The Last House--So Far

This is the house we live in now--though the picture is nine years old and it looks a lot different with bigger trees and bushes. This would actually be a great house to live in for the rest of our lives due to the fact that we could live on one floor. The kitchen, laundry room, our bedroom and bathroom and an office (converted bedroom--one of the perks of kids moving out) are all on the main floor. The biggest disadvantages to staying here forever are: It is too far from family and South Dakota weather (do you know that occasionally South Dakota makes the news for having the coldest temp in the winter and sometimes makes the news for having the highest U.S. temp for the summer--not actually in Sioux falls but you get the idea that it can be really miserable in summer and winter. Springs are usually non-existent--but falls are often nice).
One of the most interesting things about living in this house is that fact that the first time I (and the kids) saw the house was the day we moved in. Our life was so crazy with this move that Dave found and bought the house and we just showed up when we could. This was also the hardest move our family ever made. Always before we would ALL move to the next place and with a little settling in, everyone adjusted and was happy. This time, our family went in different directions and I didn't think I would ever get over the trauma. Megan had graduated from college the month before we moved, so she had job in Utah and I knew her days of living at home were really over. Sam was a senior in high school and stayed in Arkansas to finish the school year there. It is amazing that new houses, new states, new schools, wards and neighbors never bothered me, but not having all my kids in one place was almost more than I could cope with. As if that wasn't bad enough, Rosie hated it here and ended up moving to Utah five months after we got here and finished her last two years of high school there. So I felt like a rotten mother for having my children living in other people's families, and I felt like a horrible mother for ruining their lives and the list could go on and on, but needless to say, it was a very hard year. Did I mention that we moved here in January? We bought the warmest coats we could find in Arkansas and moved here and about froze to death. Have you ever tried to find coats the last half of of January?--the stores were full of swimsuits and summer clothes. But I am getting off-track.

This house has five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Our whole family could have actually fit in here nicely. The basement was already finished. This is the first house that we moved to that didn't need major work to find room for somebody (usually Sam had to spend a few weeks or months sleeping on a couch waiting for a room to get finished for him). We have a large fenced yard, which was great when we had Jake (our dog), but now is a lot of grass to mow. We do have great neighbors! One of the nicest (and hardest) things about this house is that the kitchen, dining room and living room are all one big space. It is great for parties or having lots of people around. Everyone can be in the same place and I can cook and mess around in the kitchen and still be a part of things. I do not have much wall space though. I have huge boxes of pictures in the basement with no place to put them. We have two gas fireplaces that are wonderful all winter long. And we have a three car garage that is very useful. Of all the places that we have lived, South Dakota is the most like Utah. The people are very friendly, the food, names, and ways of doing things are more like home than any other place we have lived. Sioux Falls is clean and quiet and they have the best snow removal of any place we have ever lived or been to. We have lived in this house longer than any other house we have been in (and I have the accumulated stuff to prove it). By the way, the house is no longer pink. We painted the outside a tan/taupe color as soon as we could.