Dear Brand-New Home by Mary Perrin Scott

When I first drove up and saw you standing out in a neighborhood of infancy (all brand new homes waiting to be built), I thought maybe this home will be mine. However dear home, you were the spec home in an emerging development. I had never lived in a development and had no idea what the expectations were for new owners. I decided a trip through the front door and a brief tour would do no harm. After a tour, I decided that you would be fine and fulfill all our needs as a young family. The biggest plus was that you were new and needed no repair. Dear home, why was the phrase “Brand New” so important? Very simple. The home we were leaving after 10 years, an old ocean side home, had required constant, and I mean constant, repair. I never put my tool belt away for 10 years. With this move, we were changing careers, starting a business and raising three little kids. I had no time to fix or repair house parts.

After our first look at you, I asked the realtor to let me see the house at eight in the morning and four in the afternoon. Knowing that I would leave at eight in the morning and return home at four in the afternoon, I needed to know if you would be a sunny bright home. Sure enough, you did not let me down. You were and continue to be bright and sunny. So, there I stood in the doorway and said yes to you.
Forty- three years later, you are still our home. When I return home at night, I feel peaceful. Dear home, you have provided us a place to raise our children, a place for our children and their families to come and visit, and a place to gather many friends. I am thankful for the voices that rest in your walls. Voices of joy, some of sadness, many of laughter, but most of all love.

I am thankful that I met you and said yes to you while standing on your doorstep in October, 1978.