The only thing constant…

We found out where we’re moving next. Even picked a move date. That’s kind of a big deal, I suppose.

It’s a happy sad thing. Or a sad happy thing. Or maybe just a thing… packed with all kinds of emotions.

I’ll be more specific.

I’m excited about the move because moving is such a dramatic way to create a clean start…

but this whole “hitting pause on the townhomes” thing is SO SO SO bittersweet.

Sweet because the whole place is getting a massive upgrade.
The newer unites (where we used to live) are getting a total interior remodel. The older ones (where we’ve been since October) are getting demolished and rebuilt altogether.
So that’s cool.

But.
I LOVE THIS NEIGHBORHOOD. And unfortunately there isn’t another little neighborhood where we can all move together during the chaos/construction. They’re sending us all wherever they can find places to put us while they rebuild.

SIGH.

More on that later.

This move.
We’re going through things and, in keeping with my How We Honor Them post, we’re getting rid of stuff. If we don’t REALLY love it, it’s not coming. If it doesn’t serve a useful purpose, it’s moving on.

My hope: ORDER and maybe even cleanliness in the new place.

(oh please oh please oh please oh please…)

It’s nice to have time to go through stuff. Time to plan how we’re going to lay things out in the new place. Time to wrap our heads around the move in general.

Our last move was super hurried (for no good reason, really, we just wanted change and it worked out that way). When we hopped to the other side of the Townhomes last fall, we got boxes on Tuesday, packed ’em all up, and movers came Saturday to move us maybe 100 yards away. It was pretty crazy, but fun to do something that big, that fast.

We’ve loved being in this similar-but-different townhome in The Other Circle.
(We loved being in the other one, too. The Townhomes, in general, is just a great place for us.)

What we love here:
The crossbreeze!
Still have awesome neighbors.
Still have all our awesome friends.
The quirkly floorplan. I actually really love it. The only thing I don’t love is the way you can’t open the dishwasher and the fridge at the same time because the kitchen is so tiny.
The view.
THE YARD. Oh my goodness, the yard.
Did I mention the crossbreeze? Most of the time, it’s like having a massive huge fan in almost every room.

But we’ve known from the beginning that it’s temporary. These buildings are coming down eventually…

So it’s time to move on now. Really. As much as we love this unit, it does have some significant falling-apart-issues. And probably mold issues. And other stuff issues.

I point fingers at the bizarre rooflines. Who builds something in the tropics without ANY overhang, and without (hardly) any gutters? I mean… hello. The rain hits the not-water-tight, louvered windows, and the walls just… um… yeah. After a couple decades, it’s not pretty what that does to the sides facing the wind/rain. We’ve had mushrooms literally grow out of the walls INSIDE 3 or 4 times since we moved here.

Impressive, no?

So. Off we go again! Another not-forever, temporary move… but things will be different when we move back in. The whole floorplan will be totally different. The 2-circles thing is getting obliterated; it’ll be more like one long, straight street. Several of the families we’ve lived near for years have found homes to buy elsewhere… so the dynamic won’t really be exactly like it was before.

The only thing constant is change, right?

Well, actually, I felt like modifying that little adage.

There you go. Fixed it.

At any rate, we shall gather again after a long absence from this tight-knit “ohana” we’ve built, and I’m more excited about getting all these families back together than anything else. Words kind of don’t do it justice. Our kids are growing up together almost like siblings. It’s allllllmost like roommates in college, but without the funky drama. 😉

I should probably dig through and find pictures of Townhomey-fun-stuff we’ve done over the years. But it might make me cry. So I’m not.Sorry-not-sorry.

I’m just going to drop a few words here…
Night Games
Brownhouses!!!!
Pi Day Celebrations
Lemonade Stands
RipStik battles
Potlucks
Water fights
Kids that play imaginary games well into teenage years, and then have epic swordfight battles after that

Townhomes, I love you in a dozen ways for dozens of reasons, for the hundreds and thousands of great memories you’ve blessed us with. There is nowhere in the whole world I’d rather have spent the last 7 years.