On Downsizing

I was having lunch with a friend that I do not often see and I mentioned to her that I do not miss my children being in school—what I miss is seeing the parents with regularity.

And after lunch I found my way to Kings—for some food shopping. And I bumped into a woman that I knew for many years when my girls were in school. I had not seen her in a long while. She had been my children’s CCD teacher. I absolutely loved her.

And we conversed about this and that. She told me that her older son was just about out of the house as was her daughter. And then she asked me Are you thinking about downsizing your house at all? There seems to be a lot of that going on. And I said from time to time—yes-- I feel like much of my house is wasted space that is rarely used. And she responded with  I know what your mean---I have shared those same thoughts with my husband. And then I think—but if I downsize where would I go? Right now my husband and I can still lose each other in our house—do I  really want to give that up and sit next to him on the couch every day? Not to mention that my house is perfectly nice—do I want to start all over again in a house with someone else’s dirt and problems? I know what I have—I do not know what I am going to get.

I completely understood.

Which is why my next decorating adventure is to convert the parlor off of the living room into a leather-rich pub room. Sometimes a house that is too big is still not big enough. Sometimes a really nice house can be reinvented into something even nicer. Sometimes it is just as smart to start over in your own home than to start over in someone else’s.

Sometimes Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

And sometimes casual acquaintances serve to keep you on track. They are the angels to your devils.