Two More Days

We move into the new house in two more days, this coming Friday, and then we close on the old house on Monday. We’re almost done packing and now we need to do things like replace the smoke detectors, and get the house inspected by the fire inspector tomorrow.

We’re excited, but it’s also a bit emotional for us, as we’ve spent the last few days reminiscing about living here.

The day we moved in here, early December 2001, was a weirdly warm day for December. I think it was close to the 70’s for that week, which is very rare for December in Rhode Island, and I was walking around in a short sleeve shirt that whole time.

At the home inspection the inspector had pointed out that the latch on the guest bedroom door was installed backwards. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, and instantly forgot he pointed it out the moment he said it. The night we closed on the house we bought an air mattress and set it up in the vacant living room. We opened up every window in the house, because it was so warm out, and listened to the ducks and geese honking and quacking in the cove as we blissfully fell asleep.

Then in the middle of the night a door opened. We opened our eyes, and sat there silently listening.

“Are they back? Did they forget something?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Todd answered.

WHAM! The open door slammed shut. We sat bolt upright in bed, pulling the covers to our necks.

“What the hell was that?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, go check it out!” I nudged him out of bed.

“Me?”

“Yes you! You’re the boy! It’s your job to check these things out!”

“Some feminist you turned out to be…”

“Just GO!”

We got up and turned on the lights, we walked through the house. Of course the prior owners didn’t come back to get something they’d forgotten. Nobody had entered the house. We wandered the house trying to figure out which of the locked external doors had opened, of course none of them had.

Then my mind wandered back to the home inspector, pointing out the latch on the guest bedroom door.

“Oh! I know what it is! Look!” I pointed to the latch on the door and remembered that the home inspector said that the door wouldn’t close properly because the latch was on backwards. Because we had every window open in the house, a draft must have come through the house and pushed the door open, then sucked it shut again.

I wonder what weird noises the new house will make. I can’t wait to find out.