I was going to put up more pictures of Amsterdam (there are still more I want to show you) but they can wait their turn. Tamar posted pictures of her house today and (tears aside, on my part, for the memories and such that have gone into that particular house and the joy of the next step for her family) it stirred up many thoughts.
Two years ago, when I was visiting over the winter holidays, Tamar and I were hanging out in her living room. I think she had a head cold and we were chatting about this and that. Damian was at school; Dan at work. Tamar casually said �I wonder how easy it will be to remove the wallpaper in this room.� (Damian�s room and the guest room had already been done with much hard labor.) So she tweaked an edge of paper; it came off easily and then I joined in, both of us giggling and saying Dan might not be too happy about the mess when he comes home, but we continued nevertheless. By the time Dan did come home, three-quarters of the wall was stripped (well, maybe I exaggerate; I�m a Sagittarius after all!). And Dan was not in the least upset.
Every time I went to visit more work had been done. The transformation has been inspiring. (I�m now working on my own house, but I hope I won�t be selling!) Over the four years Tamar and Dan and Damian have lived there, I have often wondered if I was wrong to encourage them to buy that house. It felt so right at the time. I was visiting. It was late April, I think. Warm and sunny. A welcome relief from the long winter we have here. Tamar saw the listing (they weren�t actively looking at the time, just a casual glance at what might be available) and we walked over from the house they were then renting. It looked enticing, although definitely needing work. When we saw the inside, the beautiful moldings were magnetizing. And having a yard was very appealing. (I liked the lemon and avocado trees especially.)
But Tamar was never really happy about being there. I do know that they would never have bought it if they hadn�t known it was ultimately right. And really, I never could talk Tamar (or Aaron) into doing anything she (or he) didn�t believe in. And now selling it is so right. Especially since they will be moving closer to me, only one (two hour) plane ride away.
Of the three of us, Tamar, Aaron and me, she is the most stable, having lived in only four places in the seventeen years she has lived in LA. Aaron and I, on the other hand, move more frequently. It surprised me recently to hear Aaron recite the many addresses he has had. More, in fact, than me. Until I moved here almost nine years ago, I would move on the average every three years (and that includes the nine years on West End Avenue in NYC). (And each time I moved, with children, pets, studio supplies, paintings, plants, etc., I told Tamar and Aaron that this would be the last time. They stopped believing me. Now I don�t say anything about what might happen!)
So I hope Tamar and Dan settle in to their new environment easily and quickly. And don�t have to move too many more times.
Posted by leya at June 4, 2005 05:24 PM