We put our house on the market today.
It was a big decision, and as much as I love our house – our first house together – it’s time to move. We never intended to stay in our home any longer than 5 years, and that 5 year mark will be early next year. We’ve never sold a house before, so I’m a little nervous (but excited) to be taking this step. Of course, it’s bittersweet because this was our first home. We moved in just a month before our wedding. It’s where we began our family when just a month after our wedding, we adopted an adorable furry puppy.
We’ve had parties and holidays and lazy Sundays in this house. I remember our first nights in this house, painting the walls, eating pizza, and sleeping on an air mattress watching The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on a 13-inch TV. I remember remodeling our bathroom – the first time – and having a cast iron tub sit in our backyard for nearly a year before we finally listed it on Craigslist. I remember discovering the cute little park across the street and taking Champ to run and play and chase tennis balls (his favorite thing in the world – even more than sleeping and eating). I remember the hubs mowing the grass for the first time and all of the neighbors came out of their houses to talk to him in our driveway. I remember thinking how awesome it was to have such friendly neighbors and being invited to their Friday night bonfires. I remember all the landscaping and deck building and bathroom remodeling. I remember buying LOTS of furniture to fill the rooms. When you go from a one bedroom apartment to a four bedroom house, it takes awhile (and a lot of $$$) to fill the space. I remember sleeping on a full size bed for the first year, and when we finally purchased a queen size mattress, I thought it was SO BIG! I remember cooking HUGE Thanksgiving meals with my mom. I remember raking what seemed like an endless amount of leaves. I remember decorating the outside of the house for Xmas and having our neighbors continually tell us that our North Pole sign was pointing south. Once they even kidnapped it and stuck it in their yard so it would point the right direction.
I remember so much about this house, and it’s all of these things that made our first house our home. Other than a few things – no garage, a backyard that overlooks our neighbor’s backyard – I really love this house. While it may be tough to sell it in this economy, and we may even have to rent it out, I don’t regret buying it. I’ve loved living in it and making it our home. I have days where it’s the one and only place I want to be, and part of me is scared to lose that. But this is the first of many sacrifices we’ll have to make to get to where we want to be, so we’re doing it. We’re selling our home. But we’re keeping the memories, because those are ours.
(I wrote this post last week, the day we put the house on the market. I delayed publishing until I had better photos to show you. Now I do.)
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