One week ago we became homeowners. We’ve wanted to move for so long, but had to be patient for things to fall into place.
We’ve been taking car loads over every day, but this weekend will be the official move into our new home on Buttercup Drive:
Before we say goodbye to our 1950s rental, I wanted to celebrate the things I will remember most about the house on Maple Street.
I will remember visiting my then-long-distance-boyfriend at this house for the first time and having so many mixed feelings. It felt both perfectly right and perfectly terrifying to consider moving from DC to Illinois.
I will remember that this is the house where we first became a blended family of four – and where I would (eventually) learn how to take photos without a flash.
I will remember how I spent so many evenings during my first year in this house sitting in a chair in the corner of our bedroom, with the door closed. As a highly sensitive introvert, transitioning from living alone with a cat to living with a husband, two teenaged boys, and a large dog was a huge adjustment.
I will remember how in this house, despite all my attempts to the contrary, I fell in love with a dog even though she shed absolutely everywhere like crazy and left us heartbroken in early 2013.
I will remember pretending like I knew anything about gardening for approximately two weeks a year during spring mulching.
I will remember wearing an apron often in this house as I re-learned how to cook for tastebuds different from mine. I will remember slowly introducing my family to unfamiliar foods and dishes.
I will remember painstakingly removing the icky shag carpet and scraping the padding off the wood floors beneath – throughout the entire house. I will remember my water breaking right on to those wood floors nearly three years later.
I will remember that we agreed to alternate putting up my fake tree and getting a real one, but by the time we moved I was totally convinced I never wanted to put up a fake tree ever again.
I will remember how just once a year I was able to tolerate the terribly ugly poles separating the dining room from the kitchen and living room.
I will remember that by my second Christmas in this house (about 16 months) it finally felt like home.
I will remember re-discovering a love of photography and memory keeping in this house. I will remember taking my first mirror selfie – and how it would not be my last.
I will remember realizing that these boys would not be in this house forever and that, despite their protests, I would be taking photos of them.
I will remember getting my first DSLR camera and learning how to actually use it, inside and outside of this house.
I will remember how every year the squirrels would eat our pumpkins long before Halloween. (Can you guess which one was mine?)
I will remember how my best friends would brave bad weather, flight days, and crazy layovers to visit me on the prairie.
I will remember that I turned 30 in the house on Maple Street, but that I felt more anxious about turning 34.
I will remember how I spent a good portion of the first six months of my daughter’s life feeding her and snuggling with her in a blue recliner in the corner of the tiny living room.
I will remember how our parents were so helpful in easing the transition from a family of 4 to a family of 5.
I will remember saying that I would never let my baby sit on the icky floors of this house, and doing it anyway.
I will remember transitioning the third bedroom from a teen boy’s clothes hamper to a sorta-office to a baby girl’s nursery.
I will remember that there was a park just down the street from this house and the first time we event went.
I will remember how in this house my baby turned into a little girl – and that her entire life so far has been documented with Instagram.
I will remember how the big maple tree in front of our little house on Maple Street was the perfect backdrop for six years of patience, gratitude, and life-long memories.
Teary eyes as I write this reply – what a beautiful way to document your lives in this house that you and Steve made into a home for the entire family! Kudos on doing a great job with this post and subsequent page(s) for your album.
So happy that you will be entering a new phase of home ownership and am looking forward to your decorating posts.
Love all of the photos, but especially endearing are the ones with Emily and her grandparents. So precious!
I can’t wait to start decorating. Thank you!
Congratulations on home ownership! What a wonderful post, I loved how you took us with you down memory lane. May you have many happy memories in your new home!
Thank you kindly!
Congratulations on the new home. What a wonderful tribute to the house you made a home in so many ways for so many years. I’m inspired to do something similar for the house we left, now 11 years ago, but holds so much meaning for our family.
I did a lot of browsing through my photos to trigger memories, see patterns, and discovering meaning. I don’t think 11 years is too long at all. Let me know if you try it!
Congratulations on the home ownership! We, too, are moving – to a condo probably in the next 6 months. We’ve lived in our current house for nearly 40 years – so many memories are within these walls. I loved the way you remembered those important parts of your life. You’ve given me the idea and I’d like to get started before things are changed by our move. However, I’m afraid that too many other ‘things’ will get in the way. Maybe just take some pictures taken that I can use later, when things aren’t so busy Thanks for the idea!
Other than the outside photo of the entire house (which I took for our landlord’s Craigslist ad) I used only images that I already had. I would focus first on what you want to write down and then hunt for photos that represent that idea… or as I mentioned to Laura, you can also use those older photos to help trigger ideas.
You could just print out this blog post and put it in a memory album. You’ve got all you need, pictures and journaling. Very nice.
I most certainly have a head start on scrapbooking this story. I’m torn between focusing just on the words with the picture of the house and doing something a little bigger with all of these images. Hmm.. maybe this is a photo book?!?
That made me cry! Beautiful writing.
Beautiful tribute to your first home with Steve. Loved it – thanks so much for sharing with us. Looking forward to hearing all about the new place as you decorate it.
Thank you Lois!
What a lovely tribute to your home. We’re getting ready to downsize our house. I definitely want to do a retrospective like this.
Yes, I’ve scrapped a LO of the first home my hubby and I lived in when we moved out. So many memories
I loved this post! what wonderful memories. You have a beautiful family. I too have wonderful memories of a house in Illinois on Maple street. I have been inspired by your post to start my scrapbook of all my old family pictures. My mom is 78 and she would love to see her family pictures given some proper attention. Thank you again for sharing your life with us. Cathy
Your project idea sounds wonderful. Best wishes for a nourishing endeavor!