We closed on the house on my birthday. I remember how Sean and I swam in the lake, diving down until our lungs burned and shooting back to the surface laughing. Inside, we ran our hands along the spiral staircase railing and watched the reflection of the sun off the water dancing across the ceiling.

“It’s ours,” we said in shock.

The house was a place in Vermont with a too dreamy-to-be-believed sleeping loft for the girls, multiple decks, and a waterfront that the girls could swim and kayak in, plus a woodstove and a firepit to feed my love of fire making year round. It was less than 50 minutes from our house but felt like a world away.
Our world.

We’d been married ten years, the girls were 11, 9, and 7. It felt as if we were suspended in a moment of ripeness, we had a bit of a nest egg, happy marriage, and three daughters who enjoyed being together as a family. It was the moment to reach for the dream.
It has been everything we hoped for and more. I’ve spent countless nights at the bottom of the ladder to the loft listening to Sean and the girls sing. I’ve raced outside with coffee to watch every last second of the sunrise and slipped under a cozy throw to take the sunset like dessert. Sean and I poured ourselves into the house to make it special, but it’s the time we spent there, our focus on each other and on our family that made it the dearest to us. It brought out new sides (and talents) in us all. Finely helped Sean build a deck!
The girls created worlds, playing American Ninja Warrior along the rungs beneath the dock, transplanting moss for fairy gardens, and creating rules to live and love by.
This summer I feel a bit of autumn in the air. Barely visible tethers begin to pull us in different directions. I can even feel the guilt and confusion as the way it’s always been, becomes less what we all want. Our getaway is happening more at bedtime or on the edges of busy days. Lessons, rehearsals, alone time, meetings, and adventures stretch us ever thinner.

We’re going to follow the rule and share. We’re putting our idyllic, slice of Vermont on the market. It’s time for someone else to feel the elixir of Vermont air and the embrace of this special place. Meanwhile, we are going to have our forever home be a little bigger. The girls will have more space, collectively we’ll have more room, and we’ll treasure the time having fun and being ourselves.
If you know someone who has always dreamed of a place to retreat or revel, they may find this to be just the thing.

Tagged: growing up, time, Vermont
How bittersweet. I too wish for the days when our family was its own little world. Best wishes.
Thank you <3
price?
$238,000 Listing
Where in VT is this house, and is it livable year-round?
Hi Barbara, it’s located on Lake St. Catherine in the town of Poultney. We have used it in all seasons, however it does not have a DW or washer and dryer.
I last my husband unexpectedly last fall, and my son is halfway through college. I’ve been dreaming about escaping to a place, such as this, and starting my life over. It seems to have a wonderfully solid base of happy memories to comfort it’s next owner
So beautiful, both the location and the way you made it yours.
One thing I’ve enjoyed watching (via social media) is how my friends’ kids return to the family homes and cottages for summer weekends and Christmases as they hit their twenties. It won’t ever be the same, and I’m sure the pulling-away is hard, but it’ll change and grow in beautiful ways.