In the year 2000 at the age of 20, the Sturm family finally settled into a house we felt like we could really call “home” and mean it. Located on about four acres of land in Londonderry, New Hampshire; it was a long slightly raised ranch with three bedrooms and a finished basement with two rooms for bedrooms and another “mudroom” with steps up the garage. It included a nice shed in the back (for Katey’s art), and a huge deck with a pool. Not a selling feature for us, but windows in the kitchen and where Mom set up her sewing machine looked right over it so my parents didn’t feel overly concerned about it. It got tons of use.
I got my own room! My first since I was five years old. Not a huge room, but I managed to get more bookshelves in it than you can probably imagine. Enough for all the books I owned (at the time). With my desk, I happily put a bed in my personal library and had a space to read, write, laugh, cry, and figure out all the changes life brings in one’s 20s!
My parents had a room across the hall with a ¾ bath. Katey had another small one next to me. There was a full bath with the laundry across from her. Then the kitchen and living area, breakfast nook/sewing space and dining room. Downstairs was small room my brother shared and a huge room my four youngest sisters partitioned off into four areas around the pool table that came with the house. (One of those thing someone got down there at one time and no subsequent owner ever wanted to get out!) My sisters had a ¾ bath off their room.
The house was great in so many ways. Space for Christmas parties, lots of woods for Caleb to roam and large cookouts with church friends, a wetland that would flood in the autumn and freeze in the winter so we could kill each other with pick up games of hockey, a large garden, and a good driveway to ride bikes, etc. It had it’s problems, too. Mainly the couple of time the basement flooded, much to the chagrin of my sisters. (My brothers’ room was slightly raised and the water never quite reached into it.) For that matter, none of us liked it. Once my dad even tried a bucket brigade which lasted quite a while until good-natured Grace quipped, “I think I’ve see this water before.” Dad had to give up after that.
A lot of memories – good and bad – were made in that house. We lived there for eight whole years.A personal record for me. The first few years of blogging took place in that house, so a lot of those memories will never be forgotten. And some I don’t think I wrote down. Like Caleb’s friend William climbing through the bedroom window to avoid a run-in with Brutus, my mom’s Great Dane who scared him. Or the hours we spent listening to Adventures in Odysseywhile stripping wallpaper from the living room walls. Or the bat that got into the girls room downstairs. And those are just the few that come to mind. It was a great house to call home.
Auburn Road - Londonderry
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