Fresh Blood On The Block

Six houses in my neighborhood, 10 percent of the total, are vacant. Three of them are shells left behind by owners too old and frail to live alone.  The others are for sale, and have been for more than a year. That's why house number seven--the McCubbin house--is so promising. Mr. and Mrs. McCubbin raised seven children in their two-story house. Mr. McCubbin kept a Model T in the garage and always had a yard cat. Mrs. McCubbin rode herd on the kids, and later volunteered as a reading specialist at the elementary school. A few years ago, Mr. McCubbin died. And last summer, Mrs. McCubbin died. Unlike the other houses on the market, the McCubbin house sold fairly fast. I think the children, now grown with kids and grandkids of their own, priced it to sell. The family that bought the house didn't move in immediately. Contractors bumped out the back of the house, tore down entire walls inside, added new windows and siding, redid the kitchen and bathrooms. They hauled away three dumpsters of construction debris. A fourth dumpster sits in the drive half-filled with the last of remodeling. Last week, the family moved in. There are two parents, two high school sons, two much younger children and a dog. I haven't met them yet, except for a quick hi in their driveway months ago. But I'm thinking they might need some welcome Brownies. Make that thank you Brownies. This new family saw their future in our neighborhood. They turned a 1960s house into a home for a 2011 family. We have sidewalks, trees and the annoying deer required of any neighborhood in West County. Now we have fresh blood with new ideas about what to do with tired houses. Maybe our other empty houses will find forward looking families, too. As for my house, I'm thinking about knocking down a few walls. I won't do it. But someday, a new family will live here, and they just might.