Plywood and two-by-fours. shingles, and drywall. My first thoughts when we first looked at it were – “I think the floors are sagging,” and “it’s not well built.” It hasn’t really grown on me since, but it is typical of the neighborhood we wanted to move into. This is one of the top three school districts in the state, so this was always our target.
Whereas the old house had issues, this one has some pluses – an acre of land all fenced in for the dogs, a swimming pool, it’s bigger, with a new modern bathroom. a lot of counter space in the kitchen and two pantries. For every negative there are positives, except, I just don’t love it like I do the one we’re leaving.
What I do love is the location. There are farms around us, there isn’t a single stop light in town, the schools are amazing, and the people are friendly. It’s a bit less hectic than where we live now, but there are still plenty of things to do.
I know I need a better attitude about the new house and I’m going to try my best. Moving is a chance to make new memories, to turn this house into our home, to start new traditions and make new firsts. Kiddo is going to go to middle and high school here, so this may end up being the place she thinks of as her childhood home because she’ll have more consequential experiences. Hard to say.
All I know right now is, when we walk out of this house, it is the end of an era for our family and the start of something new.
Ciao
~Andy
Andy Gallo:
Andy prefers mountains over the beach, coffee over tea, and regardless if you shake it or stir it, he isn’t drinking a martini. He remembers his “good old days” as filled with mullets, disco music, too-short shorts, and too-high socks. Thanks to good shredders and a lack of social media, there is no proof he ever descended into any of those evils.
Andy does not write about personal experiences and no living or deceased ex-boyfriends appear on the pages of his stories. He might subconsciously infuse his characters with some of their less noble qualities, but that is entirely coincidental even if their names are the same.
Married and living his own happy every after, Andy helps others find their happy endings in the pages of his stories. He and his husband of more than twenty years spend their days raising their daughter and rubbing elbows with other parents. Embracing his status as the gay dad, Andy sometimes has to remind others that one does want a hint of color even when chasing after their child.
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