Inviting Guests

Houses have multiple purposes.  Shelter primarily.  Creating a home.  Allowing for passive financial growth.  Establishing communal roots though retaining privacy simultaneously.  Having a place to share but also a place where you are in charge.  All of these and more.

We moved in forty years ago.  At first we had aspirations of being gracious hosts, raising a family, functioning as squires of a limited estate, returning from work to a night of relaxation.  Most of this happened, at least the important parts.  Elegance that whizzed through our mind as we signed the various closure forms did not happen.  Sharing what we have underperformed.

Now as empty nesters, we have far more floor space than we utilize.  Accommodating aging parents did not happen.  With good fortune, our children remain independent and just the right distance away to renew for themselves what we once did.  Nobody comes in and out now, just us.  We need to expand that.

My semi-annual initiatives for many cycles have included an item for entertaining guests, three per half year.  It gets propagated from one cycle to the next, never fulfilled, though I am now committed to making it happen.  Excuses easy to generate, mostly clutter that we want to keep private.  Or the ravages of our cats on the upholstery.  Or paucity of friends.  That's a more difficult one to overcome than clutter.  Living room, dining room, and lower hall now all clear.  Deteriorating sofa replaced.  New curtains with rods appear much more inviting than the draperies that preceded them.  Kitchen fully functional and modernized with an annual bonus I received during my working years.  Still a bit cramped to have one of those help me make dinner evenings but perfectly adequate for meal preparation at the highest level of my skill.  

Now ready to invited people.  Will delegate guest list.