Three Stories

Introduction:
Three floors of living space and three delightful stories to tell. This is the continuing saga of an extended family living in three distinct personal spaces in one large building with 70 windows, 6 outside doors, 8 flights of stairs and a ship ladder to a secret 4th floor loft.

The Beginning:
My husband and I reside on the second floor, between floor one and floor three, interestingly sandwhiched between our two daughters and their lovely families. I, the mother and grandmother of nine plus two, start this wonderful story with a bit of information on how and why we got into this amazing house to begin with. It was exactly 6 years and two days ago that our moving truck left the suburbs and pulled up in front of a partially renovated 6,000 sq. ft. home in the city. At that time my husband and I were "almost" what some people call "empty nesters". Our last two children were in college and we were enjoying our lives to the fullest. We spent our weekends going out to dinner, attending the theatre, and visiting libraries and coffee shops in the city. The key words here are "the city". We were living in the suburbs and often felt the need to get back into the swing of life by enjoying the cultural opportunities and mind stimulating activities that a large University city has to offer. Don't get me wrong, the "burbs" have their place in society and they served us well, we thought. However, we had emotionally out-grown the suburban atmosphere and were enjoying an Urban renewal of life. Wouldn't it be great for my husband and I to move on and write our own adventure so to speak? Well, that is exactly what we did. We filled one moving truck with our most special possessions, gave all of the rest of our things away, and trucked ourselves into the city and up to the second story of a three story triplex. A big move? You bet! And we were just beginning to write our own adventure.

The reality:
Six years ago when we moved in, only the second floor of our newly purchased triplex was reovated. The rest of the building was in very bad disrepair. Plaster was falling. electrical wires needed replacing, some of the plumbing was totally shot, and the third floor was clad in it's original 100 year old design and material. The mode of design on the third floor was Antique Attic, with no heat, no plumbing, and minimal electricity! Today, each of the three floors is in glorious repair, and each of the three floors is a home to three different families all in the same relation. One young daughter and her family of four live on the third floor, another young daughter and her family of five, live on the first floor. My husband and I are still on the second floor where we enjoy our tree house views of a lovely old historic neighborhood. We have enough room to accomodate visits from our two sons. One son lives only a few blocks from our triplex and another son lives but a three hour plane trip away. Perfect!

The inside stories:
This blog is about the three families that live on three different floors of one structure. Each story will take on it's own flavor as each mother on each of the three floors takes her turn writing her own journal entries. Enjoy!!!