Team-Up Thursday

Week 25 Theme – Where You Live

Gini’s on the left; mine on the right.

Two different shots of Longmeadow. Gini’s is of the Community House, the place where so many things happen in this town – voting, pancake breakfasts, social events – even a surprise baby shower for one Miss Gabriella Egan. Town Hall. (Why don't you look a bit closer, dummy.) And mine is…well, our house. Funny that with all the different architectural styles in town, both our pictures are focused on colonial brick structures. Even more interesting is how we both focused on 5 windows and a door of said structures. Hmmm….

I interpreted this theme quite narrowly, as you can see. I thought about trying to capture the character of this town, but I just couldn’t come up with one picture that I thought would do it justice. I wasn’t thrilled with my shot when I originally took it, but looking at it now, I see that it reflects the essence of why we bought this house.

Dennis and I always wanted a brick colonial with white trim and black shutters. And, we knew we wanted to end up in Longmeadow. This town is a throw-back of sorts, a sleepy little town where family life is central to everything. There is little industry, lots of history, mature trees throughout, and an enviable “network of sidewalks”. We looked at a number of homes, of all different architectural styles, but none quite hit the mark. Then one Sunday, I was scouring the “Homes for Sale” section of the classifieds and came across a tiny 3-line listing for an open house that afternoon, a house For Sale by Owner, with no picture, but in our price range. Dennis was studying furiously for his second bar exam, so I decided to venture out on my own to check it out.

Well, the minute I turned down our road I knew I was home. Our road is lined with huge trees, with the majority of homes being brick colonials. As I approached #10, my heart was practically leaping out of my chest. I called Dennis at home and told him “You have to come meet me here NOW.” As I said, he was studying furiously, so he was in no place to be dropping everything and running out to look at a house. He told me to come home and we could take a ride back later to see inside. So home I went, a bit dejected if I’m honest, and waited patiently for him to get to a good stopping point. As soon as he did, we headed back to the open house, and did a walkthrough of the house that lasted 5 minutes tops. The owner was chatting with other folks while we were there, so we didn’t even get a chance to talk to him. We got back in the car, and both agreed that this was the house for us. We went home, Dennis called the owner, and promptly made a full-price offer. The owner told him he’d already gotten a full-price offer, so he’d take ours into consideration as well. When Dennis hung up, I was devastated. We talked it over quickly, and agreed (well, kind of!) to call him back and offer him more money and a quick close date. I just knew this was where we were meant to be, and I couldn’t let it slip away from us. I mean, come on, it’s a brick colonial with white trim and black shutters, in Longmeadow. Seriously.

So, long story even longer, they accepted our offer and we moved in at the end of March, 2006. And we’ve loved it ever since. Admittedly, it’s smaller than we’d like (or really need) it to be, we’ve found some crazy handiwork here and there courtesy of the previous owner, and we have a wish-list a mile long of projects we’d like to tackle. But, this is home for us, and I wouldn’t trade it, or the life that we’ve built in it, for anything in the world.