bri's brain weekly: my childhood home

This entry was originally posted on Bri's substack on 21 JAN 2022. You can view the original post on her site here.

My house burned down in 2015 when I was 18 years old. Since then I've moved a lot (11 times to be exact), but for the first 18 years I lived in the same house, My family home on the corner of our street. My bedroom was on the furthest right side of the house, My older sister’s room shared the same wall as mine, and my younger sister's room was across the hall from mine. Next to that, across from my older sister's room was the bathroom. Which was on top of the other bathroom. Are you bored yet? You walk in the front door and it's a big porch with a huge bench to sit or lay your coats on. To the left is the living room, straight is the kitchen and to the right is the hallway where our bedrooms are.

From what I remember, our house was always very bright. We had big picture Windows in the living room and a big patio door in the dining room. Our front door was all glass. In my memory, it seems like the sun was always shining. We had a pretty nice basement too. There was a spare room where we would play video games, often playing Rockband as a family. Across from that room was the laundry room, which was also the cat's room. We had two cats named Artemis and Leia. Unfortunately they didn’t survive the house fire. But they were amazing cats. I’ll talk about them another time. Next to the laundry room was the second bathroom.


My parents added a really big shower to that bathroom not long before the house burned down. It was big and had a shower head on both sides. My dog would always get in the shower to cool down when he was too hot. He still does that now but he jumps in the bathtub. Then cries and cries because he thinks he can’t get out. Across from the bathroom was my parents room. They had a big walk-in closet that we used to keep our desktop computer in. That’s also where they hid all our Christmas presents. I know because I'd sneak down and open them to see what I got. Sorry mom. The hallway at the bottom of the stairs where the four rooms were is where I would play hand hockey. My dad didn’t like us playing hand hockey but my mom would let us when he wasn’t home. I think I may have made a few too many marks on the wall. Oops. At the other end of the hallway was our rec room, and a wood room under the stairs. I don't know what those rooms are called but we called it a wood room because that’s where we kept our firewood. We had a really beautiful wood stove. 

No, it didn’t start the house fire. It was a really big house with 5 bedrooms. My Parents invested a lot of money in that home. One week before our house fire, my uncle installed granite countertops in the kitchen and my parents installed a matching backslash. It was beautiful while it lasted. We had everything we could possibly need in that house. It was an awesome house. We had one dog for a while, her name was angel. We got a second dog in 2006 I think. Her name is Lady, she’s 15 now. Then we got two cats as well. 

When Angel was the only dog we had, my sisters and I would always fight over who got to sleep with her. So my mom ended up having to create a schedule of who gets to sleep with her which nights. It’s so funny and wholesome to me. Angel died when I was in the 12th grade. She was 15. I was blessed to have her from 2 years old to 17. I didn’t remember a day without her. A month after she passed, I got my dog Sam, he turns 9 this year. He is the love of my life! The day that my house caught fire, I ran into the front door and Lady and Sam were excitedly awaiting my arrival. Totally oblivious to the flames at the back of the house. I immediately put the dogs in my car. My sister tried to find our cats but she couldn’t. It was very sad but we are so lucky our dogs survived. I really miss that house. I would love to be able to walk through that house again. I played so much hockey and basketball in our driveway. And hide and seek in the yard. We had a trampoline and a swimming pool, and when my parents weren’t home I'd move the trampoline next to the pool and jump from the trampoline into the pool. I had so much fun at that house. There was always something to do. We had two basketball nets and two hockey nets. That home was awesome!


If you’ve made it this far, Hey! you’re amazing and beautiful and I love you! If you’d like to comment/share your thoughts/etc., please do! (*note: Please click through the link to comment directly on Bri's substack, to support.*) I will read and respond to everything! If you want to support this newsletter aka me, share it with the people you love! I really appreciate you!


Your pal,


Brianna




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