Une Envie de Sel

Corner View: Front Door
I love our house. It isn't large, but it's just right for us. When we started looking, my husband was working as a sous chef for a downtown restaurant and I did a lot of the house-hunting footwork alone until we had it narrowed down to three or four properties. I looked at forty houses over the course of a few months. Forty.
This one was the very first house I picked to see, and I knew in my heart the first time I walked up the street and saw its red door that this was it. The one. Honestly I probably would have bought it on the spot if it had been just me. Still, I went through the motions and plodded through forty properties in five or six different neighborhoods before all was said and done.
No other property even came close to the feeling this house gave me. It was like a vibration in the air every time I approached it, a little flicker of positive energy, as if the air smelled better here and shone a little brighter. Finally one day our agent gave us notice that someone else had made an offer on the house with the red door.
I panicked. We paid full price, with a few little negotiations. It was worth it.
I still get a little thrill of pride every time I walk up the block and see that house and know...it's mine! My chest swells a bit. My home.
Of course, it wasn't just the red door. You can paint any front door red. There were so many things that made it exactly the right house for us - the open, loft-like floorplan, the beautiful hardwood floors, the 1913 ranch-style square that had been doubled in size during a modern renovation, the lake park just half a block away with its waterfowl and cattails, the broad, quiet street that makes on feel like one lives in a small town, even just minutes from downtown Denver...but every time I come home, it's that magical red door I see, and it gives me that same little thrill of "rightness" that I had the very first time. I'm convinced one can have "chemistry" with a house just as one can have "chemistry" with a person. You just know. Like so many things in my life today.

For more Corner Views stop by Jane's place in Spain.