Mary Rose's Cafe: The Seven Year Itch

Zillow decided to send a house into my email inbox this weekend. Normally, I delete those sorts of emails without even clicking. But this time, I looked.

Oh, this house was lovely! It was the kind of house that I'd been looking for seven years ago.

A beautiful, well-built two story brick colonial.

An older home (almost fifty years old) with lots of quirky features.

A one acre lot with sun and trees.

A screened in three season room.

A big kitchen.

Lots of storage.

A wood-burning fireplace.

All on a quiet cul-de-sac.

I showed my husband, who promptly said no and asked "Aren't you happy with this house?"

Yes, but...

...we have very little storage, and are at the point in our lives where we're expected to store our adult kids' stuff and our parents' stuff, too.

...I have no room for books, and they clutter every flat surface.

...I have a scoot-in closet in our bedroom that is not meant for two people.

...I have a tiny kitchen.

...I have a small yard that's heavily treed, making it hard to grow anything for lack of sunlight.

I realize what this all boils down to.

I have the seven-year itch.

This is nearly the longest we've ever lived in one place in our married lives (except for our first house, which we could just barely afford back in those days!).

Maybe, as a work from home writer, I spend too much time in this house. And maybe, just maybe, I'm bored.

I have to remind myself of the positives. I love my neighbors. We have lots of wildlife that visit us daily. Smaller house is probably better as we get older. I can walk and bike to lots of places from our neighborhood.

All good things.

I decided to tackle some clutter yesterday. Our guest room is the place where we say "Where can I put this? I'll just stick it in the guest room."

Piles and piles.

I cleaned flat surfaces.