Homesick

The other night I noticed that the first house Joy and I bought together is for sale again. Seeing that brings back so many good memories of the one house we’ve lived in together that really felt like home to me.

The house itself wasn’t much. It was built in 1951 and had 758 square feet spread across two bedrooms and a small bathroom. There was a tiny yard, a small garage and the fridge didn’t even fit in the kitchen, but it was our home.

When we bought it we were living across the street and 4 doors down. This house came up for sale and we decided it would save us money in the long run so we bought it for $53,000 in 2009 and sold it only three years later, when we moved to Austin, for $57,000. Not a bad little return all things considered.

Of all the places we’ve lived, including our current house, the Davis house, as I’ve come to call it, felt more like a “home” than any of them. It had its share of problems including us having to rebuild the bathroom and the floor in the laundry room as we discovered old problems had never been fixed right as the floors and walls in each were literally gone. Its old windows also leaked like crazy during the winter and it was so small that even have 2 other people over made it feel crowded.

Over the short time we lived there we either fixed or found ways to work around all its quirks and were able to make it our own. Joy even managed to paint the kitchen and living room orange (her favorite color) and really learned how to work in the tiny kitchen. I found my place in the its tiny living room where I started building Better WP Security and other projects.

I often wonder if we could’ve moved back to Carbondale instead of to Florida but then I remember why we didn’t. The university that gives the town its life has been suffocated under mismanagement for 20 years and most everything else is slowing dying. Even in the current real-estate boom happening throughout the country our old home, which was $57,000 only in 2012, is on the market for only $50,000. That’s not a good sign.

Yes, my parents’ homes were in Chicago and Panama City Beach, but Carbondale is the one town that has always felt like home. Seeing the old house for sale again has definitely brought out feelings of homesicknesses for the one place I truly miss.