The house became a person we knew. A third member of our marriage. Every repair revealed a layer of the house's history. A flaw, a stroke of genius, a work of slipshod make-do.

Susan Woodring is the author of a novel, Goliath (St. Martin’s Press, 2012) and a short story collection, Springtime on Mars (Press 53, 2008). Her short fiction has appeared in The...