Big House, Small House

My house is too big. Really, there are six of us living here. Two high school seniors, two adult children, my lovely wife and me.

The house is about 3700 square feet. It has nine bedrooms, two and a half baths, (plus an unfinished bath), two store rooms, a large yard, and a slightly bigger than two car garage and a driveway that will hold six cars. We own two refrigerators, and a separate stand up freezer and a deep freeze.

It’s much bigger than we need. There was a time when it was the perfect size. When we moved in eight years ago, we had eight kids at home. (That’s why we needed the nine bedrooms.) When we were getting the house ready to move into, we had the remodelers build a 16 foot pantry in the dining room.

The house is on what I call a double-corner lot. There are streets on three sides of my house. Despite that it’s a fairly quiet neighborhood. Having all those kids, made shoving hundreds of feet of sidewalks and dozens of feet of driveway go fairly quickly.

We’ve considered what happens when we find ourselves as empty nesters. Do we down-size? I don’t think so. The current plan is to stay. Despite the size of the house, it’s actually a good fit for a couple, especially an older couple. The garage, the flat driveway, the laundry, kitchen, living room, master bedroom, and a room we turned into a library are all on the same level.

We could probably function quite well without having to go downstairs.

Yes, it’s a quite spacious and comfortable house.

And it’s getting really cramped.

Oh, there’s still just the six of us. And there’s certainly room for the six of us. But, we are starting to fall over each other.

We’ve been in quarantine for 8 days. My lovely wife is COVID+. My son was also. He recovered pretty quickly. (The boundless energy and resiliency of youth.) My wife, not so much. She’s been quarantining in the master bedroom. We leave food outside the door. We say family prayers via cell phone. We catch up on family stuff via FaceTime.

Tomorrow one son will be out of quarantine. Ironic that a kid who was COVID positive gets out of quarantine prior to those who were only exposed to someone who was COVID positive.

The rest of us get out of quarantine on Friday. Kids go back to school. My daughter goes back to her service mission at a local thrift shop. All except my lovely wife. She’s still working through symptoms. Her fever is gone, but her blood oxygen levels are still low. She’s on supplemental oxygen. If she moves too much it wears her out. She’s fainted simply trying to walk across the room.

So, our house has gotten pretty small over the past 8 days. And we are all ready for a break, to get back to our normal routines and out into the world.

Except for my lovely wife.

And me, of course. . . I work from home.

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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