When a Home Becomes a House

We’re in full on packing and moving mode here at Casa de Watts as we prepare to move out of our house and in with Kathy’s parents for the last couple of months before we leave.

But this isn’t your average move. We’re not taking most of our things with us. We’re downsizing from our house, which Kyle has pointed out is around 1100 sq ft, to what we can fit into a bedroom at the Duncan house, plus our backpacks for the trip.

So this move is tricky. It’s not as simple as put everything into boxes, label them, and then move them. Oh no! We’re selling most of our stuff. So this process has been one of sorting through things to decide what to keep, packing those things up and moving them over to the Duncan house, and then organizing and pricing what’s left.

And what’s left is a LOT OF STUFF! Wow! We had no idea we had accumulated as much as we have. And it all has to be touched as part of this process, which is time consuming, emotionally draining at times, and quite often very funny.

It’s also odd because we’re still living in the house while it is going through this transformation and it’s weird to watch your Home, full of so many good memories, turn back into just a house. No photos on the walls, different furniture, memories slowly being removed and erased from the space.

We’re currently sleeping on the guest bed, which we have moved into the master bedroom, because our bed is already down at the Duncan house, waiting for us to finish up here and start over down there. The Duncan’s old couches are here, because we swapped them out for our amazing sectional. The hallway has become a shrine to old photographic memories, as every photo or framed piece of art that used to hang on the walls is now stacked up along the floor there, waiting for the frames to be emptied and sold and the memories to be packed up and stored.

It’s interesting to note that, as this process has progressed, we’ve found that our usual routine in the house has changed as well. We don’t do the same things and we don’t hang out as much in the same spots as we used to. We’re transforming along with the house.

We’ve been talking a lot about what makes a Home, especially since we’re about to become somewhat homeless, in that we won’t have our own place. This has actually been an ongoing conversation for years as we plotted and planned for this big trip. We knew going on this adventure would mean doing what we’re doing and choosing to be homeless. We’re not quite sure we had fully grasped what that actually meant until we found ourselves in the midst of the chaos that is our half-packed house.

And while exploring what makes a place feel like Home (other than furniture & personal treasures & memories) what we concluded is this:  It is US, the two of us together, that makes someplace Home for each of us. We are a family of 2 and home is wherever we go together. It’s why this blog is named what it is. It’s why, as tumultuous and daunting as this process is, we can go through it together and be excited about it.

Even though we’re watching our Home turn back into a house & saying goodbye to years and years of memories wrapped up in things and places, it’s okay, because we’re still here together.

And soon we’ll take our Home on the road…