And it is done...A farewell to my house.

So Thursday at 7ish pm EST the sale of my house was recorded. Which means it's not my house anymore. It was a sad day for all of us. I am so relieved the financial burden of the house is gone, it feels so great to not have that stress anymore but it is still sad.

Aric and I bought that house in the spring of 2004. It was barely framed when Aric drove by it. It was just a couple blocks from our house we had just built! The house we were living in was only nine months old. I had painted all the rooms...Maya had a wall that looked like a quilt and Eden's nursery was a garden with a white picket fence. I knew we wouldn't live there forever but I thought it would be more than nine months!!! So when Aric wanted me to look at the house down the street I told him he was out of his mind. It took two weeks of him bugging me to go look at it before I went. By the time I got over there the upstairs had been framed and I could stand in the master bedroom. That room and the view from that room sold me on the house. My exact words were..."what do we need to do to make this happen". This house was 1000sqft bigger than the other house, the layout was better and I knew we wouldn't have to move, ever, unless Aric got a different job.

Fast forward two months and we had sold our brand new house to buy another brand new house at a price that made our house payment only $200 more a month! It was meant to be. We had a budget for this new house and stuck to it knowing that every year we would do a home improvement to make it exactly what we wanted. After eight years we finally had it the way we always wanted it. This past spring we finished our master bathroom just days before we put it on the market to sell it :(

This is what we left behind...

The front room:

It took me quite a bit of mixing to make the right colors in here.

The kitchen:

It took me two months to find the glass I wanted for the cupboard doors. That backsplash was a compromise, I wanted white subway glass or porcelain tile, Aric wanted stone. This was our compromise. Each piece started as a 12 x 12 piece of stone that we cut to make this backsplash.

The family room:

After about five years we added the built-ins and the fireplace. Aric did all the stone work. I did all the grouting.

The powder bathroom:

This room has had two makeovers and this color was the color I always wanted but only discovered it weeks before we moved.

The laundry room:

Oh how I loved this room the yellow wasn't as bright as this picture is showing it. Remember way back when, when there was no vinyl lettering?? Yeah, well that's when I painted each of those letters by hand!!!!

Upstairs

The bonus room:

This room is gigantic! I we used it as another family room/office/tutoring room/ art room.

The girl's room:

I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures of this room all the way done but this gives you an idea. I painted those giant flowers to match the girls quilts. 

Camden's room:

This was the first beadboard project we had ever done in our own house. All the pictures are from Charleston when we got Camden.

Every time I was in that room I couldn't help but smile...except the time he took a sharpie to every surface...walls, dresser, toy locker, outlets, closet doors, sheets, pillows, books, toys...yeah, wasn't smiling then.

Kid's Bathroom:

Before



Oh how I loved this bathroom! The wall color, the tile, the backsplash, the fixtures, the vanity color, the rug, the counter top. I wasn't in love with the mirror but with two girls I thought the wall to wall mirror was the way to go.

Master Bedroom:

This has had a couple transformations. I still wasn't finished with this latest version but we had to move. So this is how we left it...

Master Bathroom:

Moment of silence please...

Okay now we can discuss the saddest part about leaving our house...we finished the bathroom just days before the house was put on the market.

Before





After

Before

After

Here are a couple during shots just for fun:

The hall way:
These are pictures of each of us at the age of one. I can't find the more recent picture I took that included Camden white frames but you get the idea...

The basement:





The basement bathroom:
We called it my "spa" bathroom because it was way nicer than my master bathroom up until we finished it...




Can't find any pictures of the guest room...weird.

And last but not least the theater room:
Aric has rarely put his foot down about anything in our marriage and this was one of those rare moments. When we built this house he said there was no reason for a sixth bedroom and so we were going to build a theater room with tiered seating, footstools, cup holders and red carpet...




I have to give some love to our deck since my brother Ben built it for us...






The night I left my house for good I was completely unprepared for the emotions that came over me. I stood paralyzed in my garage, I needed to do one last sweep through the house and I couldn't do it. My dear friend did it for me and then let me have the meltdown of all meltdowns in her arms, in my garage.  I couldn't leave.

Every memory we had in that house felt like it was swallowed up in its walls. Every birthday and anniversary, every holiday and every First Friday. That's where Eden took her first steps, it's where we brought Camden home. It's where we had late night tv watching and movie nights with friends. It's where I tutored, sewed, baked and crafted. Every decoration and picture was specifically picked out for the spot it occupied. Every wall was a canvas, I was leaving behind my masterpiece that took 8 years to create. I was leaving behind 8 years of where I became me...the grown up me. I miss every square inch of my beautiful home. Not because it was the nicest house I had ever seen or the biggest, but because it was mine, it was part of me.

I am sad it's not mine anymore.

Being away from it for four months now, while living in a 950 sqft apartment, has given me an even greater appreciation for it. All of us miss it. It has not been an easy adjustment and as I have helped the kids adjust to our temporary tiny apartment I have learned a lot. I have truly realized that it's not a house that makes a home. It's a nice little saying but until you go through something like this you don't truly get it. The thing that made that house awesome was us. The five of us living in it and creating the  memories in it. It's been a great lesson for all of us to live and learn.

In the near future we will have a real home again, one that won't require all three of the kids to share a room. One that will not require flip flops shoved under the doors as locks. One that will not require us to add 3 minutes to our departure routine because we have to wait for the elevator. And one day soon I will have all the decorations that I love out of storage. And someday I will have colored walls again, all the colors that I love because I kept a record of all my paint colors

and

I 

can't 

wait!

But in the meantime, I am still mourning the loss of my house but I have found some joy knowing that someone else gets to enjoy and appreciate my well loved canvas.

Bye-Bye House. Thanks for all the memories! XOXO

Weekend Warriors...

