Memento

Day 58 of 100-day Creator Challenge

Most houses where kids have grown up have a doorframe or wall where the parents have measured the height of the kids as they grow.

Martin’s house was no exception.

Jaime next to the shower doorframe with her growth height marked

We started marking Jaime’s height since she was independently standing at around 13 months. This continued: 1y 8m, 2y 7m, 3y 4m, 4y 2m, 4y 10m, 5y 2m, 6.5 y, 7y, 8y, 9y, 10y, 11y 3m and the last one at 12y 10m.

I would’ve liked to keep that strip of the doorframe. But the house is sold and anybody would agree that door trimmings are part of the house and not chattels. This is unlike the guitar mount Martin made in Jaime’s old bedroom. I took this off and installed it in our bedroom.

And we still have two guitars on floor stands.

After the sale was completed I had coffee with Adrian — the real estate agent — to thank him for his work selling the house.

He said the new owners were planning to start renovation with the shower and bathroom. It definitely needed it with the chipboard floor rotting away from excess moisture; and the cistern in the upstairs bathroom leaking through the shower ceiling after the house was emptied.

I thought about it for a few days before making a request to Adrian.

If the new owners were planning to gut that area anyway, would they mind if we kept Jaime’s height marker? I was aware that it may sound like an odd ask.

Adrian didn’t think it was weird at all.

When I got back home from my weekend shopping, I found the length of native New Zealand Rimu leaning by the front door. It had been carefully removed from the doorframe

It is now leaning by the mantlepiece in the lounge/dining-room.

Not sure where I’d install it.

But for now it’s a comforting memento.

Many thanks to Adrian Harris, for getting us into our current home eight years ago, for selling Martin’s house last year, and most of all for being an understanding human being.