Making a Home
If only I could put this on my résumé
Quick Look
Words of Wisdom
The making of a Home
What are you working on?
New Music
Words of Wisdom
“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”
~ Unknown
The Making of a Home
If you could put making a home on your résumé, would you?
I would.
Let me tell you about this duplex that my wife and I have called home for the past 16 years.
This story has many layers so I suggest you sit back and grab a cup because I’m going to share why I loved this house so much and never stopped working on it.
When I was just barely 23 my now wife was shopping for a rental. We had only been together for a couple of years and she’s mostly Colorado-raised and knew living in Wash Park, Denver would be a dream come true.
So by some of her magical skills and wisdom, she found this little duplex. It was powdered blue on the exterior and the bathroom was cobalt blue and tan and I knew nothing about Wash Park let alone cared too much about paint color. I was working in enterprise tech as a young marketer and studying full-time for my MBA at the time. It was 16 years ago and our priorities were very different.
Quick side note, years later I realized that one of the first places Michele and I hung out together with mutual friends were the tennis courts at Wash Park. It was destiny.
A year after renting, the guy who owned it said he was selling and I jokingly said “please just let us buy it”. I did not want to move. Michele and I worked our asses off and were both studying full-time and we didn’t have trust funds or money lying around. The only way we were making this happen was on debt and hard negotiations.
By some miracle and let’s be honest, questionable real estate market conditions, we scraped together some pennies and worked around the clock to make this little duplex our first home.
It wasn’t easy for a gay couple in 2006 to buy a house. It wasn’t easy also because we were both full-time students with plenty of student loan debt but somehow we pulled it off.
Great things rarely come easy.
We would spend countless birthdays and Christmas celebrations in this house, I proposed to Michele in our backyard years later, loved and said goodbye to 2 incredible and insanely loved “furry children” (dogs). We would dance in that kitchen and let’s be honest every room for all those years.
I would build an office in the backyard where I would go on and work on Undock, Women Who Startup, and Wefunder’s Community Round launch.
I would cook a “thousand and one” meals in the kitchen and backyard for friends, family, and neighbors. I would fire pizzas for the nurses in our neighborhood during the onset of the COVID pandemic and shutdown, and I would work on this little house from the moment we arrived until the moment we hand over the keys to a new caretaker for the little darling of a house in West Wash Park that we grew to love so much.
If I could put building this home on my résumé, I would.
Much like I create and build and make anything, I took great pride in our home. We made it a sanctuary, a nest, a gathering place of music, laughter, singing and so much dancing and many countless celebrations.
We turned the backyard into an oasis because love is hanging out in your backyard and getting sun kissed all while the neighbors say hello and the dogs bark to chase a squirrel or announce a stranger at the door.
After 16 years of being the caretaker of our little home, I can honestly say I loved this house. Making it a home has to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. I believe that the soul of a house comes from the owners, the caretakers who do the work to make sure the house works well and keeps your family safe and warm and filled with love and good food.
And here we are after 16 years of making a home and building memories and time to start again. Michele and I have been looking for a true 1950s Midcentury modern house in the Denver area and after 6 years of looking, we found a little gem.
And that means that we’re selling our beautiful Wash Park home. We will miss walking to Whole Foods on hot summer nights or cold winter days. We’ll miss our neighbors dearly who have become family in many ways. We’ll miss walking up to Wash Park every day with Leo - our sweet new puppy - and the familiarity of Smith Lake who has helped me think through more than I can explain on my countless daily walks over the past 16 years.
I will miss a lot. It’s bittersweet.
But home is where the heart is and where the music’s playing. Home is where the love is. “Home is wherever I’m with you”.
So, it begins again and I hope we have the energy and health to build another wonderful home once again.
I know we will.
If you’re open to a priceless Wash Park gem, here’s the listing and you’re welcome to share it with anyone who is looking to live in the most desired neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, and excited to build some wonderful memories of your own amongst the best neighbors one could find.
What are you working on?
Leave a comment and let’s get into it. I’m always building community and would love to know how we can help each other connect and grow. Magic happens when you’re connected to opportunity.
New Music
There’s one universal language I know we all speak and it’s music.
Today’s track is not new. But it’s so appropriate.
Home, by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros.
Thanks for reading.
As always — Keep Climbing.
Until next time,
Lizelle
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