Hello. Goodbye!
Fondly, emotionally, gratefully and nostalgically, I said goodbye to the house with the yellow door today.
Memories of going in to labor with my son in that house, bringing my newborn daughter home to that house, my oldest losing his first tooth while wrestling in that house, my 40th birthday party without any kids in that house, lots and lots and lots of home projects in that house - flooded my mind today. I want to remember them all perfectly and walking out for the last time I realize I won't. Space helps us relive our memories. That space will be someone else's backdrop for their memories starting tomorrow.
What I will miss most might just be the front door.
There is nothing like one's front door. In the old house, when I was working toward love, and still in a little bit of why-aren't-you-a-different-house frustration, painting the front door the happiest, brightest, sunniest shade of yellow was an unbelievable boost. I loved walking in that door. I loved pulling up to it with a van-full of kids crying and complaining. I loved hanging a wreath on it. The yellow was a big UP color, and a big smile. If that shade of yellow were a person, it would be my daughter: a bouncy, happy, silly two-year-old with curly almost-white blond hair. Painting the front door Reesie-yellow was possibly the best thing I did in the house, and I did some great things there. It was so great because of what it did for me, every time I walked in.
On my new house, I do plan to paint the front door something different very soon. I am flirting with Benjamin Moore's HC-144 Palladian Blue. It is talking to me, that little paint chip. It says, "I will sooth you and remind you of beach glass, while still being a bit perky and weird, which you like. I play nice with the sandy tan siding you can't afford to repaint. I won't be too tooth-pasty, like other minty blue hues." It is probably not rational to paint the front door when you're living room is still full of boxes, but when I remember what it did for the last house, I think it qualifies as a functional improvement. Done right it isn't quite a nap-time project but it doesn't take a whole weekend either. It'll also be the first non-moving-in memory I have in the house. I'm ready for that.
