After nearly 28 years, this month we moved from the first house my wife and I bought. I’ll probably post something about the ordeal of moving, but first I wanted to remember our old house as we close on its sale tomorrow.
We found our house after losing out on another
We found our house on Plum Lake Drive after losing out on a house we made an offer on around the corner. Disappointed, but this new house popped up on the market shortly after. I remember driving around the block over and over so we could see how it looked from different directions.
We were so excited when our offer was accepted. We were in our mid-20s. Married about 18 months. Clinton was president. Harry Potter was only a book. No kids, just us. We thought it would be a great starter house and figured we’d live there for five years or so.
We filled the house with children
We worked on filling the bedrooms and within a few years there were three little girls dancing around the house. I remember with the first pregnancy how my wife and I sat in the baby’s room in the weeks leading up to the big day, surrounded by baby gear that we had no idea how to use.
Soon everything was pink or purple. We amassed thousands of dollars worth of Beanie Babies, Barbies and American Girls. I used to joke that I went to my job to relax. (Now all in their 20s, that still not too far off).
Our house protected us from the elements
Our house was two stories. I must have walked those stairs tens of thousands of times. You’d think my calves would be better defined.
Our house protected us from hundreds of 100+ degree summer days, Hurricanes Ike and Beryl plus a handful of tropical storms and something called a derecho. While Harvey dumped 30+ inches of rain on our zip code in four days, our street never even filled up with water.
During the infamous Texas Freeze of 2021, we lost power like the rest of the state, but our re-piped Pex pipes held firm and while we were cold, our house was unscathed. BTW, in case you’re wondering, a Tempur-Pedic mattress that drops down to around 50 degrees becomes as hard as cardboard.
We celebrated 27 Christmases here
We had 27 Christmases there and, based on how many boxes and totes we moved to our new house, our decorations compounded each year like interest. I won the HOA Christmas Yard Decoration contest a few times over the years but more often came in second to my neighbor across the street who had a full nativity scene (it’s hard to beat Baby Jesus). I packed and moved an entire plastic tote full of extension cords that only got used from November to early January to illuminate my yard like an airport.
But my neighbor never won Yard of the Month in the spring/summer, and I lost count of how man times I won. I was pretty clueless early on, but I learned over the years and with the help of a professional landscaper to do the legwork to set things up initially, I made our flowerbeds the envy of the street: agapanthus, society garlic, bottle brush bushes, foxtail ferns, day lilies, knockout roses, caladiums, purslane, crepe myrtles, and lantana.
I wanted to win Yard of the Month one more time
I can make those grow and bloom like a rainbow. Honestly, I was going for Yard of the Month one more time this spring, but I think the Remax sign in the lawn disqualified me in the HOA judges’ minds. (I was robbed).
I scraped wallpaper/borders out of six rooms. I painted every vertical surface in that house myself at least once aside from closets and the garage. I painted the kitchen three times and paid to have it painted a 4th. I even painted the laundry room just last week. (I HATE painting).
I changed every light fixture except for the pink ceiling fan in youngest daughter’s room that each daughter took a turn in as their own. Littlest daughter is insisting on having a pink ceiling fan in her room at the new house (she’s 20).
In 2016 we put in a pool
In 2016 we put in a pool. A dream come true b/c I had always wanted one. 25,000 gallons of fun. It had two bubblers, three water falls and a robotic cleaner the girls named “Bubbles” even though he didn’t actually produce any bubbles. I found that the time it took for a pile of charcoal to burn down was the perfect length of time for a dip in the pool I drank countless beers standing at the side of my pool, scrolling Facebook and listening to 80s music. I may or may not have occasionally thrown more charcoal into the grill to prolong that swimming/waiting time before the fire was ready to cook on.
So why move?
Well, it was a decent size when just the five of us were home, but it started to feel small as soon as you started adding guests. Two stories wasn’t too bad but it became a challenge for aging parents when they visited and we’re not getting any younger ourselves (though wife is just as beautiful as she was in the summer of ’98 when we first started climbing those stairs).
Eventually we decided we wanted more space
We talked about moving many times over the years, even checked out builders/realtors a few times, but each time we chose to stay mainly to avoid a daughter having to change schools. So over the years we made improvements: wood floors, barn doors, new carpet upstairs, paint, paint and more paint, the pool along with patio cover.
But eventually we decided we wanted more space, higher ceilings, no stairs, a bigger kitchen. We found our dream house and made the difficult decision to say good-bye to the house that had been the only home our daughters knew. We spruced up a few things, painted over brightly-colored daughter rooms with “Incredible White” by Sherman Williams, moved a LOT of stuff to storage to facilitate showings and with the help of our super-realtor, sold it in just over a week.
During that time we slowly said good-bye. We took multiple family pictures in front of it with the “Sale Pending” sign. We had one last mini-pool party at Easter—the water was chilly! And over the course of several weeks, I collected pinecones in our yard. I planned to put them into some sort of arrangement but ran out of time so instead I gave my wife a box full of them so that she could fill a glass vase or jar and always know those were OUR pinecones from OUR first house. (It made her cry).
We said goodbye to the old and we are on to new beginnings
Tonight my wife and I cleared the very last few things out. We double-checked every drawer, cabinet and closet. We took cuttings of a few of the plants to plant in our new yard. I grabbed one last pinecone blown loose by a rainstorm today.
We took a video of empty rooms and blank walls. We took a selfie in front of our house. We were so proud of that house. It was the biggest, best thing we had ever bought. And the happiest years of my life have been there. It was our home, but our new house is already starting to feel that way, and I’m confident even happier days are to come there.
We are excited that the new couple buying our house is young like we were, and they have a baby girl. We hope she likes her pink ceiling fan…
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