Time To Downsize

Cathy and I moved to North Haven in 1988. At the time Paul was a baby and Kelly was born 3 years later. As our children got older the house seemed to take on a life of its own. A door always seemed to be opening or closing and the doorbell was always ringing. Kids would be running up and down the hallway. The phone was always ringing. As the kids got older there was always a car in the driveway of some parent picking up one of our children taking them to some sporting event, school function or to the movies. We would also be the parent picking up children at their house to bring them to some type of function. Of course there were the sleepover parties. The pool always had someone jumping off the diving board. As the children got even older still, they were now driving or their friends would be coming to our house to hang out or to pick them up. I get exhausted thinking about it all. The house was a perfect size for all the chaos. That was then but this is now.

First Paul went away to college and then of course it was Kelly’s turn to leave home to get her education. Once they both completed the college portions of their lives, it was not long at all before they both were living on their own. Paul bought a house and moved to Branford and Kelly later moved to NYC. All of a sudden the house that was the perfect size for all that commotion became larger and quieter. Cathy and I were suffering from the proverbial empty nest syndrome. We settled in to the new living scenario and enjoyed the freedom and the quiet. To make up for some of the quiet, Buddy became our little fur child. It has been fun living in our house with Buddy the last few years and the family memories and gatherings over the years have been priceless. Our home was a wonderful place to raise our children, host the holidays and entertain with friends. By choice, the ride is coming to an end as Cathy and I have decided to sell our house and downsize to something smaller for the next chapter in our lives.

The decision was a difficult one and I was definitely the catalyst. After 28 years I was ready for a change. One thing that we always liked to do was go to open houses. We would get ideas on different aspects of a home or just be nosey lookers. We looked at probably 100 houses over a number of years and did the “should we move or not?” game. There always seemed to be something about each of those houses that just wasn’t right for us. We were in agreement that for us to move the house would have to be perfect because our existing house is beautiful and we had updated it over the years and kept it well maintained. Long story short, we are moving to Branford to a home that we are building. We were spoiled and it seemed that building was the way that we both could get everything we wanted. The house will be ready sometime in September so this summer thus far has been preparing our existing house for sale and actually putting in on the market. Also, all the coordination for the new house has been challenging. That was then, but this is now.

Future updates will follow about the sale of our house and the progress on our new home. I did not realize how much work it would be to downsize. No turning back now.

Until the Next Tom’s Take…