In August, my dogs and I moved out of the home I’ve shared with my little family for 13 years.
It is a strange feeling to type that sentence – let alone to live the experience. I never thought I would leave that home, or that I could be even happier somewhere else. It’s got me thinking back on all of the places I’ve lived and called home over the years.
I only wish I had photos of each of the places I’ve called home in my lifetime. Some of them were pretty awesome! However, I wasn’t always the photographer I am now, so unfortunately, I don’t have as many pictures of my past homes.
Thankfully, I do have memories – so let’s take a walk down memory lane together, shall we?
It all started for me on Asharoken beach in Northport, NY – my childhood home. My parents had a few homes before that one, but I don’t remember much about them and they were always temporary. This was the “forever” waterfront home my parents bought specifically to raise my brother and I in. We grew up on the beach with crabs and minnows as our neighbors – it was pure magic! We didn’t have many friends living nearby, but we had tons of nature. The salt water seeped into my soul and made me an island girl for life. I’m so lucky that I got to grow up on that beach.
From my beloved beachfront home in Long Island, I moved to the dorms at Binghamton University in upstate NY as a freshman at age 17. I loved living in the dorms and have some great memories from my two years there. For my junior and senior years, I lived in an off-campus apartment with roommates not far from the school. Still, I never really considered any of these places truly home because they were only temporary. My home was still on Long Island, where my parents were, and where I spent my summers on the beach.
When I graduated from college, I moved back home with my parents for one year while I landed and got settled in my first real job. Then, once I had enough saved up, I moved out on my own. I was commuting into NYC from Long Island, so I was eager to move closer to the city. First, I rented an apartment in an older couple’s home in Huntington for a year, and the following year I rented an upstairs apartment in Hicksville. Neither really felt like home to me, but I was past the point of wanting to live with my folks and I was desperate for a shorter commute.
In 1994, I got back together with an ex-boyfriend (my first ex-husband) and things got serious pretty fast. We moved in together to a nice apartment building in Hicksville, NY that I couldn’t have afforded on my own. We lived there for a year and got two kittens together. That apartment truly felt like home!
We loved apartment life and probably would have stayed longer, but soon after getting engaged, we got the opportunity to purchase his aunt’s small house after she passed away. We helped clean it out and get rid of her stuff, and we got an amazing deal on the house. That was my first-ever (joint) real estate purchase and felt like such an adult move. It was a super cute first home with a lovely garden; we brought home our first puppy and got married soon after.
Also around that time, my parents sold my childhood home on Long Island and moved about 3,000 miles away to sunny Los Angeles, CA. This didn’t seem super traumatic to me at the time because I was pretty wrapped up in my career, new home, pets and new life – but looking back, I wish I had spent a bit more time with them, and at that beachfront home, while I still could!
In 1997, I got a dream job offer in Dayton and the company relocated me here to Ohio. I lived in corporate housing by myself in Dayton for several months, and my ex stayed behind to sell our home in NY. The company flew us back and forth every couple of weekends until we found our new home in Kettering. I loved my first Ohio house so much – it needed work but had great bones. I lived there for six years, through good times and bad, including my separation in 2001 and divorce in 2002. I had far too many pets in that home and also learned so much about myself and life. I feel like that’s really where I grew up in many ways!
In early 2003, E and I got together and by midyear, we had decided to move in together. I moved into his Beavercreek home and we sold my house after he worked hard to fix it up for me. With the proceeds, I was able to pay off all my debts and buy myself my dream car: a little blue Acura RSX. It felt odd moving into his house, after being used to owning my own, but it made sense for us at the time as I had just experienced a corporate lay-off. That house never really felt like MY home but we definitely made some happy memories there.
Then, in 2005 we decided to move to Columbus together! E got a great job first, and I got one very soon after. We bought a wonderful house with a beautiful garden that was perfect for our child-free life at the time. Soon after our move, we tied the knot in beautiful Turks & Caicos.
Our first place in Columbus, that house was a terrific home for seven years. We didn’t remain child-free for very long because my inner clock was ticking and I was dying to try for a baby. And one day, we were blessed! We brought our little pink newborn Z home to that house and lived there for her first two years while we looked for our next home in a kid-friendly neighborhood and good school district. We brought our puppy Autumn home to that house.
In 2012, we found our dream neighborhood in Lewis Center and stalked it until we found our perfect home. The Shores was an idyllic place for her to grow up with nature all around, tons of kids her age and a big, sloping backyard with a creek running through it, plus frogs and bunnies galore.
I’ll never forget our first winter there, when we let her sled down our icy hill and I didn’t catch her in time and she ended up in the icy creek! NOT a good day for me – or for poor cold little Zoe! But other than that infamous incident, it was truly a wonderful place for her to grow up; a dream setting for a happy childhood. We brought our dogs Dani and Lamborghini home to that house.
And that brings us to 2025. Z happily still lives in that home half the time, but the other half of the time she lives with the dogs and I in my new condo. We love my condo so much; it was the perfect soft, comfortable landing place for me post-divorce. It is cozy, beautiful and has gorgeous nature all around – including being super close to my beloved Alum Creek dam. We even have a perfectly wonderful community pool, a huge bonus which both Z and I loved until summer’s end!
I looked at many condos, but this one felt like home the second I walked through the door. It has so many of the little touches and architectural elements that I loved at our house in the Shores, but in a size that is much more manageable for me in my new solo life. I love this condo dearly and it will likely get its own blog post because buying this place was quite a story!
How many places have you lived and called home? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below or over on Facebook or Instagram.
