Done Dad's House

It took us over a year to empty the contents of Dad's house and do some "minor" renovations to the interior. New paint, flooring, tub & shower, venting the bathroom vent properly, trimming trees and a list of minor repairs and touch-ups. Shannon, Will, Rob and I have all worked pretty hard at it with a number of friends and family members pitching in along the way. The final weeks were a bit crazy as we coupled getting ready for Shannon & Will's wedding with a looming deadline on the house. Rob was there every day this past week when I was at work, as Nicole baby-sat the girls.

Yesterday evening our manager handed over the keys to the place to the new tenants. Yesterday morning Rob and the girls and I were there cleaning. It looked pretty good. There were some things that weren't perfect and there is more work needed. Especially on the outside, but I thought we were providing a nice place for the new family.

We had two cars with us for some reason. Rob took the girls and left first. I wandered from room to room making sure everything looked okay and thinking. There were some emotions. I wished my dad could see how the place looked now. I wonder what he'd think. He built the house for he, Shannon and I when my parents were divorced 30 years ago. He'd lived there until four months before he passed away.

Everything was mopped, dusted and polished. I collected our last items and glanced at the gift basked we'd left on the hearth for the new family. The little girl is not much younger than Shannon was when we first moved in. I felt a familiar mix of happy and sad as I pulled the locked door shut behind me. The house I grew up in is someone else's home now. I hope it's as much a blessing to them as it was to us.