Sold!

After about 2 months on the market and many prayers, our house has SOLD!

We signed a purchase agreement on Friday and need to be out by July 1. Yikes! That doesn't leave much time since we haven't found anything to buy yet in the town we're moving to. The housing market has been a little scary with a fair amount of sticker shock, but we're hopeful to find something soon since I start a new job in the new town at the end of June. In the meantime, we might be crashing at parents' houses and storing our stuff. I'm finding it hard to pack when we don't know if we're packing for a new house, a temporary rental house, or a storage trailer and my in-law's guest rooms.

As excited as we are about getting our house sold without losing our shirts, I do have sentimental attachment to this house. When Adam and I first got married, we lived in a basement apartment (ironically, in the town we are now moving back to) while he finished college. When he got a teaching job, we were a bit skeptical about housing here and only looked at one house with a realtor. That day we visited some family that included the town's HVAC guy. He said he's just been working in a house that was being remodeled and called the owner to see if we could look at it. We hurried over and even through the flooring wasn't in, shingles weren't done, and a few other things were in progress, we pretty much knew right away it was the one for us. We basically said "yes" on the first visit and never looked at another house.

This is the first house we owned and has been so good to us. Here's a few of the things I remember about this house that I want to record so we can tell Ryan about his "first house" someday:

• It was completely remodeled in 2005 when we moved in. We were grateful for all the updates, and grateful that we didn't have to choose most of them. I remember the owner holding up two shingle samples and us saying.."um, that one" in about 2 seconds. We also went to the furniture store to approve the carpet and vinyl flooring and didn't change a thing.
• Every wall was painted plain white, so we were able to add our touches by coming every weekend to paint before we moved in. I tried out many different painting techniques, from strips in the bathroom, rag-rolling to look like red leather in the office, sponge-painting random frame shapes in the bedroom, choosing eggplant purple for the kitchen, and doing a herringbone pattern in the living room that people can't believe isn't wallpaper. And can't believe I talked at least 3 people into spending me 2 weekends doing it.
• No major repairs in 6 years besides a new water heater
• It is less than 1100 square feet, but has been adequate space (and not so much to clean) for our family.
• I was not thrilled with the gold color, but the steel siding was in good shape and we decided the 10 seconds you see it before you pull into the garage wasn't worth trying to paint.
• We have a beautiful landscape Adam designed and installed, a retaining wall I helped build, and fun outdoor projects like a fire pit and horseshoe pit. Many bonfires have been had and we'll really miss the big deck and outdoor space.
• This is the only home Ryan knows and I will hold special memories of bringing him home from the hospital, watching him learn to walk, and the fun times we've had playing in the backyard and the living room.

It hasn't quite sunk in yet that we're leaving, but we will sincerely miss this house. We've joked that if we could pick it up and move it, we would have. But, we're ready to pass it on to someone else to enjoy.