Our 2005 Portland house hunting adventures were full of dead-ends and near misses. For months my trips home from work included drive-bys of potential homes and new listings. I still remember the day I pulled up in front of the house that has become our home. It just felt right. A big part of that was the park at the end of the street, just a half block away. My house in Spokane had a park close by and I missed it. One of the best things about the park? The big old deciduous trees. Beautiful leaves that I don't have to rake up!
Those leaves are magic...
Weather Diary, Oct 24: Hi 70, Low 44/ Precip 0
Wednesday Vignettes are hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum. All material © 2009-2017 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.
We spent a full month looking at houses every weekend in this town, and the one we're now in is the very first one we looked at. I liked it immediately, especially the big yard, of course, but for some reason we felt compelled to keep looking at everything. That was back near the beginning of the recent recession, when houses sat on the market for months and months. I wish my oak leaves were somebody else's problem.
ReplyDeleteWe were looking at the time when multiple offers were placed the very day the house went on the market. Not fun at all!
DeleteThe best autumn trees are usually those found in places other than your own yard. :)
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth!
DeleteLila looks lovely surrounded by all those colorful fallen leaves. At our park they leave big piles of them to jump into and have leaf fights.
ReplyDeleteThey do move all the leaves from our park into big piles several times throughout the season. Some get picked up by the city, some get picked up by private citizens, all get "abused" by the dogs headed to the park...
DeleteLila, leaves, lovely!
ReplyDeleteIndeed...
DeleteWow! A tree like that would have swayed me too. I remember a similar feeling about our current house. My husband and I literally drove by the front of the place at the end of a long day of fruitless open house tours. The house wasn't open at that time and our hunt went cold for a couple of months, when I found the house again on-line and asked our newly-anointed agent to arrange a tour. My husband resisted, especially when we arrived for that tour during an early October heatwave (7 years ago now), but he eventually succumbed to its charms, even though it's on the "wrong" (warmer) side of the peninsula. For me, of course, it was all about the garden space.
ReplyDeleteOf course it was! The garden space here was one of the best we'd seen...that may have also had a lot to do with my feeling it was the right one...
DeleteSuch a cool photo of Lila!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, when we drove up to ours for the first time, everything just "felt right".
Your house would have definitely felt right to me too!
DeleteUgh - the end of 2005 was when we started searching too. It was awful - such an emotional rollercoaster... We're close to a park too, but now that the kids are grown, I don't go there much. I think I need to get myself a dog... When the kids were still in elementary school, I used to bring rakes to school when I picked them up, so they could rake big piles of leaves to jump in. It was a huge hit - not just with my kids, but with all their classmates too. Such fun times...
ReplyDeleteA dog will definitely get you out and about in the neighborhood. I miss the long walks we used to take, back when Lila was up for it. You're such a fun mom!
DeleteWhat a nice addition to your neighborhood to be able to walk to a park. I remember house hunting for our first house and we walked into a home and Mark immediately walked over to the fireplace mantle. On it was a framed print that was one of his early works. We never could figure out who owned his artwork and the house.
ReplyDeleteNow THAT'S a great story!
DeleteIt is lovely to see the sky lights up with a single ray of sunshine behind those glorious autumn leafs.
ReplyDeleteThe condo I ended up buying was not the only place I looked at but it was the first and the one that felt right immediately. Can't argue with love at first sight.
Nope, when it's right you know it!
DeleteOh, I know what you mean about it just feeling right. That instinct has never let me down when it comes to homes. Lovely vignettes!
ReplyDeleteThanks Beth!
DeleteNice little back story about finding your house. You got that "vision thing" going for you.
ReplyDelete