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
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
