The 26 Places where I’ve lived.. or so

Barefoot Musings gave me the idea for this one and with Girl in bed and Hubby and Boy not home yet, I thought I’d do it.

You’d almost think I was in the military or something.

1. Cleveland Heights, OH for 2 weeks – I was born as my parents were trying to move. Bad, bad timing for my mom. She ended up extremely anemic and couldn’t nurse me, and then they found out that I was allergic to cow’s milk. So, I got goat’s milk instead. I still like the stuff.

2. White Fish Bay, WI for about a year (I think) – The stories were never clear on how long they stayed, but I know that it went into the winter.

3. Milwaukee, WI for 4 years in multiple houses (I don’t know how many for sure (at least 2)) – we went from this white urban home and built up to a house in the near suburbans with about 2.5 acres. Our houses changed based on how involved my sister got with horses. I distinctly remember that 2.5 acres meant that we could have 2.5 horses. The third one being a pony or foal.

4. Mequon, WI for 1 year – I loved this house. It was right on the Milwaukee River and went back years. We were the first owners that weren’t descendents of the original settlers and there was a family cemetery on the land. There was a tunnel connecting the house to the barn and the house was haunted. Sometime I’ll need to write some of the stories from that house.

5. Vestal, NY for 11 years – The house that I really grew up in. It was an old 1812 farmhouse (even had wooden peg nails in parts) on an 100 acre ‘farm.’ Hobby farm was what we called it. We had so many animals over the years.

6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Syracuse, NY for 4 years – College. 2 years in a dorm followed by 2 years living off campus in a couple of apartments with friends. The fifth place was a summer sub-lease when I stayed there to take summer classes so I could do the co-op program.

11. Tonawanda, NY for 1 year – My first ‘real’ place and my first ‘real’ job. It was an apartment in a hugh complex.

12. Hamburg, NY for 1 year – Same job, but moved into a garage apartment that would let me have a dog and was out in the country.

13. Monson, MA for 9 months – New job – easiest one I ever had – and an neat apartment in a refurbished old boys boarding school. The catch was, that the lease said that if I lost my job, I was out. The place I was working closed their engineering department and I had to move. Luckily I had a 4 month warning so I could finish some projects, and landed on my feet.

14. Providence, RI for 1 year – Hubby and I were finally living together. He finished school and I found a new job.

15. Ponoma, CA for 1 year – The year I was pregnant with Boy. Very modern place in a complex that was originally going to be condos. Hubby’s first job out of college.

16. Salinas, CA for 1 year – New job for Hubby. I was now a stay-at-home mom. We rented a house that was split into a duplex. A very weird set up.

17 and 18. Monterey, CA for 2 years- though they were spent on either side of another duplex. The back had a yard and I wanted that for Boy to be able to play. We were right in New Monterey and when the windows were open, we could hear the sea lions barking. We still miss that bike path and aquarium.

19. Newburgh, NY for 16 months – it’s very weird living in military housing with active military neighbors, when you aren’t military. Checking out of that place drove me batty! I don’t know how people that have to deal with their inspections regularly deal with it (probably pay for the cleaning services to come in) Where as a regular landlord might dock your deposit if it’s not acceptable, their response was ‘We’ll be back in an hour, clean it.’ And by clean it, I mean white glove test. Anyway, this was where Girl was born.

20. Cornwall, NY for about 6 months – another apartment in a complex. This one was a townhouse though.

21. Cupertino, CA for 6 weeks – landlord from ****. Luckily, we were able to break the lease on move out.

22 and 23. San Jose, CA for 4 years – two in a rental – a duplex next to a park- and two in our first house. A little 1050 sq. ft. place that we were lucky to get in that housing market.

24. Temporay housing for 6 weeks – while we found and purchased our home. It was cheap, it was furnished, it was month to month with a 30 day cancelation, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I hate cockroaches!

25. Home since 1999. except for….

26. Albuquerque, NM for 10 months – for Hubby’s work. We rented a very nice 3 bedroom place. Furnished and they allowed the animals.