Good-bye and Hello

The good news is that one of our homes sold.  We still owned two homes when we moved from Utah last year--one is an investment property and one was our family home.  Last Friday, we closed on our old house, and I've felt a little sad about it.

Maybe I'm overly sentimental, but I feel the need to eulogize.  We owned this home for 8 years.  Two of my six children were born when we lived in this house.  There are many memories in these walls, and we did a lot of work to make it better than we found it.  So come on a journey down memory lane, if you will...


I loved this home's curb appeal and traditional lines.

 We did everything we could to class up the golden oak cabinets.  In retrospect, I should have followed my gut and painted them :).  However, I think the kitchen turned out pretty well compared to the sea of oak and almond formica that we inherited when we first moved in.

 I totally redesigned this fireplace--it had been an asymetrical, 80's brick fireplace.   We had our handyman sheath the brick in fire-retardant sheetrock, and I played around with trim molding, wood appliques, stock mantel pieces and various boards until I got a design I was happy with.  I spray-painted the shiny brass surround with black matte barbecue paint and had the hearth tiled over with black slate.

 This is the first faucet and vanity top that I ever installed.  I ended up swapping out two others in this house.

 This is the first room I ever painted any other color besides white.  I loved it, and still do :).  It is a color match of Laura Ashley's "Russet" done by Home Depot.

 We had french doors installed with a railing so that on summer nights we could open up the door wide and let in the cool evening breeze.  Ahhhhh.  So refreshing.

 The second room I ever painted in a color other than white was our living room.  It is Sherwin Williams' Blonde.  It is a great color, and I love it with the needlepoint rug I got from TJ Maxx for $50.  That rug was such a bargain--it was in the Horchow catalogue during the same time period for over $250.  I still love it.  I'm thinking about hanging it over my bed in our new house.

I will miss all my DIY triumphs in this house, but most of all, it is the memories of  my children growing bigger in our home and the sweet neighbors I loved while we lived in this neighborhood that make me feel a little sad to say goodbye.

But luckily, I get to keep my kids.  As for the old neighbors I love--they are just a phone call (or a facebook login) away.

The other big upside is that now that one of our homes is sold, we have a little more scratch to do some fun DIY things around here. That certainly lessens the sting of good-bye.... :).

What about the rest of you?  Do you feel sad to say good-bye to your house when you move on?