Over the past several months I’ve been working in Chattanooga through the week and going back home to Lawrenceville on weekends to be with my wife. This has lead to the some discussions between my wife and I about the possibility of us moving back to Chattanooga. It probably won’t happen but the thinking about it has had me considering what I’m wanting in my next home.
Our sons are now both grown and the house we now live in is way too large for us and not real practical for a couple that should consider future accessibility needs. Having to climb stairs is something that we won’t want to be doing as we get older. A level lawn is something else for which I see a need.
Location is something else I’ve been thinking about. I would love to be able to leave my car parked as much as possible. I would like to be able to safely walk or bike to stores and restaurants and other community activities. I guess I’m getting more urban as I get older. Where we live now is actually close to all of what I’m wanting but the community hasn’t been designed for foot or bike traffic.
I helped a friend find a place to live last week that was on the street where Gerri and I bought our first house. The neighborhood was built in the 1930s and 40s and is in a part of town that had gotten a little seedy at one time but now is coming back. This neighborhood never saw the blight the rest of the town saw so the houses never got in a run down condition to have to be rebuilt, they have just needed to be modernized a little.
I also noticed that sidewalks have been put in on the highway a couple of blocks from the house and those sidewalks lead to restaurants and shopping. A park has been added where an old landfill once sat and a road now connects the neighborhood to easy access to a trendy part of town.
Gerri and I have lived in four different houses over the last 32 years, each one a little larger than the last. Our needs have changed as we have grown older. It just seems funny to me that as I look at it all is that what seems to me as our perfect house is our first house.
I want my first house back.
