This weekend marks a new chapter in our lives, it was bound to happen at some point. The timing never seems right and you can never plan the future. This weekend we will say goodbye to the abandoned house next door and hello to 10 college girls moving in. It is at this time of change, that I would like to reflect back on the memories of 851, the house next door.
It was the spring of 2005 when we were first introduced to 851, oh how the time flies. It would have been all but impossible for us to ignore 851, she stood strong and sturdy on the other side of our driveway. In those early days 851 was quite mellow, there was a young girl who lived there with her dog. Unfortunately, the hazards of living on a busy road caught up to them, and the dog was hit by a wayward car. We felt the girl's misery as she cried over her dog, although we'd never played fetch with the dog, or spoken a word to the girl, we felt as though we'd lost our own that day. It was a rough time for 851. Soon after "the incident", the girl (minus the dog) moved away.
851 stood alone for several months, the only sign of habitation was the occasional rotation of the "For Sale" sign to the "For Rent" sign in the front yard. Now, don't feel too much sorrow, 851 did see action from time to time. Like that night, in the dead of winter, when we awoke to policemen running up and down our driveway between our house and 851. We watched through the curtains as the officers arrested a man on the lawn of 851.
A year had passed since we'd first met, and suddenly there was life inside 851 again. At first glance we thought a young family was moving in. We quickly realized how wrong we were. To explain the new residents of 851, I was once quoted as saying, "it's like a dumpy apartment complex burned to the ground downtown, and all the tenants moved into this house (851)". 851 did not discriminate, oh no, at this time in its existence, it welcomed (willingly or not) men, women, old, young, every race and ethnic background imaginable, they all called 851 home. Although they all had different backgrounds, there was one common theme- no respect for 851...and a love of disco music. Old Smokey would sit out back with his assumed-to-be wife smoking away, dropping cigarette butts all over the former lawn, cursing at the young children that constantly ran to and fro. Tuberculosis would pace the front porch with a beer bottle in one hand and something or other lit in the other hand, he would huck loagies from the deepest depths of his bowels out onto the porch. While most school-aged children would be sitting in class, The Knuckleheads would sit on our driveway throwing mudballs at our back door. It was a disturbing time. 851 stood strong through it all, she was there standing tall when the police made Tuberculosis put his hands up against the house as they frisked him, cuffed him, and sent him away. He came back. The occupants seemed in desperate need of money, so shortly after moving in, they held a yard sale on a sunny Saturday afternoon, that yard sale lasted 24/7 until the day they left. We would scan the sale from time to time, to make sure our belongings hadn't found their way out there. For a period of time, 851 was known to our friends as "the permanent yard sale." After 6 long months, as quickly as they had come the vagabonds were gone. Leaving 851 behind, every window broken, carpet soiled and more than likely many holes in the walls.
851 did not have to stand ashamed for long. In the Fall of 2006, within a few weeks of the lowlifes leaving, the cleanup crew came to her rescue. Two men would come to completely rebuild her insides and freshen her appearance. Seth watched when they showed up to begin the cleanup process, they wore painting masks to protect themselves, after one trip into 851's bowels, they left. They returned a short while later with full respirators (gas mask style). It was after witnessing this, that out suspicions were all but confirmed. We dropped our heads, shook them from side to side and whispered, "meth house". We watched as an industrial size dumpster (not your average ho-hum dumpster) was dropped off in front of 851, and were shocked by the amount of crap (figuratively and literally) that came out of the house and into the dumpster. We were astonished as they hauled off the dumpster and replaced it close to 10 times. The miracle men worked literally day and night to bring 851 back to life, a long and difficult process after the horrors she'd survived. In the Spring of 2007, 851 emerged new and improved. Just like the trees that were blossoming after a long, cold, horrible winter, 851 was blossoming.
As life goes, the miracle men had to go. And 851 stood ready for its next inhabitants. Unfortunately, there were no inhabitants. We watched silently as "For Sale" sign changed to "For Rent" and back to "For Sale" and then a period of time would pass with no sign, and then the cycle would start all over.
And then two weeks ago, it all changed. Seth woke me up one night to tell me he had just watched three girls sneak in the back window of 851. They were wandering around the house and then they were gone. A few days later, they came back, braver this time, because they chose to sneak/break in in broad daylight. They looked nothing like the vagabonds of previous times, no, these girls looked more sorority-ish. We wondered if these girls would be the new addition to 851, and then one day we knew. They showed up in their shiny SUVs packed full of, well, girl stuff. Then the big truck with the 25 ft trailer appeared and we watched (through the blinds, lights off) as everything imaginable was unloaded. Couches, bigscreen TVs, furniture, furniture, and more furniture! 851 seems to be holding strong, she has welcomed the females with open arms and seems willing to support their furniture and pointy shoes.
We wish 851 the best in this new stage of her life. We will miss the abandoned, quiet days, but we also know how desperate 851 was to house good people. Although we've never told 851, it goes without saying, as long as we are living at 847 we will always keep an eye on 851. Because we owe it to her, for if it weren't for her solid stance as 851, we would be neighbors with those who live on the other side of 851. Thank you, 851.
Another week of packing. We definitely feel like we are making progress. Mondays have turned into our designated "packing days". We have finished the basement and once we take some pictures of the upstairs we will start packing away books and such. We are close approaching the fine line between "unprepared" and "too prepared". We don't want to get so far ahead of ourselves that we can't live here the next few weeks. I think we'll start slowing down for the next few weeks. It's such a great feeling to flush out all the excess we have. (Unfortunately, we have been "flushing" out herds of spiders! Good grief, no wonder I hated going in the basement!) We find great joy in tossing stuff in the various piles: "garbage" "DI" "giveaways" and "return to family".
