As we get ready to sell our house, and I look around at the newly painted empty walls and every nook and cranny piled with boxes of our belongings, it’s hard not to feel a little bit sad. This house has been our home for over a decade.
I know it is bittersweet for Michael, too, because it was the first house he bought. It was the first house I lived in (after apartment life). Since we first started dating, we’ve been working on this house together.
We made mistakes along the way (a lot of mistakes) that cost us a lot of time and money to fix but we learned a lot and it’s cool that we now know how to do a lot of things ourselves. There are definitely projects we also know we wouldn’t take on ourselves again in the future. Michael is totally up for redoing a kitchen again. Me? Not so much. It was too big of a project in my opinion and took way too long.
When Michael moved it, he put a lot of work in on the house (ripping up carpet and installing hardwood floors–our floors are what we get the most compliments on in our house) and then I helped him demolish the kitchen and redo the entire thing. It was hard work!
You can see some old posts with pictures here:
We got engaged in this house. It’s hard to think that we are leaving the spot where that happened! And we brought Bella home.
We got married and pregnant and brought Logan home to this house. It’s hard to believe that Logan won’t remember this house at all. It has a great big yard and it’s on a great street (perfect for bike riding, which Logan loves to do), with great neighbors…but Logan is too young and won’t remember any of it. That’s weird to me!
On a sadder note, I said goodbye to Yggdrasil in this house. That makes me really sad. Yggdrasil LOVED this house. He loved sitting in the office window and watching the birds, or sitting at the back slider door and watching the squirrels in the yard. And every day he was sitting in the front window waiting for me to get home from work. <3
We’ve grown vegetables in our garden. We planted a tiny cherry blossom tree that is now a humongous tree!
We’ve outgrown our house. It is time to move on to bigger things (literally). We are all really excited for the new house. A new style, a new home, a new place to put our personal stamp on it. Our new place is a block from the library. I’m really excited to walk there with Logan this summer (he’ll get his first library card!) and we are close to some parks. I also think we are walking distance to the elementary school he’ll eventually go to. So it is all good, exciting things. But also bittersweet.
Lori
It is sad when you sell a house, particularly the first one you bought. However, the memories go with you when you leave. And that is what makes the house a home, not the walls and the things you do to it. You will make tons of memories in your new house and it is one that you bought together. 🙂
Lisa Eirene
That’s very true! Thanks for the reminder. 🙂