The Final Look at Our First House

 At one point in a past life, I had every intention of blogging and sharing each room in our first house as we updated it and got it decorated after we moved in.

Well. 

Four years later, and I still never felt like any room other than Riley’s room was ever 100% complete. We still needed to find something to hang here, or I wanted new towels in this bathroom, or we needed new chairs for our kitchen table. Those small things all got pushed to the side for the bigger things we had to tackle for our house like renovating the basement, finishing off the garage, cutting down massive dead trees in the yard, and more. This house was a house full of projects and honestly, there were some big costly ones coming at us like a freight train which is one of the reasons why we decided to sell when we did.

 

We listed our house with our wedding photographer, Jessica Roberts.

 

Yes, you read that right. Our wedding photographer. Jessica is someone with many talents and she’s as talented with real estate as she is with photography. It was a huge bonus for us because she took some amazing photos of our house for the listing that made us sit back and go “Seriously? Our house looks like this?” She’s a professional photographer for a reason, y’all. She made our house look so dang good!

 

So good, in fact, that our house had 9 showings the day it went on the market, 6 above-asking price offers, and we were under contract in under 24 hours.

 

Take a quick trip back down memory lane to see our house when we first purchased it...

 

And here’s what she looked like on the day that we put her on the market. Quite a difference, right?

Yes, the star pendant light stayed. In fact, of the 5 that were in the house, we ended up keeping 3. That's partly because I never knew what I wanted to put in their place and partly because they ended up growing on me. Did one of them make it's way with us to our new house? You bet!

That black ottoman/wannabe coffee table? Pretty sure that went by the road while we were moving out, was scooped up within an hour, and has since been upgraded to an actual coffee table in the new house. Thank goodness. That Target find was a purchase in 2010 for my first apartment when I was looking for a place to store blankets.

I will 100% miss this fireplace. We never turned the fire on in it but it was the perfect backdrop for our Christmas tree and stockings each holiday season. It was one of the features that I loved most about our house when we first saw it.

From our living room, you circled around into our dining room and kitchen. Yes, that's the wedding table! And no, we still haven't found chairs or a rug that we want to pair with it. We're fine without a rug in the new house but we've got to find chairs soon! Anyone else love the unique archways that we had in our house? Those custom details were what made living in a house built in 1965 worth it. Sometimes.

Oh, the kitchen. When we first saw this house, we were mesmerized by the fact that there was an updated kitchen with a zillion cabinets. It was a rare find in the neighborhood we lived in. But after the first few months, all Patrick and I could talk about is how we'd love to make it less "yellow." We would have rather had white cabinets, a light color subway tile backsplash, some other kind of tile on the floor, and some kind of island in the middle. It was a great kitchen though!

See that door up there? It opened up to a set of grandfathered-in stairs to the basement, an unfinished storage area, and our garage. Once Riley figured out how to open doors, we had to keep it locked at all times. Thankfully she didn't realize how to lock/unlock doors until the day we moved into our new house.

Let's talk about this sunroom for a minute. The sunroom was off of our dining room and it might be where we spent 75% of our time in our house. In the fall and spring we could open up all the windows and get a great breeze going through the room. Before Riley, we'd keep the rest of our house really warm in the summer and pretty chilly in the winter, but we could escape to this room with it's own unit, and be perfectly comfortable. It eventually turned into Riley's playroom and we let her have full control of the room.

We took a LOT out of this room prior to listing. There was another couch, a tee pee in one corner filled with blankets and pillows for Riley, three big ride/push type toys, a water table, and more. Like I said, it was Riley's room.

On the other end of the house, up three small steps, you had our bedroom and bathroom area. We had three bedrooms (the master, the nursery, and the guest bedroom) and two bathrooms. Patrick had the ensuite in the master bedroom. It was small with just one sink and a dark, stand up shower. I opted to use the hall bathroom which was a smidge bigger, brighter, and had a shower/tub combination. It was great until Riley and I started sharing. I think we only had 1-2 weekends where we also shared with guests. Just wait until I show you the bathroom situation in our new house (it's a MASSIVE improvement!)

See that door outside of Riley's nursery? That was the door to our stackable washer and dryer. We had NO laundry room at this house. Once again, just wait until you see what I've upgraded to with our new home!

We joke occasionally that this was the most traumatic room in the house for me. Our guest bedroom was the first room that was "finished" when we were moving into this house four years ago and I adored it. It was actually bigger than our master bedroom. It was also the room that Riley and I spent the first week at home in when we were nursing at all hours of the day... until I realized how much easier it was to nurse her in the glider rather than propped up on bed with a mountain of pillows around me. It was also the room that transitioned into an at-home office for me during the 16 weeks I was working from home during the pandemic. I was in that room at all hours of the day from 4am until midnight. Can you tell that I still have mixed feelings about this room?

& on to the master bedroom. See the two doors on the side of the bed? Those opened up to the smallest closets you will ever encounter. Patrick and my dad worked their magic to maximize the space inside of them but they barely held anything. My clothes were in my closet, in the guest bedroom closet, and also in the front hallway closet. There were things under the bed in the guest bedroom, too.

See what I mean about small master bath?

When we listed our house, Patrick and I stepped back and took a good look at our basement. We could not believe that was our basement. We definitely did not utilize this space as much as we should have over the four years we lived in this house. The first year, it was a storage room that needed some major renovations. Patrick finished the renovations. We still didn't use it. Then he built this sweet little corner bar and you know what? We used the basement a handful of times. It was a forgotten space in our house and we were probably the most sad about leaving it behind.

The space we won't miss? Our yard. Our yard was a huge reason why we decided to move. Despite what it looks like in these photos, it just wasn't a great place for anyone to enjoy. There were rocks, broken glass, cutlery, wine bottles, tires, plates, and all kinds of weird things from the owners that lived in our house for 35 years prior to us. Patrick waged war on this yard. He ripped up old bushes, we cut down two trees, we tore up an old falling apart patio and cinder block wall, we raked so many freaking leaves, and more. You could only use the lawn mower on the back half of the backyard. The front half was all weeds and you had to use a weed eater... which meant crossing your fingers that you wouldn't fling a rock up into the sunroom windows and shatter a window (which might have happened a time or four).

This house was our home for four years.

 

It was the house that we came home to after our wedding in July 2016. It was the first place that Patrick and I ever lived in together because we chose not to move in together until after we were married. It’s the home that we hosted so many family and friend gatherings over the years. Everything from football watch parties to birthdays, dinners, baby showers, New Year’s Eve parties, and more. Family from as far away as London, England came to stay with us. It’s where Patrick and I built our family Christmas traditions—ones that he and I started for just us. It’s where we dined at the table that we built together for our wedding guestbook. The basement was our safe spot during several sketchy storms when we were sure that one of the tall, old trees surrounding our house was going to come crashing down on us. It’s the home that we brought Riley home from the hospital to. It’s where she took her first steps. It’s where the first 20 months of her life were spent.

 

Our first house became our first home and y’all, that little old house built in 1965 was perfect for us. Saying goodbye to it was hard. But I can’t wait to show you the house that we moved into!