Monday, July 25, 2011

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?


4 comments:

  1. realhousewifeofidahoJuly 25, 2011 at 7:21 AM

    What a charming house! I would have been sad too. But yeah for new projects!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought I knew all the things you did to that house, but I didn't remember the french doors... You guys really did make that house lovely.  I'm sad you have to say good-bye too b/c it was a heck of a lot closer to me than your current one!  *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah Brynn--so true. That is why it feels more bitter than sweet much of the time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is really nice to hear. thank you for the update and good luck. Good Bye May Hello June

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to comment. I love to read what other people think!