Our House at 30

This morning Russ asked me if I knew where we were 30 years ago today. I correctly guessed that this was the first night we slept in our house. We made an offer on this house on a weekend we visited Durham in April after Russ picked UNC for business school.

It was our second trip to North Carolina to look for houses. The first house we bid on was in Chapel Hill and that did not go well, so we moved on to Durham. It was a good move for us. Our Chapel Hill realtor was not happy about showing houses in Durham so she basically only showed us Hope Valley. We looked at every house that was on the market.

One house in New Hope Valley had a kitchen island the size of an aircraft carrier. I could not figure out how you cleaned the center of it without crawling on top of it. Needless to say it did not make the short list.

The house we bought, where we still live, had a big lot and a tiny house. It had been built by Mr. Harris, the President of CCB, a local bank, as his retirement house. He and his wife lived here for over thirty years. The second owners were a couple who did not live here long as she got run out of town for having relations on her desk at work with a donor. We never met her, only him and I was certain he was more attracted to men and that was perhaps why she got it at work. (That’s all the information I will give you.) They only lived here a couple of years. For years people still referred to our house as the Harris House.

So now to us. We were the youngest people on our street. We didn’t know anyone in Durham, but we quickly found so many nice people. Our across the street neighbors, the Admiral and Mary Teer Outlaw had us over for drinks right away. They told us who everyone in Durham was starting with themselves. It was like an old southern movie. So every time I met someone in the neighborhood I never let on that I already knew their back story.

In those early days it was me and Russ and our dog Beau and three cats, Stormy, Charlotte and Chappy. I never would have guessed that we would still be in the same place 30 years later. Things have changed slightly, as we doubled the size of the house and added a daughter and new dog years after we lost all our original pets.

Now that daughter is grown up with a place of her own in Boston. We are no longer the young people. In fact, we are the second longest term residents of our street. We have seen a lot change, especially the prices. It has been a great 30 years. I think we still have a few more to go to beat the original owners as longest residents. Thankfully I think our house is now thought of as the Lange House since most people who knew the Harris’ are dead.

Happy Anniversary to our house. As Russ said, “30 years ago today boxes were moved into the attic that have never been opened.” I asked him if we should ceremoniously get one out today and he said, “ Not in this weather.” We might have to do it on the 30 1/2 anniversary.