It's Day 16 of the March Slice of Life Story Challenge, and I'm writing a goodbye letter to our house in a series of memories since we will be moving in April.
I love this picture of Libby when she was 13, showing off her bright orange and lime green room. Yes, bright orange and lime green. She chose those colors shortly after we moved in, and we went with it. (Katie's was a bubblegum pink). She had her Pirates of the Caribbean posters on either side of her cheerful name, a blue lava lamp on her bedside table, and her twin doll sitting in a little chair between the dresser and bed. Thirteen was a hard age for Libby, but she still expressed joy through her room. Thirteen is also such an ambivalent time, too. Caught between childhood and young womanhood. Her room here was evidence of that transition.
Another unique aspect of Libby's room was her closet door. I'm not sure exactly how the custom started, but somehow it became a thing for her to ask her friends to sign it. I just went through and read them all tonight when I took the pictures - it is a map of her time spent in this house. You can see the evolution of her friendships, from 6th grade to college, ending with her husband's siblings! Cousins, her sister, grandparents, and friends' parents' notes and signatures are there. A history.
When we decided to put the house up for sale, she went through her room, organizing, purging, and boxing things up that she wanted to keep. Her husband, Jamie, helped her. There was a lot of stuff!! After she cleared it out, we decided it should be painted a more neutral color.
While the new color and cleaned out room is calmer and better for staging the house, all of Libby's personality was gone. Boring! Now that she's married, and we're downsizing, she won't have a room all to herself in our new place. That seems so strange. There's a room, though, that will be set up for Jamie and Libby when they spend the night, but it's not really "Libby's room". An end of an era. Maybe I should paint "Libby and Jamie's room" a bright orange and lime green...
It's Libby's birthday tomorrow; she's our St. Patrick's Day baby. Happy 23rd birthday, Lib!
I love this post on transitions. Life goes on in the most delightful ways.
ReplyDeleteI love how you've preserved this piece of your daughter's life (and yours) through this post. I love that door--such a cool tradition!
ReplyDeleteTake the door with you! Give it to Libby for her birthday. I love how your home was freely open to these kinds of traditions.
ReplyDeleteThat door - what a cool idea! I love how her personality was all over the walls. Thirteen is a tough age for most; so it's a great memory to have those pictures of the room that she designed herself at that age.
ReplyDeleteThat door! I'm with Margaret - take it with you!
ReplyDeleteThat door! I'm with Margaret - take it with you!
ReplyDeleteAwe! Irish green and orange was my first thought at the start of the post. I love how you brought it around with her birthday. Such bittersweet joy in this one. What great memories on that closet. Did she take the doors with her and replace the ones in the room for sale?
ReplyDeleteI love the door -- are you taking it!! She should take it!!! I so want to do that for my kids --you have inspired an idea. These post are so bittersweet -- hard to read knowing my kids are 14 and 16... not long off... I want to handle all the transitions with the same joy you are!
ReplyDeleteClare
She IS taking the door isn't she? Those doors are so replaceable. But not this one! It would look nice as a coffee table in their new home someday or hanging on a wall! Must, must take it.
ReplyDeleteLove this glimpse of Libby's room ten years ago. Wonderful colors! And you're right, when the room was made show-worthy, it was boring!
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