Homes Sweet Homes

Our family is in our third home.  Our first home was a tiny apartment, where we lived from our wedding day until our oldest was 10 months old.  700 sq. ft. and a 1-hr. commute for Scott meant looking for a new home closer to work.  We were dead set on home ownership and all the nightmares joys that come with it, and bought our first house.

And this is most definitely an "after" photo.  We dug out load after load of lava rock and tore out a warped wooden walkway.  Ripped out bushes that hid the porch, and replaced the wood on the porch and deck.  Painted the brown posts to a crisp white.  Planted all new plants, mulched, babied the new grass, laid the slate walkway.  This was still before we put on the new roof, though.

It's a 3- (teeny tiny) bedroom 1.5 story with a finished basement, so it fit two children perfectly.  We brought Elijah home to this house, then brought Sadie home to this house.  We soon realized we'd outgrown the house and put it on the market.

We closed two days after Christmas, which I really REALLY do not recommend, unless your idea of a good time is undecorating the tree and packing and deep cleaning and painting at the new house all at the same time.

Now, we have 4 larger bedrooms, an extra bedroom in the finished basement, which we use as a playroom, and a laundry room big enough to hold all the kids' clothes.

This house is fantastic, but once again, we've realized our needs have changed and our house doesn't fit those needs.  Primarily, Denny can't enjoy life outside our home, with it being built on the side of a hill.  Great for sledding.  Not great for a barely mobile child.

We had the opportunity to buy a house that has every item on my wish list from childhood to now (including an attic with permanent stairs because Home Alone).  And it's built on probably the only flat lot in the city.  No stairs going into the home, and the ability to stay on one level the entire day (bedrooms upstairs).

It's a blank canvas, ready for us to make our own.  It's the place we hope to stay for a long time to come: our forever home.

We're also praying about the timing of our move, that our daughter will have only one transition instead of two.  Because one is hard enough.  That could mean quite a bit of chaos on this side of the ocean while I'm on the other side for pick-up trip, but we'll work out the details as we get closer to that time.

I hope moving will revive my little blog, bringing back a bit of the original purpose of the blog with upcycling items to make them my own.