When we moved into our house, Dagny was 7 and Rowan was 3. As I walked through the house the first day, I knew it was perfect for us at that time, but I also had an imaginary distant future in mind. A future in which our house could adapt to the kids’ getting older and bigger and needing more space, with room for us all for as long as we each wanted to live here.

Now here we are. The distant future. The year 2000. (ok, if you don’t know Flight of the Conchords you won’t think that’s funny. But I bet Rowan laughed.) And recently we’ve made some changes that I imagined that first day.

Rowan, whose perfect-for-a-three-year-old room was decidedly not perfect for a 13 year old, has moved into a much bigger room, freshly painted and equipped with a bed that belonged to her great-great grandmother.

Dagny has moved to the third floor, where she has both a bedroom and a living room. Rowan, Andrew, and I painted her bedroom for her as a surprise while she was away in February, and she and Andrew painted her living room a couple of weeks ago.

You can just barely see in this picture that on the wall to the left of the windows a bunch of dates are written, marking Dagny and Rowan’s growth over the past ten years. Dagny carefully recorded and rewrote them when she painted, which I think was awfully nice of her considering it’s a record of Rowan overtaking her in height.

Some people want their kids to move out when they turn 18. Me, I’m still imagining a distant future that includes a family growing together and a house that adapts to accommodate us all for as long as we each want to live here.

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