January 19: Waveland Addition Plot 18

I am converting one of the bedrooms on my second floor into a home office, moving my desk down from the 3^rd floor which is not centrally heated/cooled. In the process, I’m trying to filter through my desk and purge. There is simple purging, like the junk drawer where you throw out broken rubber bands and dead batteries. And then there is complex purging, where each item triggers a memory or requires review before being sorted. The office is a complex purge.

I was filtering through my (sadly expired) passport and other important documents, and happened upon my home’s title work. I never looked it over when I bought the house. Mid-divorce, I just threw it into a drawer and was pleased as punch to have closed my loan. Yesterday I took a little time to peak into the lives of the previous owners of the Waveland Addition Plot 18.

When the Waveland Addition was commenced, it was on the edge of Des Moines, the cusp of urban and rural. Now I’m in what is considered Des Moines West, with a bevy of suburbs continuing miles further west of my home. In 1913 when the lot was plotted, I was the frontier, baby. I found an ad on the back of the original title touting the charm of my ‘hood and its delightful new school, Hubbell, where my daughter attends 4^th grade today after its 100^th year celebration.

  

The original plot was purchased in 1913 by Ms. Julia Kennedy. There were instructions on the title that she must build a home worth $2,500 at minimum on the property and it needed to be X feet from the street. I love the expansive nature of this basic guideline. In today’s subdivisions, you can only have one of six home models, park 1.5 cars in the garage only (never on the street), and have a blue or brown door to identify your home from your neighbors. Not red. Red is outside the allowable color pallet the association will enforce. Julia had free reign with her budget to dream up whatever home suited her fancy.

Sadly, she didn’t build on my land. She sold it to E.W. and Harriet Dobbs, who built my Craftsman, finishing title on it in May 1916. Isn't it a charmer?

Julia was the last single woman to own this space until June 2006 when I took possession. I am the 7^th owner on file of my 1916 Craftsman. The two previous owners ended their ownership of my home in divorce. I moved here as a shelter from the storm of my own divorce.

Rather than being a place of broken dreams I’d leave behind, this home has been a cocoon for me. I took my own broken dreams and wishes for “living truth” and found myself at Plot 18. If you have ever lived a life that wasn't true to yourself, that felt like faking it, or wearing clothes that never ever fit, or simply felt like your outward facing self was a lie to what hid neglected within, you get why I wished to live my truth. The greatest lies are told in silence to ourselves. That I could stick it out in my marriage. That being so incredibly lonely in a marriage was at all copacetic. That my daughter needed married parents more than an example of true love (of self in this instance) to base her self worth and future upon. As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn't file for my divorce. I just rejoiced after the fact.

Many truths I discovered early on following my divorce were incredibly painful. Sometimes when the veil drops, the reality is quite ugly to accept. The journey is still underway, and nothing is certain. But I’m beyond grateful to tell you that I am more me, more truth, than I have ever been. And my world has never been more lush with blessings, 1916 Craftsman and all.

Move day: July 4^th weekend, 2006. Do you see the hope in my eyes? The joy in Aria? That it’s move day and I’m in a dress and flipflops? I told you I was a dress girl. 

This house has been a blessing for us. I’m so grateful to have stumbled upon Plot 18.

This song feels like my world before the move. Pre-divorce. It is a sharp contrast to the walls I live within now. It is one of those songs that makes me wish I could play guitar and write lyrics half so beautiful as Jackson's. It is a favorite.

Jackson Browne - In the Shape of a Heart