Eight Years

Eight years ago today, we closed on our house.  And eight years tomorrow we moved.

Our awesome old neighbor captured the moment...oh, and that evergreen on the far left is now above the gutter!

That's starting to seem like a really long time, although I know it's really not.  But when you've lived in apartments for one, two, and two years, then a house for about four and a half, eight seems pretty legit.  My parents, on the other hand, have been in theirs for 33 this spring, so there's that.  Even their first one saw a good ten years.

Looking back, I'm glad we ended up where we did.  I mean, there are still times that I wish we would have stuck with our somewhat-sketchy apartment for one more year, because within that year I changed jobs (and salaries) and we probably could have bought a slightly better house that would have lasted a bit longer if we knew our budget would change so quickly.  It probably wouldn't be as nice as the one we have now, but maybe it wouldn't have needed thousands of dollars in new windows and doors like the one we bought did--and of course we got none of that back when we sold it.  It wasn't a bad house.  It was a decent setup, with a good sized kitchen and a big finished basement with the coolest bar ever. 

It may not look like much, but it was a wet bar, with a mirror flanked by shelves and colored uplighting.  There was even a tiny shelf below the mirror that we lined with pucks all the way across.

The rooms were small and the main bathroom was purple, but it had some cool quirks (my favorite retro shelves and cool designs in the ceiling plaster). 

It was such a perfect home for my blue glass collection.  I miss that space.

This was around the dining room light

Living room ceiling

But we were outgrowing it in a lot of ways and it needed work.  The kitchen was so ugly and the attic needed new insulation.  We thought the roof would go soon, too.  Ultimately I didn't really want to have two kids in that house, and when we got to the point where we needed to start planning for kid #2, we decided it was better to spend a little more on a mortgage for an updated house than spend thousands more dollars on renovations for a house that was still too small and probably wouldn't sell for much above what we paid for it anyway, based on the rest of the neighborhood.  And after a frustrating search, we finally found ours.  It was almost a fluke, where the listing showed an outside picture of the house and not much more.  I emailed the listing agent to see if there were more, and through a fuzzy scan of a couple pages of little photos I saw a house that looked promising.  The moment we walked in the front door, I was sold.  And after a scary month with a contingency offer in place and one lost buyer, we finally found one that stuck.  We made absolutely nothing on the deal--and lost when you consider what we put into it--but we were thankful to be able to move on to greener pastures.

I drive by that house periodically--in fact, I did it today on the way to daycare from Carter's blood work (oh dear--more later) because the back roads were quicker.  Not much has changed outside, though they did add a pool and make use of the flower boxes.  They also decorate for Christmas, so that's nice.  I am seriously curious about what they've done inside, but all I know is that there's currently a piece of the old kitchen countertop (which needed replacing when we were there!) sitting out on the side of the house.  I can tell what it was because of the sink cutout and the angle for how it fit into the corner.  So at least that's been done.  Hopefully they've painted the cabinets and put in a dishwasher, too, for their own sanity.  Oh, and did I mention they appear to have THREE kids in that house?  A couple times I've driven by they've all been outside playing.  One was around Jacob's age when they moved in, but now there are two more, with the youngest probably around two.  How they all cram in there is beyond me!  Maybe someday they'll officially outgrow it and then I'll be able to see the updates in the real estate listing!  But I guess it's good for them that they found a home that has worked this long for them, too.

It was bittersweet eight years ago tonight as we did the almost-last round of packing and systematically took apart the home we'd built for more than four years.  It was the first place we could really make our own and was more than just cobbled together.  We were proud of the projects we did there, and it was the first house we brought our baby home to.  It was hard to leave behind those memories.  Until, that is, we remembered where we were going.  I literally felt like I needed to pinch myself every time I realized this house was ours.  Everything was prettier and newer and more spacious.  It was the unique floorplan I wanted, and it checked off so many boxes I only dreamed of at the old house.  It felt perfect...and many days it still does.

But not all days.  Some days it feels too small or too old, at least in spots.  Carter's room, the upstairs bathroom, and the kitchen all feel a little tight.  The office isn't getting used the way we thought, though I appreciate the extra space.  The yard is overwhelming most of the time, the kitchen and bathroom could use some sprucing up, and two young boys have left their share of nicks and scrapes around the house.  We really just need a hardcore handyman to come in here and fix up a little of everything.  Oh, and we could also stand to get rid of a lot of stuff!  Despite all that, I still feel like if we could build our own house somewhere else, I'd like to take about 80% of this house and just change up the floor plan a bit to expand a few rooms.  I like how most of it functions for us, and for now the downsides still aren't enough to make me want to do the moving process again!

Eight years.  It's definitely our home and will always hold a special place in our heart whenever we do choose to move along.  But for now we'll just focus on making memories here and try to remember how amazing it felt the day we moved in.