Moving on

Rituals

I walked out the front door, headed for Five Ways to jump on the 389 to town, and a sight across the road made me instantly sad. A real estate agency For Sale board was outside the house across the road. A big one stating 'three bedrooms, one bath, one car'. I stopped and stared. Then I re-opened the front door and called out to my wife to come and have a look.

The sadness came because the elderly couple that had lived there for decades were gone. We hadn’t seen them for a while. The day was always going to come, but, when it did, it took the wind out of my sails.

Despite having lived in our house for 15 years, we didn’t know them well, unlike the relationship we have with other neighbours in this magic little part of Paddington. They kept to themselves. We said hello, they said hello. Their middle-aged children came and went and cared for them. The old guy still drove himself around in his old car. He parked on the street, rather than navigate into his tight little carport off a side alley.

Every now and then an ambulance would be at their place and we’d fear the worst. Then we would see them again. Eventually, we saw them less. Then, the sign was up.

It’s not unusual for elderly people to move out of a suburb, so I don’t know why it affected me so much. I suppose it’s the cycle of life. But that couple connected us somehow to the age of the suburb, full of beautiful old terraces and cottages.

They had been there for more than half a century in their untouched house. There was no second level, there’d been no big renovation. The only work we ever saw was a bit of fresh paint outside. When I saw their children visit, I’d always think to myself that they’d be walking into a time machine — where their parents’ house was exactly as it was when they grew up there.

At the first open house, I wandered over. It was as neat as a pin. The laminex benchtops in the kitchen had an 80s look about them. The bathroom was 60s, the backyard maybe 40s or 50s. The garage, well, it was original.

The inevitable will happen now. The sturdy single-level home with a $3m price guide will sell for $3.5m. On will go a second level. The red tile roof will go, replaced by Colorbond. Three bedrooms will become four or five. One old bathroom will become two or three. One of them will be an ensuite for the upstairs main bedroom, complete with walk-in wardrobe and sweeping views north.

The unattached garage will need to accommodate a larger car, most likely with an electric charging station. Between it and the house will be a landscaped garden with built-in barbecue, easy to access through French doors into the open-plan entertainer’s kitchen.

Time waits for no man or woman and suburbs move with the generations. Everything old in our old suburb will be new again. I’ll think about that elderly couple when a new family moves in after the reno. I wonder if they’ll stay for 50-plus years.