Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Tradition, tradition! Tradition!

(For those of you who are uncultured, the title is from Fiddler on the Roof)

Family traditions.
Some are fun. Some are dull. Some are not even meant to be family traditions. Apparently, in my family, it was customary for us to be transients. We never lived in a house for longer than 4 years. I thought that once I was married, I would break away from this family "tradition" and actually live in the same neighborhood for longer than 5 years.
So far it looks like I've failed miserably by carrying on this custom. I actually think I'm shortening the time span down to 3 years.

House #1 (I don't know why I'm numbering it, since it's the only house we've actually lived in since we've been married, but oh well):

We bought a house when we were first married. It was so adorable. It was tiny (650 sq. feet), but it was ours. We were going to stay for a long time... maybe add on to the back...


And then, 3 years later, I remembered the moving custom that was ingrained in me.

Actually, a business opportunity opened up for us, so we moved. To Texas. Yep. We sold our house, and moved into an apartment ("house" #2) in Dallas.

Long story short, it didn't work out in Texas, so we moved back home (7 months later). Oh- and guess what!! By that time, the housing market went up like a bajillion times, so we had to rent! For the rest of our lives! We found a basement apartment, aka dungeon, and lived there for a year ("dungeon" #1, "house" #3), then we had to move because, well, I got that moving bug again, I guess. (Actually it's another long story, but I won't bore you with it.)

Throw some furniture in there and voila! Our living quarters:
In the span of 2 months, we moved 3 times: Into an apartment we THOUGHT we were going to move into, then we moved out the next day because it was a bummer deal, moved our junk into our storage unit, then when we finally found another place, we moved our stuff into the basement apartment we currently live in ("dungeon" #2, "house" #4). So...3 times in 2 months. Talk about carrying on family traditions.

Well, it's been another year. And now that we've moved so many times, I think it's more of a habit than anything else. Time to move, again. This time, our landlord is very flakey about things, and selling the house we're living in, so we're not sure how much longer we'll be able to live there, anyway. It just so happened that a couple in are ward are moving out of their duplex (2 story) and it is available for us to rent. We will no longer be in a dungeon! YAY!

At the beginning of next month, it will be Duplex #1, or "house" #5.

Oh- and we're planning on moving, again, after Justin finishes school (next year).
I don't like packing.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your little house in Murray was very cute (but very tiny). I'm glad you're getting out of the dungeon and above ground... yet remaning in your great area!

I actually didn't think of us as transients... were we??? We stayed in that awful home in West Valley for far too long.... and would have stayed at Unionwood much longer, had your dad and I been able to live together :) Once you're out of "owning" a home, it's much easier to pack up and move. So maybe we were.

Kristin has the wanderlust in our family. I'm surprised she's been in her home as long as she has. Though I think the only reason she is has to do with jobs and finances.... I'm expecting her to make the trek to Puget Sound in the next couple of years :)

You can break your moving tradition once you and Justin relocate up here as well. hee hee

Ashley Rae said...

Oh I think you're right- we lived in that West Valley house until I was 5... So maybe the max is 5 years :)

Haha- maybe we will take up permanent residence in Seattle.

Anonymous said...

I friggin HATE moving and packing. Seriously. Maybe you should move to Phoenix?? And then your Mom and Aunt Kristin will visit. :)

I think you have to live in the dungeons to appreciate the better housing you move into later. But it doesn't make it any more fun to live in them. :(

Sarah said...

Oh my gosh!! I totally called the first 2 years of my marriage the dungeon years because of the basement apartment we were renting. I HATED it. But it does make you appreciate what you do have. We are still renting here in AZ, and will be for years to come with a moving situation like yours, but I love the apartment now because of the day light coming through the windows. Yeah!! We are slowly moving up in life.
Maybe we'll even have a house of our own before we die! :)
(sorry, its an inside joke Cody and I have going due to our lack of funds to buy one anytime soon)

Michelle said...

I'm just glad your mother used the word "wanderlust" in a sentence, oh how I love vocabulary...no one loves it like I do except for Alli, Chris and Kris.

Oh ya, I hate moving...I hate packing, but I'm thrilled you are getting out of the basement.

Anastasia Reina said...

I love your blog...you are so funny!

Ashley Rae said...

Ahh... Phoenix. I'd love to move to Arizona. I don't know if my husband would be up for it, though- he might miss the snow too much. I'll try to talk him into it.

Sarah- I hear you on the whole "never getting a house" thing. Sucks being poor, doesn't it?

Michelle- my mom has instilled a fondness for fun vocabulary words, as well- not as extreme as hers, but I still like words. One that I've been liking lately is "superfluous." Wanderlust is fabulous, too.

Anonymous said...

Grandma here!
How nice you're going to get out of the dungeon :o) Now you'll keep skinny just running up and down the stairs.
I hate to pack and unpack ...Finding a new home for everything that is unpacked is the pits !!
When is moving day?
Congrats and I hope you LOVE your new place.

Lindsey said...

I think we have moved almost as much as you. By the second or third time, don't you just want to throw away all of your stuff and start over so you don't have to pack?

CAMI said...

Ok I hate to move! We will be moving to our 5th place in 4 years! then a year latter move again! and I hate hate hate it! I cant wait for a final destination!

Ashley Rae said...

Oh ya, I'm NOT excited to start packing... it's seriously the pits! Ya- I'm pretty tempted to throw it out and start all over again. Although, I have a feeling I'll need a little bit more money if I were to do that. Haha.

Cami- maybe in 15 years we'll all be settled in our own houses and DONE with moving... for a while. Hehe.