Our First Home...Saying Goodbye

I know those of you who read this blog probably want to see pictures of our new house...but before I can do that, I want to share with you why we will miss our "little house" so much.

When we first moved here, life was much different. I was just a few weeks pregnant with Natalie, and we had a lot of work to do on the new house.

Nearly four years later, we've finished almost all of the projects we had intended for the house, and at the same time, we have outgrown it. There are so many reasons we will miss it...here are just a few:

This is the little tree Perry received for Father's Day after Natalie was born. It really took off this past summer, despite the fact that rabbits targeted it as a source of food last winter! In the spring, it looks like a giant flower.

For the record, it's a Spring Snow Blossom...and it's a fabulous tree.

This is our adorable little kitchen...the place where we ended up doing the most renovations. Even though it's small, it had so much character, and I turned it into my '50s retro kitchen. I love it so much!

The cherry contact paper my cabinets were lined in. That took forever, but I loved the finished product.

We tiled the backsplash in the kitchen. It was necessary to do this after we put in the dishwasher (long story). I was a trooper, though, and put up with an unfinished product for well over a year. Tiling was fun...I think we'll do it again in the new kitchen! Perry wasn't a do-it-yourselfer until we bought this house. Now, he's a Handy Manny!

Our living room... ...the place where we spent so much time. It became so small in the end. Perry refinished the floors...another project he had never tackled until we got this house. We spent many nights with restless babies in this room. We watched many Twins games and Natalie had many therapy sessions here.

The bathroom! How many baths did we give our babies here? It was the site of both Natalie and Calvin's first baths. There are so many pictures taken in here. It was a cute little bathroom...emphasis on little.

Natalie's adorable room. I'll miss this room the most. While I was on bedrest with her, my friend Abby dreamed up this concept. She did such a wonderful job. I told the new owner that I'm just going to imagine that it will stay pink and green forever. It makes me sick to think that those stripes could be painted over. I cried in this room the night before closing. I wish I could pack this room up and take it with us...but the memories will be with us forever.

These stairs...I wonder how many times I ran up and down them! :)

Our master bedroom...very small, but good enough for us. I spent 10 weeks laying in bed in this room while pregnant with Natalie. Each day, I would cross off another square on the calendar. It became my home, and people would come and visit me while I was in bed. Some nights, we would pack a bunch of people around the bed and play games or just talk. I'm so lucky to have wonderful family and friends who kept my spirits up during that scary time. And...for the record...breakfast, lunch and supper in bed is not fun.Ahhhh...the blue and green carpet tiles. When we toured the house before buying it, I swore it would be the first thing to go. Nearly 4 years later, they remain on the wall and I wonder if the new owner will take them down. I guess that fell down pretty low on the priority list in the end.



On closing day, the new owner told us she loved the house so much during the tour that she didn't want to leave. That makes me so incredibly happy. Many memories were made in this house...but it's time to move on. We'll always remember it as our "little house," and I imagine I will drive by it many times in the future, it's only two minutes away from our new home.
This was the 17th move I've made since leaving my home in Sherwood...and it was certainly the most difficult. It's time to move on to bigger things and make new memories in the home we'll be in hopefully for decades to come.