Making Adjustments

Even the most casual followers of my life will be able to divine that it has recently changed in a dramatic fashion.  Yes, I am obviously talking about going from renters to homeowners.

This has been a major adjustment.  Before we bought this house, Lewis and I had only lived in upper-level apartments.  When you live in the same situation for nearly three years you tend to form certain habits.  In this case, we got into the routine of stepping lightly around our apartments to avoid disturbing the tenets in the units below.

Now we have a house.  Our house has two stories and the only occupants of each is us.  Sometimes I forget this and still find myself stepping overly carefully or cringing when I drop something on the floor.  Sometimes I also go so far as to chastise Lewis for not taking care when he steps.  Do we want the people underneath us to hate us?  And then I remember that there is no one underneath us.  My bad.

Our new digs.

Of course we did buy a town home, so there are people to the side of us.  Luckily, only one side.  This requires a different level of care.  The volume on the TV stays low, we avoid using our blender early in the morning, etc.  But then there was Jack.  Jack cries sometimes often.  And when he cries, he wails.  The kid is not quiet.  There is no way that our next door neighbors have not heard him.

They moved out last week.  I choose to believe that this is because they were living in a tiny house with two full-sized adults, three rambunctious boys, and two large and barky dogs and NOT because they were driven crazy by the seemingly traumatized infant next door.  Time will tell when new people move in.