saying goodbye to Donaldson Street.

On Christmas Day, James and I drove over to our very first home to say goodbye. 

This was not the first place we lived together. James and I shared two shitty apartments in Minneapolis and one shitty apartment in Sioux Falls before getting married and moving to Luverne. But our little house on Donaldson Street was our first home.

A little background:

James and I started dating when we were juniors in college, and I graduated a year before he did (as he had a fifth year to complete for his teaching license). When James graduated, he took the first teaching job he could find: as the band director in tiny Ellsworth, Minnesota. During James's first year, I continued to live in Minneapolis, and we did the miserable long-distance thing. The following year, I got a job in Sioux Falls (still an hour away from James), and we continued long-distance (though not as long). The year after that, James moved in with me in Sioux Falls. We were finally together, but his commute was miserable. A compromise had to be reached.

We chose to live in the closest thing to the middle as we could find: Luverne, Minnesota. With a population of nearly 5000, Luverne promised a bit of civilization. It was 20 minutes from Ellsworth and 35 minutes from Sioux Falls, so it was a reasonable commute for both of us. Plus, we were not making much money at the time, and Luverne offered affordable housing.

James talked me into buying a house versus renting an apartment, and I conceded... mostly because I really wanted a cat and did NOT want to pay a pet fee. Though we struggled through a not-so-great realtor (he took us to look at a house that was NOT ACTUALLY FOR SALE, and we walked in on a very confused family having dinner), we ended up choosing a charming little starter home on a corner lot. The home had been a flip, so it was a fresh start for all of us.

We closed on our house on July 29, 2013: two days after our wedding.

We had postponed our honeymoon road trip to Canada so we could close on the house, and we took off for Canada before the ink was dry on the paperwork. Upon return, my sainted family helped us move in. We had a home.

As previously mentioned, James and I were not making a great deal of money at the time. We were able to come up with a down payment thanks to years of my scrounging dollars here and there into a savings account. We were able to buy appliances (of which the house had NONE) thanks to our recent wedding and the monetary gifts we received because of it. We had to save up for curtains (who knew curtains were so expensive?!) and live with the gouged paint and the mismatched furniture. 

The years went by, and we made the house our own. We planted flowers, installed a Little Free Library, did some landscaping, slowly replaced the furniture, repainted, and got new flooring. Like goldfish, we grew to fit our new space.

We established traditions in this house. We hosted Thanksgiving 2013, and we have hosted every Thanksgiving since.

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving 2019

The first Norwegian Christmas was also in 2013, which continues every December to this day.

Norwegian Christmas 2013

Norwegian Christmas 2019

Our house on Donaldson Street was filled with memories, but by 2019, the time had come to find something else. There was no denying we had outgrown our charming little place. We began looking for a new home in or around Luverne. By fall 2019, James had started his job as the high school band director in Luverne, and I was a year-and-a-half in to my job as the library director of the library in Luverne. So we had some serious roots laid down in Luverne.

After a false start with an acreage that summer, James and I signed papers for our dream home in early November.

We had an amazing realtor this time around, and our home on Donaldson Street had a "sale pending" sign just days before we closed on our new home. 

James and I had about a month and a half in between the closing of each home, which allowed us some much-needed time to get everything out of one and into the other. But on Christmas Day, as we stood in our now-empty first home on Donaldson Street, the memories came flooding back.

That was our very first home.

That was the place I dragged my weary ass back to after countless trips, including New Orleans, San Francisco, Maine, Iceland, Germany, Denmark, Jamaica, Colorado, the Apostle Islands, and so many other places. 

We raised three kittens (now cats) in that house.

James and I both made major life choices by switching jobs while in that house.

We learned how to successfully get bats out of that house. 

I started my small business in that house.

We found out we were going to be parents in that house.

I started and finished a masters degree in that house.

We laughed and cried in that house. We felt the deepest desperation and the greatest joy in that house.

I grew into who I am in that house.

We're going to miss it so much.

Our future is bright in our new home. This new home is where we will bring our new son in April. This is where we'll learn how to be parents. Our new home has already been filled with joy and love, and that shows no signs of stopping. 

We are absolutely in love with our new home, but we will never forget our little place on Donaldson Street.