Our First Home

I knew as soon as we put out the For Sale sign at our old ouse that I wanted to do a sentimental post about our life there for the past 5 years.  Not only did we move to a bigger house, but we also changed neighborhoods in a major way!  Our address now says "Germantown" instead of "Memphis."

I had mixed feelings about moving away from East Memphis (not the house!)  I loved the vibe there, most of our friends lived nearby, I worked right across the street (literally), and I loved living in the middle of the city (most of the time.)  We went round and round about it and, after careful thought and consideration, decided this was what will be best for our family.

 I want to always remember our old house and the memories that we had there.  I want to always remember our old neighborhood, our favorite eating and social spots, and remember what our life was like there.  Not that we can't come eat or hang out at our favorite places anymore, but those times will be few, I'm sure.  We will have a new neighborhood now!  And let's be honest, we really don't get out as much anymore since we had Anniston.

Brandon bought this house on December 17th, 2004.  It was the first house he bought.  We had been dating less than a month, and I remember him telling me about all the houses he was looking at.  After he bought it, I remember coming to look at it for the first time.  I never dreamed at the time that 3 years later I would be moving in with him as his wife!

Seeing the house for the first time required some imagination and creativity on what could be done with it.  It was a very nice size for a single guy (2100 sq ft) but it needed A LOT of updates.  The kitchen had ugly white tile floor, green ceramic counter tops, and green and white striped wall paper.  The dining room was pink, as was the tile in the bathroom.  Gotta love that "retro" decor!

Brandon made a few updates himself while we were dating, but when we got married is when we really set out to make the major changes.  I can remember stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen using my garmet steamer.  I got an ugly burn on the side of my face as a result.  Tip:  Never put up wallpaper unless you want it to be there awhile.  As in, like, FOREVER.  We installed granite countertops and travertine floors.

Here is B "hard at work" trying to pull up the old kitchen tile floor.  

This house holds so many memories for us.  We started dating while B was living in this house.  I would come over on Sunday afternoons during study breaks to watch football with B. 

Brandon also proposed to me in this house, right on the living room floor, with boxes of pizza and rose petals spread out around us.

We had our Engagement Party at this house.

We brought Ruby home for the first time shortly after we were married.  She loved cuddling with us:

And loved to sunbathe in the the flower bed!

We held some awesome New Year's Eve parties at this house.

Ruby experienced her first big snow fall in the house and we all had a blast running around the back yard playing in it.

We had my sister's (surprise) wedding in the backyard.

We brought baby Anniston home for the first time to this house.

I am so glad we have a bigger house because now because we were outgrowing the old one fast.  I will always love that house, though.  There is a sense of pride you feel when you look around and remember all the time, effort, and labor we put into that house.  So no matter how awesome our new house might be, our first home will always hold a special place in both our hearts.

Our house in 2008:

Our house 2013:
I think our improvements paid off!  It looks way more updated and fresh!

Our Crazy 2 Week Move

Yes, you read that title correctly.  This past month has been CRAZY.  Seriously, I think the past month is the most stressful our lives have been.  In a good way, but still.  This past fall, Brandon and I talked about putting our house on the market in early spring.  After a casual house hunting adventure with our agent (who is also Brandon's step-mom), we decided that the first of the year was a better time.  In other words, the sooner the better!

We officially listed our house on December 27th.  We had an offer on January 3rd.  The buyers offered full asking price.  Awesome, right?  Oh, but there was a catch.  They wanted to close in 3 weeks.  3 WEEKS!  We had only gone house hunting once- way back in November!  We were totally not prepared to have an offer that quickly.  Nevertheless, we were so thankful that we did get an offer and that we only had to show our house once.  By the way- getting your house "show ready" every morning before work with a 15 month old= not fun.

Brandon and I decided to accept the offer and were fully prepared to rent or stay in a hotel until we had time to house hunt a little bit more and find the house we wanted.  Crazy thing is, we had kind of already seen our "dream house" but had decided that it was just unobtainable. On that Sunday waaaay back in November, Brenda (our agent), took us to see this really fantastic house.  I remember coming home and telling my parents that we had found "the one."  It was perfect- it had the right number of bedrooms, the floor plan was what I wanted, and it was in the school district I wanted us to be in.

At that time, though, we thought we weren't going to list the house until spring and who knew how long it was going to take to sell, right?  We had to emotionally un-attach ourselves from the house because we thought there was no chance this house would still be on the market when we got ready to buy.  Eh, well, what did we know!!!?!?!

We accepted the offer on our house on a Saturday.  On Sunday, we went out to do some serious house hunting.  Yes, our dream house was still available, but we wanted to be level headed and keep an open mind.  I mean, we hadn't even really looked at houses yet.

It's easier to house hunt when you know exactly what you want.  We needed wanted a 4 bedroom house with some sort of defined home office space.  Brandon works from home so that was very important.  My parents also live out of town, so I wanted a spare bedroom for them when they came down to stay.  I also wanted some sort of bonus/playroom.  I was also very picky about the floor plan.  I either wanted all bedrooms on the same level, or at least 2 bedrooms down and the rest up.  In addition to being in a certain school district, these criteria narrowed down our search pretty well.

Nothing we saw compared to our dream house.  We put it on our list that day and went to see it again.  It felt like home from the moment we walked through the door.  It has 4 bedrooms (all upstairs), 3 and 1/2 bathrooms, a bonus/playroom , and, best of all, a 3rd floor room all by itself perfect for Brandon's office!!  As an added bonus, it also has a heated swimming pool and 2 gazebos outside!

We called Brenda Sunday night and put an offer on it Monday morning.  The sellers accepted, thank goodness.  Now the tricky part- getting out of our house in time and closing on the new house in crazy, record time.  We really only had 2 weeks to pack and move out of our house because of a week long trip Brandon had with his job.  He was due to be out of town the week that the buyers wanted to close on our house so we ended up just pushing up the closing date so that he would be here for the move.

Those 2 weeks were hectic.  We both work full time, so it was going to be hard to get everything packed that quickly.  In addition to packing, we also had inspections going on, people coming over to work on our house, paperwork galore, etc.  I ended up hiring my cleaning lady to pack some for me:)  Thank goodness for her!!!

We closed on our house, closed on the new house, packed and moved in 2 weeks.  I still can't believe we did it.  I hope we don't have to move again for a very long time.

We are finally getting settled in the new house.  Now you know why I haven't blogged in FOREVER!  We still have a lot of decorating to do, furniture to buy, and organizing left.  But we LOVE our new house and neighborhood.  Looking back, it was so worth the rough 2 weeks we had.

Here is a picture of us in front of our beautiful, southern-style house in GERMANTOWN, TN:

photo courtesy of my sister, Allie

Hopefully I'll have more pics to post soon!