Picture Of The Place Where I Currently Live

(I have better pictures of my home but I can't find

them right now, so this is from Google Maps.)

So ends this series of pictures of places I've lived in my little more than a half-century on planet Earth.  This is the 23rd place I've lived in since I was four.  I could probably quiz my family to find out how many places I lived in before that - it's probably three, but it could be two or four - my mother in her old age couldn't really remember, either, that's how chaotic life was at the time with my alcoholic father.

In previous installments, I've made a list of my favorite places to live.  In general, this list is limited to houses we've owned - I don't know if I think about any rental (with the exception of the places on Depew & Red River) as spaces I would call "favorite."  But here is my list of the places we've owned as my favorites:

1. Bal Lake (Fort Worth)

2. Insley (Portland - where I live now)

3. Southbend (Lexington)

4. Ridgemont (Austin)

5. Neel (Huntington)

That appears to be it - oh my! We've owned five houses in around sixteen years!

The reason the Fort Worth house is my favorite is that it was the perfect size for us & for our animals.  It had a lovely back yard & lovely neighbors.  In many ways, my wife designed it for us - she gutted the place & built it up according to her specifications.  She designed the kitchen for me.  She knew where everything needed to be.

She did very much the same for the Lexington house, but it was way too big for us.  Too many rooms, too much space.  I loved the place, but the yard, the house, the space - too big.

Both of those houses also suffered from where they were located: in Fort Worth, in Lexington.  We were never going to be happy there.

The Austin house benefitted from being in Austin - & from my initial belief I'd be living there the rest of my life.  But looking back, while I loved it, I kinda wish we'd had the money to make it closer to my wife' vision - I trust her completely.  & the Huntington house - it was three floors, in a dying city, which held no future for us.

As for where I live now - why is it second?  Portland has been awesome so far (pandemic notwithstanding).  But this house wasn't built for us.  We liked its layout - else we wouldn't have bought it!  & we saw some homes that we thought we'd have to compromise for - some real screwy layouts & that bane of weird purchases, the unfinished basement.  No, the house we currently inhabit feels like we chose it because it's what we like - or at least what my wife likes.

Seriously, when we first saw the house, I was struck by house perfect it was for her - & she acted completely unimpressed.  She later said it was the price that turned her off - but it blinded her to what was the most perfect for her home we had seen as we were looking.  & we almost didn't go see it.  So - had we not gone - had she stuck to her guns & felt it was too expensive - we might be living in a "compromise house" - worried about the weird smell coming from the unfinished basement.

But nope!  This is a good place to live.  & it's my second favorite in my favorite city in which I've lived.  That seems a kind of victory. 

Not that I'm trying to tie this into next week's theme or anything.