For the last 12 years, I have resided in Phil’s house.

When we first started dating, Phil had just bought the house, and I joined him there after only a few months.  So while I made the best out of it that I could, it was never my home.

We made 12 years of very happy memories in that house, but not because of it – that was just the four walls that surrounded our joy.

It was never my dream home, it was barely even my tolerable home.

It was small, really small, and old.  Everything needed to be updated, and when we did make any changes, it always ended up being way more difficult than it needed to be.  The neighbour was crabby, the yard was full of weeds and we were always worried about getting water in the basement.  We were at the end of the block and the bottom of a slope and all the leaves and branches and neighbourhood debris would always end up in our yard to clean up.

I was not a fan.

So when we packed up the last of our belongings and cleaned up every last speck of our existence, Phil asked me, “So…are you going to miss the old girl*?”

I walked through the barren, echo-y rooms and pursed my lips, “…Nope.”

“Not at all?” he asked me, incredulously.

“I think I’ll miss the door.  I love that door…”

For some strange reason, it reminded me of the Chrysler Building.

Ok, I might also miss the cubby I made to showcase my Mom’s tea pot.

But, other than that…not a thing.

Is that sad?

Phil thinks so, and maybe it is a little.  But I think it’s a testimony to just how happy I am with Phil – it didn’t matter that we lived in that cramped house and its myriad of problems, because we were together.

And now karma is paying us back for my years of suffering, because I absolutely LOVE our new home!**

It’s a condo – so no worries about unkempt yards, pulling weeds,  or cleaning eavestroughs – and it’s almost double the square footage of the main floor of our house!  Its downtown (adjacent) so we can walk to so many places or, if we’re feeling lazy, we can just sit on our balcony and watch the hipsters saunter by.

And there’s even a kitchen window that I can look out of when I wash the dishes that doesn’t overlook the neighbour sitting 5 feet away, on his steps, smoking.

And it doesn’t need much updating, but there’s just enough work (painting – yay!) to do so we can really make it feel like our own.

This is the home that I have waited for for the last 12 years, and it was worth every minute.

*I’m pretty sure this is what he’ll ask others about me when I’m gone

**There is just the one small issue of our upstairs neighbours stomping around their ceramic tile floor like they are serving in the SS.