We live in a tiny flat above a little quilting shop. The shop owner, Patti is a small, thin woman in her fifties who knows everyone in the building by name and will talk your ear off if she catches you on your way out the door. She always wears her long hair in a braid down her back and usually has on a pair of interesting, locally made earrings with a story behind them. Inside her store are many colorful quilts, totes, table runners, and quilting squares along with some homemade soaps that her daughter makes for the store. Patti is usually busy with her massive quilting machine but, she always has time for a chat. When she sees you, she wants to know where you're going or where you've come from and always has an anecdote about her grandson, Asher or her daughter who lives in Colorado.
The front side of our building is all commercial. We have Patti's place, an African foods market (which also carries a variety of African wigs and dresses), a Jazz music station, a woman who specializes in reiki, and a home decor boutique. We are friendly with all of the shop owners and will frequently say hello in passing as we go to and from our front door which is set right between Patti's shop and the African market.
Before entering our front door, we usually stop to check the mail box which is located to the left of the door along with several others. Emma loves to get the mail and is always hopeful that there will be a letter from one of her grandparents. She's usually not disappointed. We open the first front door which leads to a dark and very dusty flight of rather intimidating stairs. The stairway is narrow and, unfortunately, not very well lit. It was my first impression on move-in day as we had never actually seen the place until then. Let me tell you, it was a bit daunting. At the top of the stairs is a small landing and the door into our apartment.
Our apartment is very small, quirky, and old but, also cozy. We came to Maine with a beautiful, new couch that (no matter how hard we tried) would not fit up the stairs. We had to get rid of it. With no couch, the layout of our living area is unique but, I quite like it. We have a comfortable chair and a table with four dining chairs for seating. The living room is also home to our bookshelves, a small end table, a large area rug, a wooden chair that I found in someone's front yard with a sign that said "free", and Emma's art easel. Around the room you will find family photos and many treasures collected from the sea. Connected to the living room is our small kitchen and the "pantry" that we made out of Ikea shelves. The kitchen has no dishwasher, microwave, or garbage disposal. I don't even think about the microwave anymore but, I really miss having a dishwasher and most miss the convenience of a garbage disposal. The kitchen is also sorely lacking in counter space but, we make it work. The bedrooms are spacious but with small closets. Some of the closets in our place do not have doors. I added curtains to the doors to close them off from the rooms. Our room has the TV which means that when we want to watch a movie together, we all pile up onto our tall bed. In addition to the two bedrooms, living room, and kitchen, we have one storage closet and a tiny bathroom. The bathroom and our room are painted with a horrible sea foam green color that I later found out was a mix of leftovers that our landlord found in the basement and didn't want to waste. I'm not a fan of the "basement-leftover green" walls but, I do love having wood floors throughout the house (despite their obnoxious creaking).
Speaking of the basement (AKA The Dungeon), that is where we go to do all of our laundry. There is one washer and dryer shared with all of the tenants in the building. It is coin operated and costs us a total of two dollars and fifty cents for each load of laundry. The dungeon is everything you would imagine a dungeon to be; dark and damp, covered in dust and spider webs, concrete floors with random piles of very old junk, and complete with rodent traps set up along the walls. To get down into it, there is a heavy metal door that opens to another narrow staircase. One of the stairs appears to be rotting and I am certain every time I walk on it that THIS will be the time it gives out. Doing laundry is my least favorite part of where we live and I dread every trip to the dungeon, especially in the winter when it seems to be so much colder there than anywhere else.
The part of the building we live in is over one hundred years old which gives you a little more understanding of it's odd layout and condition. I wish I knew more of the history of the building but, I do know that Patti's space used to be the home of the original Rosemont Bakery which is now located a couple of buildings down from us. We are frequent customers there and I love that the original bakery used to be in our building.
We have neighbors above us and to the side of us as well. Above us lives a family of three; A three year old girl and her mother and father. We don't hear much from the mother or daughter but, the father has a booming loud voice that can always be heard. He swears like a sailor and sounds exactly like Danny Devito (accent and all). What's worse is that he sings constantly. Sometimes he even pulls out a harmonica for accompaniment. He often drums on things or stomps his feet while he's singing and he'll pause occasionally to shout something out to his wife or daughter. He and his wife own a Philadelphia style deli restaurant and bar in town and are often gone for long hours at a time but, when he's home; you know it.