Okay so actually it was more like "warrior". My baby brother Ben came up to help us build a deck. Aric and I were planning on taking on the project ourselves so on Tuesday I called Ben (he builds houses for a living) to get some advice and this is how our conversation went...
Me- Hey Benny got a minute?
B- Sure what's up?
Me- Well Aric and I are going to build a deck and I wanted to see if I could send you some pictures and tell us how we should do the foundation.
B- Who's building this thing?
Me- Me and Aric.
B- How big is it going to be?
Me- Oh...I don't know, like 14 ft x 20ft.
B- Ummm...let me see what I am doing this weekend. I want my nieces and nephew safe. Send me some pictures and I'll call you later.
On Thursday I call Ben and he says he will be at my house later that night. (He lives 3+ hours away)

****SIDE STORY****

Ben has been dealing with a crazy tooth issue. He lost a filling...the tooth got infected. His regular dentist couldn't fix it so he was waiting to get into a specialist who could do the very complicated root canal. He got the call that he could get in on Thursday at 3pm. I told him that he didn't have to come up but he insisted that he would be fine. So on Thursday night I get a call at 9pm saying that he was an hour away and that he was in pretty bad pain so he had to stop to eat something and take some pain meds. He told me that he wouldn't be able to drive for a couple of hours after he took the meds so he would be late. Well I went to bed at 12:30am...no Ben. When we woke up at 7am there was still no Ben and he wasn't answering my calls or texts. I started freaking out. I called the family and the state police. After about an hour of praying and worrying that he was dead in a ditch, he finally called. He had taken two vicatin and they knocked him out. He stayed in a hotel and his phone wasn't working. Seriously...if I wasn't so happy he was alive I would have strangled him with my bare hands when he finally got to my house....

****BACK TO STORY****

So after Ben and Aric wheeled and dealed they got all the materials purchased and delivered to the house at around 4pm.

The back of my house started out looking like this...

Then Ben started working his magic...

 

Oh and Aric helped too...

When it was all said and done, it looked like this...

(Ignore the melted siding...that would be the evidence of  grilling incident that could have been gotten us on Dateline)

Clearly our deck is not completely done...Aric and I will have a fun day tomorrow full of drilling and rail installing. Ben did the hard work and I couldn't be any more thrilled or grateful. He worked for meat (steak & ribs), Dr. Pepper and a ticket to the Shock game with A and the girls.

Seriously, there is NO WAY in this world we could have built this deck. Even with all of our handiness A and I would not have been able to pull this one off. There is a limit to our skills. I am so blessed to have a brother who would sacrifice his holiday weekend and build me a deck while recovering from a ROOT CANAL!!!!! Honestly, I feel so loved. Thanks Benny! I love you!

For the Love of Tia Ana....(a kitchen makeover story)

After only five days of being home from Hawaii, I was on a plane to Bismarck, North Dakota to help my tia (aunt) do some home improvement projects. She had asked me a few months ago if I could go out there and help her get the house ready for my cousin, Ammon's, high school graduation open house. I really wanted to help and since I couldn't go out for Ammon's graduation, I knew that this would be a great opportunity to spend time with him, Sam, and my Uncle Al.
When my sister Evelynne, found out I was going out there she wanted to tag along too, but she wanted it to be a surprise. So when we landed in Bismarck, she waited until I met up with Tia Ana and we were loading stuff into her car. Ev sneaked up behind her and scared her half to death....it was awesome!
We landed at around 4pm. I went straight to work. The past few weeks Tia Ana and I have been emailing pictures, paint swatches and other ideas so that when I got there we could get started. We had only planned on doing some painting (kitchen, dining room and family room), but I realized right away that the kitchen was going to be my main focus and this is why....

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Here are some "during" pictures....

 

I really didn't realize I would be taking on such a huge project. I had done back splashes before but never a counter top. I usually have A there to help me out so this really was a big job.

We borrowed a tile saw from someone, but it has some issues...I had to have someone hold a part that was broken so I wouldn't get sprayed. Poor Ammon and Sammy had to be my helpers. 

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. My brother Ben found out about our tile saw problem and offered to put up the money to rent one as a "Mother's Day" gift to Tia Ana. So Uncle Al went and found one, the only one available in the entire town of Bismarck. We could only have it for 2 hours and it cost Ben 4o bucks, but it was sooooo worth it!

My Uncle Al is hands down one of the best men I have ever known. He has been blessed with many talents, but being handy is not one of them. He was in awe/scared of my skills.

While we were there, Ammon arranged for us to go to his choir class. He is an amazing singer and he is in two of the elite choirs in his high school. We got to listen to his concert choir sing. They were so fantastic. They performed three Chicago songs. I could have stayed all day and listened but I could only drag myself away from the work for an hour.

My other cousin, Sam, was in a play one night, so we got to go and watch him perform.

(he's the "girl" in the pink)

  

He was the lead and he stole the show! I am so glad we got to watch him perform.  Thankfully his play lasted only an hour so we were able to get right back to work again.

So I was in Bismarck for five days but only four of those days we were able to actually work. We didn't go to bed before 2am and we were up and working by 9am. It certainly was not Maui but I loved every minute I was able to be with my family. My Tia Ana and Uncle Al have done so much for me.

My love for them is deep...go here to read more about that...they helped raise me and they have supported me and loved me during the most critical times in my life. Doing a kitchen reno is the least I can give back to them.

So now you know where I have been and now I am back. I have lots of Maui to share and SO much more! Stay tuned...

Oh I almost forgot!....this is what was waiting for me when I got home last night...

Look closer...ignore the hideous picture of me...

Yes, I am going to Tim McGraw next week! Yeee Haaaw!

I. LOVE. MY. HUSBAND.