Life's a Stitch

When I managed a family life education, aka "edutainment," program, a popular and highly emotional course was "Moving from the home you have loved." 

Last week we drove by our old place, the house that I lived in for the longest period of any place  in my life, and saw the beginning phases of demolition. Several windows having been removed, leaving sad hollow eyes on the front of the house. It looked so unhappy in the cold and wet. A neighbour questioned our curiosity in seeing it being demolished, saying she would find it too depressing to see the house in which she raised her family being torn down. Our house required too much work to bring it back to life and really is ready for the wrecking ball, having lacked "good bones." I don't find it depressing as our happy times will be sealed there permanently in spirit. The beautiful lot needs an opportunity to host a new growing family to create their own memories. That being said, I didn't like seeing it partially dismantled, experiencing a slow demise.

Our old familiar North Vancouver world is changing. An entire four square block area that housed the grocery store where two of my children had high school jobs, as well as our doctor's office, has been levelled for a townhouse development complete with trendy food store. I drove past our previous house and guess what? It was taken down to its foundation similar to what we are currently doing, but I remember that house as structurally sound. I have to admit, though, that the new house, built upon the foundation of the old one looks very nice.  Mirroring its original lines, it looks like our little house has grown up. 

 
The next day I went down the street where I worked for ten years. You guessed it. The entire complex was gone to make room for another West Coast contemporary development. Hurricane Progress has hit our community. I am not exaggerating when I say every block in our town has been hit by this storm. Most have at least one rebuilt house and others involve the wiping out of entire blocks of homes. Our new town is experiencing similar change, but not to the same extent. And it's probably easier because I don't know what it was like before. It's unsettling to see all your familiar points of reference being replaced in short succession.

But on to the new: we've noticed traffic patterns are more efficient, where we are, and are growing accustomed to the ease of living in a highly walkable community. More on that in the next post.