Next door to us is a young African couple, Patrick and Lucette. They both speak English with a lovely french accent and call Emma "Big sister" whenever we run into them. They sing too but, it is much more welcome. I love hearing them sing together on Sunday mornings as I get ready for church. He'll start with his deep, steady voice and then she will join in with a beautiful range of gospel sounds. It is so pleasant and I love to picture the two of them singing together. Other than their occasional duets, we don't hear Patrick or Lucette from inside the building. They are perfect neighbors, always polite and kind, and I enjoy running into them. Emma likes to check on the little garden box that Lucette has planted with vegetables near where we park our car. With the winter coming, the box will soon be empty.
There are other tenants in the building. Behind Patti's place and beneath part of ours is another small apartment where a single man, Lamar, lives alone. He is an African American who is typically filled to the brim with southern charm. When we pass him as we leave he'll exclaim, "Another beautiful day in the neighborhood, yes ma'am." or, "Top of the mornin' to ya!". We don't see a lot of Lamar because he works two jobs and is often up and gone before we are awake. Very rarely, when he has a day off, he will have too much to drink and turn his music up so loud that the floor shakes. It doesn't last long and sometimes we ignore it but, a few times, Sam has gone down to ask him to turn it off.
The last apartment is occupied by a group of African ladies who do not really speak English. We don't know them well but, once Emma and I brought them cupcakes and when they answered the door, they were all standing in the doorway, wrist deep in one of the lady's hair. They were making her long hair into the tiniest braids in an intricate pattern all around her head. It was amazing to watch but, we didn't stay long. I held out the plate of cupcakes and the sweet woman who answered the door thought that I meant for her to take just one off of the plate. I had to explain to her that I had brought the whole plate for them.
Because we are in a commercial building, we are positioned on a busier street. I mentioned that the bakery is on the corner but, also neighboring us is a baseball card and antique game shop, a barber shop run by a funny very old man, an insurance agent, an old bed and breakfast, and a gas station (which came in handy when I was pregnant and addicted to ice).
It sounds very busy but, we are actually quite happy with the location of our apartment. Behind our building are some lovely neighborhoods where we like to go walking. We always pass several people walking their own dogs along the way. It's a perfect neighborhood for trick-or-treating in the fall or flower peeping in the spring. A few minute's walk away is a beautiful pond with a walking path around it. The pond is thickly surrounded with trees, cattails, and flowers of all kinds.We have seen many toads and even a few turtles in the summertime. We like to pack a snack and go sit on a bench at the pond to read or walk around and try to find different kinds of birds or butterflies. In the winter, we like to go there with our snow shoes or a sled. Ice skating is also allowed during the winter months.
Our apartment is about a mile away from Sam's school campus and within walking distance to a couple of eateries, our local library, some cute shops, a park, and a massive cemetery where we like to explore. It is full of tombstones dating back to the early 1700s, mausoleums, and tombs. There is also a pretty little chapel with beautiful stained glass windows and a pond where we see ducks from time to time.
Though we spend much of our time out and exploring all that Maine has to offer, there are also many hours spent at home in our little flat. It's where I teach Emma her preschool lessons, it's where I read to my girls, it's where we bake, play, build forts, eat our meals, and relax after long days. In our house we pray together, put bandaids on our "ouchies", watch baby Eve learn new tricks, and give group hugs. It has made me grateful for small and simple comforts and helped me realize how blessed we were to have some of the modern conveniences in our past homes. It has helped me work hard and problem solve with something even as seemingly simple as figuring out how to get two kids and all of the groceries from our parking lot and up all of the stairs into our apartment. It has given Emma valuable daily opportunities to be social with people of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds and to see goodness in all of those different kinds of people. It has been a place where we have all learned, experienced, and grown together and, though life would be easier without the dungeon and with a dishwasher, I wouldn't trade our time here.
