Our Condo – 10th Anniversary

It is hard to believe but as of August of this year, we have owned our midtown condo for ten years.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, this was a lifelong dream of my wife to have such a place and so purchasing it and renovating it fulfilled that dream of hers.  When I first wrote about our condo eight years ago, for me, I described it as a vacation condo.  Since then, it has served many other purposes.

In that original post, I described in detail what it took to create such an inviting place.  The redesign vision my wife and her best friend had made the impressive transformation from what the condo originally looked like to what it became.

Once the gutted spaces were completely redone, the two of them partnered to furnish it with many mid-century modern furnishings and to procure original art for all the walls transforming a nondescript condo…

…into this desirable auberge, our very own charming boutique inn.

When I wrote about our condo on the fifth anniversary of owning it, I detailed how it became for us so many more things.

It first was our weekend getaway where we would spend a Friday or Saturday night to enjoy the vibrant, walk-able midtown neighborhood where it was located.  This afforded us the opportunity to walk to a microbrewery for a great beer or to dinner at a fine restaurant and then to a play at one of the four live theatres all situated within a block of each other.

It also became our “night before a flight” hotel with its short 10-minute drive to the airport ensuring we would never get caught in snarling rush-hour traffic potentially missing our flight.

It became a private resort for our kids and their friends whenever they were in town and needed to get away from it all as well.

When our youngest son started graduate school, it became a study lair for daddy and mommy to get caught up on schoolwork while my wife or I watched our granddaughter.

It was even the venue for one of my SibSabs, the annual sibling sabbatical when I get together with just my two sisters and brother.

And it was a getaway location for just my wife and her sister whenever she came to town.

While construction traffic in Memphis made my morning commute to work miserable, I would even go there and spend the night just so I could have a 10-minute commute to work the next morning rather than the hour-long nightmare I sometimes had to endure.

And sometimes when my wife would be out of town, I would stay there by myself for the relaxation and cozy feel I get from being in what has been described as a “curated condo.”

Sadly, when the pandemic hit, a period of years began where we rarely went down to the condo.  Since part of our reason for staying at the condo was to get a chance to eat at restaurants nearby, initially there was no reason to stay there as all of these were closed.  Even once they opened up, there was still not a strong draw to stay there as prior to vaccinations, it was still risky to eat out.  We did celebrate our anniversary at the condo in December 2020 when we picked up dinner from a local restaurant and dined at our condo.

Once we were vaccinated and felt it was safe to travel again, we began using the condo again as our night-before-our-flight residence but still eating outdoors.

In the more than two years since the pandemic began, we haven’t abandoned our condo or let it fall into disrepair.  I still go to it whenever I am in the neighborhood to check things out or to pick up or drop something off.  And I still need to go by to clean out our mailbox which sometimes is stuffed with unwanted ads.

But knowing what a thrill it has been to enjoy this condo, I really look forward to the day when the pandemic is truly over, and we can return to the fun of many things that we have had to put on hold.  For me, it will once again be to enjoy a condo vacation.  For my wife, it will be a return to her lifelong dream condo!