We didn’t know until after we bought you that you have a name for yourself in our suburb. The Little Blue Cottage. Much admired in our street for your miner’s cottage character.  “Oh, you live in the little blue cottage. So pretty”.  You are well known and well loved.  Before I knew that, I wanted to paint you. After I knew that, it seemed wrong.

From the moment we stepped into the house we could feel your good past. You had a happy feeling about you. You were brought in from Charters Towers around the turn of the century - early 1900’s. You were a goldfields abode.

We were fortunate to meet the woman who had grown up in you; who lived in you through World War II – in the day when you had an invasion shelter underneath that was shared with others in the neighbourhood. Anna came for a cup of tea one day and showed us her pictures of you with a huge mango tree in the front garden. You were almost obscured and you are now slightly altered but it is still you. You were a happy place to live for her and for us too.

We didn’t change you much but we didn’t need to. We thought you perfect. We put in more airconditioning for the eskimo amongst us. We took down a huge mirror in the second bedroom to discover your original window frame hidden beneath and we used the frame to create a shadow box feature to display images in the space where old window panes had once provided vistas to the outside. We eventually made over your front garden, planting natives and a new weeping tea tree that we hoped one day would give you some of the shade your old mango tree had.

Your verandah is small but is filled with so many happy moments with friends and family. Many parties, barbeques, and quiet Sunday afternoon drinks. Your lounge room holds so many memories, both happy and sad. When I think of some of these moments – the moment the doctor rang to tell us our pregnancy test was positive, the moment my Dad rang to tell us my Pop had passed, the moment DJ’s Dad rang only one month later to tell us his Granny had passed – I realise just how many times we rearranged our lounge room furniture. So vivid are my mental pictures of these moments in you that I can see which way the sofa faced. What was on your walls. Whether there were baby toys present or not.

You were our first home together. We had rented, but you were ours. We brought our first furry friend home to you. Our first baby home to you. Our life was rich. We would like to think that we continued the good history you had and that we are handing you over with more love in the walls.

Today you will be no longer ours. It seems strange, but true.  We can no longer give you the love you need while we are living away from you. Someone else will call you theirs now and that is as it should be. From everything we have heard she loves you – you are her ‘fairy house’. Everything she has dreamed of.

It is with relief and sadness that we hand you over to your new owner. For DJ, more relief than sadness. For me, the relief is peppered with a knot in my tummy and tears.

Goodbye beautiful home.

Fran x