Eden

Husband has been making small noises lately about buying another house in a few years, something bigger to accommodate a third child we want to have without kids having to share rooms. Plus I know he wants a place to unpack all the precious stuff he inherited from his folks. There's still quite a number of things crammed into a storage unit that will stay there for the indefinite future. For Husband, there's also the issue of wise investment. Adding onto this house doesn't make economic sense in that we'd be unlikely to recoup all the expenses of an addition if we sell it down the road. We've lived in this house for about 3 years now and are otherwise quite settled and happy with both the space and with our neighborhood. I keep telling him I don't want to move, but I don't think he realizes I'm serious.

I'm probably one of the few Americans out there who really prefers just enough house and no more. We have no rooms we don't use in this house--no formal dining room, no "family room" that is in addition to a den (a pairing I've never really understood under one roof anyway), no guest room, no bathroom that doesn't get heavy use. Sure, I could use some more closet space, but who couldn't? And our neighborhood is one of those where people actually walk their kids to school, and everyone pretty much knows who everyone else is, even if it's just enough to say "Good morning." For those reasons alone, it's hard for me to feel motivated to move.

But the biggest reason of all is my garden. Husband's only foray into yardwork is maintenance--mowing the lawn, the occasional pruning (which he's slacked off doing for the last year since I give him such hell about not doing it right), picking up sticks and pinecones, that sort of thing. I, on the other hand, have planted literally hundreds of perennials, bulbs, and shrubs. The more I plant, the less likely I am to give up our little home without a big fight. I'm not sure that Husband understands how much this means to me, and I'm also unsure that I can articulate how much. He may very well believe it's just plants, and we can dig up and take with us anything really special, or we can always just plant some more, in some other yard surrounding a bigger house.

Shouldn't your home be more than just an investment? Does the emotional investment not count for something? To me, this little place of ours is nothing short of my own little Eden. I just don't want to live anywhere else right now. Period.