All the rage nowadays centers around people wanting to have newer homes built for them, rather than buy an older home on the market. While there are many practical reasons for doing so, the fact that oftentimes older buildings are torn down in favor of their younger sisters concerns me greatly. There are many things about buying an older home that people should consider.

I'm a nostalgic (translated: sappy, sentimental fool). While more elite collectors might eschew the folded, spindled and mutilated sports cards of past eras, I embrace them (at vastly discounted prices); each wrinkle, dog ear, and fold makes you wonder how many times it was traded, mouthed by destructive toddlers, fastened to bicycle spokes, what have you. As a used book collector, I have found much value in the "out of mint", but readable editions of bygone years, easily able to spot each dog eared page as another mark of a faithful reader putting his or her newfound friend aside for the night. And I revel in it.

With homes, it is no different. When we moved into out home, which had been vacant for years, it looked for all the world like the description of Miss Haversham's home in Great Expectations, save that it was denuded of furniture and the infamous wedding cake. The spiders had staged a mighty revolt there, and won. As we began to settle, the charm and character of the home leapt out at us through the forgotten memories of the previous tenants:

--The rusty old Dodge parked out back, which, I was informed, had been the daily transportation of the previous occupants (it is now my mission to restore it to functionality);

--A photo of the family in the hallway from many years past;

--handprints and signatures of the children from the previous family in a concrete footing at the corner of the house

--a water bottle with a faded name written on it in Sharpie

--a doghouse in a pile of "junk" out back with the dog's name carved neatly in a board over the entrance;

--a mark on the wall where a young mother had measured off her 13 month old child's height and marked it in the wall.

These were signs to us that the house had been lived in, and loved in. The knowledge that we are adding our family's memories to those of families before us means far more to us than moving into a home, no matter how fancy, of new paint, carpet, and devoid of memories save those we create for it.

signing off,

Gideon MacLeish