Saying Goodbye to the Wonderful Happy Valley Home

Well, we have finally said goodbye to the old home. The photo above is how it looked years ago when the trees were all small and the lot to the left had not been sold and built upon. Those were the days!  My folks built their home in 1971 and 72 and it was a wonderful place to live.  By the time they moved to Portland and built their home I was done with college and on my own, but it was still the home that I always came  to for holidays and summers from college and later brought the grandbabies for Christmas and  many birthdays.  I have so many wonderful memories of place.  The girls first Christnmas was really special.  We went and cut down a blue spruce at a local Christmas tree farm and when it was decorated and hung with icicle tinsel it was fabulous!  One of the best Christmas trees ever.  Mom passed away three years ago and it took these last three years to empty out the house.  I had to go through every box  of papers as things were all thrown in together -- junk mail, family history clippings, uncashed social security checks, bills, receipts, you name it.  I do hope to be much more organized when my time comes and pray that I won't leave this much hassle to my own children.  But we managed to make it through.  Selling it was such a God thing as well.  After a great deal of stress over the three years trying to keep body and soul of the place together and keep the taxes and utilities paid it finally went on the market and got sold in a cash sale in two days for full price with no contingencies.  I think the new owners got a great deal in spite of paying full price as when the market improves -- as it will -- the house and property will be worth a lot.   The house has front window views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, nearly two acres and a great territorial view.  And the house was built solid as a rock.  It was hard saying goodbye but after three years it was also a relief to be done at last. 

Here are a few photos of the place just before we said goodbye. 

There is  old Mt. St. Helens from the front window.  OK, it's a little closer than it really is, but I wanted to remember it more clearly.  Dad watched Mt. St. Helens erupt from the orchard area.  The second eruption they could see really clearly. 

 The living room is sunken.  This photo is taken from the dining room.  You can see the deck out the window.  I had is resurfaced in mahogany.  That really made me want to stay and own the house, but alas, I would have had to pay off my brother and I really couldn't see myself relocating to Portland when my life is centered in Seattle.  Sigh!  The far picture windows used to look out on Mt. Hood, but the neighbors pine trees took over the view.  I imagine the new owner will negotiate that!

This is taken from the foyer and looking from the steps to go down to the living room across to the dining room.  The view of Mt. St. Helens is from that those windows.

This is looking into the kitchen area (eating area in front) from the foyer as well.  Dad didn't like to have laundry interfere with showers, so there are two water heaters, one for the kitchen and the laundry, the other for the bathrooms.  He also set up the electrical plugs in the kitchen so that the top plugs are all on one circuit and the lower ones are on another.  That way you can do several things and not overload the circuits. 

 This is the "back" of the house with the daylight basement.  That is a built in barbeque next to the fireplace. There is a huge amount of concrete underneath that fireplace to support it so it wouldn't "pull" on the structure of the house as it settled. 

 This is the kid before we went off to put lilacs on the grandparents grave from their own bushes for the last time.  There are purple and white lilacs. We love to put flowers on their graves just so other people know that they were loved.  We know that they are with the Lord in heaven and certainly not lying around in the cemetery waiting for us to pay them attention!

This is the "front" of the house.  Sigh, it does make me feel sad.  But on the other hand, it is time to move on.  The house will now have three kids living there with a lot of area to run.  They can eat the apples, blueberries, pears, italian prunes and pie cherries -- oh, and concord grapes -- and walnuts, to their hearts content.  It is time for a new family to build new memories of their own.  What a great old home this was.  Dad built it very well -- he was a perfectionist.  Of course it is a bit dated and the new owners will fix it up however they want. It and the land may yet turn into a massive, tighly packed development  but for the moment my dream of a single family who would love the house has come true.  Truly this was a Happy Valley for me and for my family!