Opening Familiar Doors

We seem to have slipped quite comfortably into our previous life.  Living in our own house after nine months away is great, and I've been able to find nearly everything we carefully put away before we left.  Well, maybe not so carefully; at the end we were just shoving boxes and loose items into the locked closet and I was surprised the other day to pull a box of canned goods out from under my shoe rack.  Maybe I shouldn't have bought so much at Trader Joe's this week after all.

We're really thrilled to be back in the house, although it seems very big after our much smaller digs in Paris.  Clearly we don't need this much space for the two of us and we could be quite comfortable in less, arranged well.  We've lived here for decades however and have no immediate plans to change.  I love having a deck and trees and lots of light from all the windows.  It's possible that we could sell it (if housing prices ever go up enough) and live in something smaller for our Berkeley stays, but it will be a while longer before we firm up how we divide, or even IF we divide, the year between here and Paris.

At this point I can't imagine not living in either location, but I'm not anxious to be a proprietaire in Paris, with all the attendant problems of ownership.  On the other hand, I don't want to continue living in other people's apartments, never feeling quite at home. And even if you don't know me, you've probably gathered that I like my own things around me.  Maybe a longterm rental?  That would mean we'd have to sublet for a few months a year, as well as finding renters for the house in Berkeley for the other months.  On verra.

For now, we're spending our time seeing friends and family we've missed.  Our nephew's high school graduation is this week, our great-nephew's first birthday party is next week, my sister is only 20 minutes away, friends are available for coffee, drinks, dinners, side-by-side mani-pedis.  And I don't even miss the markets.  I've already hit the Monterey Market for gorgeous stone fruits twice this week.

The sun is shining and life is good.