Can't go home again

The family made the drive up to Temple yesterday to visit some old friends. When we got into town, we drove past the old house for old times' sake. We make a point of this every time we're in Temple, and the last time we did--back in the spring, I suppose--we were delighted to see the current owners had remodeled the converted garage (formerly my office) and put in some nice French doors along with other improvements. So we were curious to see what changes awaited us this time.

Oh my Lord. They'd painted it lime green. Not just any lime green, mind you, but one with an unhealthy shade of aqua mixed in. You've got to understand, the house has a front of square-cut limestone, and when we lived there the wood-sided eaves were painted a mild cream color and the trim--window frames, door, etc.--were a dark burgundy. It really presented well. This, however, oh my goodness, had the house looked like this when we were first looking way back when, we'd have driven right past it. That green is actually painful on the eyes. When cartoonists want to depict something as radioactive, that's the color they use. No kidding.

We were in such shock at the garish color that it took us several minutes to notice the other changes the current owners had made. They'd chopped down the pecan trees! We had one gorgeous, mature pecan tree in the front yard, about 10 feet from the front porch. Two smaller pecan trees bracketed the entrance of the driveway. All of them, gone without a trace. They'd also chopped down a cedar elm at the corner of the house, but I'd never liked that one anyway. Still.

We sold that house a little over three years ago, and are fully settled in to our "new" one here in New Braunfels, but I can't help feeling violated. That was the first house Lisa and I owned, and we loved it despite assorted plumbing problems and other quirks that come with older houses. It was the house we brought Calista and Keela home from the hospital to. The previous owners had covered up gorgeous, hardwood floors with hideous puke-yellow carpeting, which we'd promptly pulled up when we moved in. None of us could work up the nerve to peek into the window, for fear that they'd done to those gorgeous floors what they'd done to the exterior. Compared to that radioactive green, puke-yellow carpeting doesn't look so bad...

Now Playing: Creedence Clearwater Revival Chronicle vol. 2