This past month has found me making some life changes and returning home. My husband and I felt compelled to make a move back to our old hometown from our youth. We never thought we would return to our hometown except for short visits to see our families. But we felt a very strong urge that we needed to return to keep an eye on the parental units. It seems that they are getting older and are not in the best of health. So we packed up our established home and made a move.

We are still in the process of selling our old home and trying to move into our new one. We are moving into my grandparents old home. While it is a neat old house, it wasn’t ready to be moved into. I am currently going through 60 years of stuff and sorting it. There are lots of memories involved. I am perhaps a little less attached to some of the stuff than my mom. She wants to keep everything. I am more prone to throw things out. I have incentive…the sooner I am done, the sooner I can move out of my parents home. (We are currently sleeping at their house.)

My propensity to throw things out has caused a few arguments. Mom contends that some things just can’t be replaced. I argue that I don’t know who needs 8o+ years of funeral programs. My grandma will be 89 in September and has kept every single program from every funeral she has ever attended. I am so not kidding. I threw them out.

The bathroom and kitchen are completely gutted. I don’t have running water yet. But all of that should be changing this week. I have fought a valiant fight to get tile floors in those rooms. I purchased the tile, so I will win. Even though we had to level the bathroom floor by 3 inches.

It has been an interesting process so far. Sometimes I wonder what we were thinking, especially when my husband has had to leave and attend trade shows for his job. But I remind myself that it will be worth it in the end. The house will be awesome. I made progress this week and almost got the office set up after pulling up 4 different layers of carpet. I found wood floors. There is a certain charm beneath the 40+ layers of wallpaper within the walls of this old home.

Returning home can be a good thing, indeed. Even if it is a lot of work in the process.