Noe News is Good News

Our Old House...

It's always hard saying good-bye to home you built so many memories in. For us, it was a bitter sweet experience handing the keys over to someone else. We were glad to be moving into a larger place, but we were going to miss so much about the  house. And it kind of tore us apart to know that someone would be painting over the walls we painted and tearing out the flooring we put in.

In all the moving mess, we accidentally took the Gas Fireplace key with us... so the gal who bought the place wanted us to bring it by if when we found it. In return, she said she would show us what she had done to the place and give us a grand tour. I, personally, was so excited about this. It was like being on an HGTV show! I also knew it would give me more closure about the place. Well, we found the key last week and today we stopped by our old place to get the grand tour.

Joselyn and Landen were both quite confused... Joselyn even said "No! I don't WANT to go home!"  (she really loves the new house!) but once we explained to her we were just visiting, she was fine... especially when she met the little dog. Man was she cute! 14 years old and she still looked just like a puppy. I've never seen her so attached to an animal! Really! We had a difficult time leaving.

 

Anyway, the new owner's taste was very different than ours as far as decorating goes- but it WAS really really nice. I must say I really loved the hardwood flooring she put in the kitchen, the new fixtures, the granite countertops and the fenced in yard!! She let me take some pictures... and I'll try and put a before with it!

The living room before: (this was taken when we very first moved in- it was waaaay different when we left- new couch, different arrangements of frames etc- but it was the only picture I could find)

After: New carpet, new wall color. She said she was still working on the wall art.





The Kitchen- before:

The Kitchen- after: new sink and faucet, new counter tops, new lighting fixtures, new appliances... yeah, we were definitely kinda jealous of this kitchen!



The dining room- before: I definitely liked our chandelier better as well as our table.

The dining room- after: (those sippy cups are ours that we SOMEHOW left there? So confused, but glad we got them back!)

The master bedroom and backyard- AFTER. We definitely loved the fence- and would have done it ourselves if it wouldn't have been such a headache! (and she definitely said it was)

We were so glad to have had the chance to go back and see our house. We know not many people get to do that... and she even invited us back if we wanted to! She loved Joselyn and Landen (who couldn't?) and they loved loved loved her dog... so maybe. But I really doubt it. Looks like our first house together as a family is in good hands :)

As for our new house... I know you're probably wanting to see pictures. We are getting close to that point, but there is still a lot to be done! Not much longer though! (and it's still nothing all THAT fancy!)

Good-bye House

On Halloween Day 2006, you would not have found us out trick or treating. We weren't even passing out candy or doing anything related to Halloween. Instead, Adam and I took the key and opened the door to our first home together- a 2 bedroom townhome settled in a quiet little "village" tucked behind an apartment complex. It wasn't our first choice- there was another townhome in the same neighborhood that we had really wanted. But when things fell through with that one (the owner decided not to sell after all and gave it to his daughter) we fell back on our second choice. We were excited about all the changes we would make- painting, new Pergo flooring, hardware changes and new lighting fixtures and we got to work right away!

Over the years, things changed... new furniture was purchased, things relocated and our office turned into a sweet little nursery for our baby girl on the way. Adam and Melanie (my niece) worked very hard to paint her room together. Adam wouldn't let me paint because I was pregnant.

I was in charge of decorating... we were on a limited budget, but I loved her little nursery and how it came together...

Lots of nights were spent on that rocking chair in her room rocking Joselyn to sleep or reading her books and we spent a lot of days on that bedroom floor playing together. Those are memories I will always cherish.

1 year and 1 month later, little Landen joined our family. Although we were started to feel a little crowded, we loved raising our two children in that home. Landen slept in our room the WHOLE time! Not the funnest of things to share a room with your baby, but we made it work.

Although the townhome was an ideal place for newlyweds, it wasn't the best place for children... no fenced in backyard, not a lot of space and lots of traffic coming through the streets. We had to always be on our toes when playing outside, but we did enjoy the short walk to the duck pond quite often.

We finally decided it was time to move into a home more suitable for 2 growing children and put our house on the market. It took a while, but when it finally sold, it all happened a little TOO fast. The buyer pretty much wanted us out immediately and so at the last minute, we were asked to be gone in a week. No time for good-byes to people at church or anything.

People were so kind in offering help to watch the kids... and they were able to spend some fun times at friends' homes. They definitely knew something was different though and things went downhill. Joselyn's potty-training pretty much went out the window, and Landen got really attached to me.

Last Friday was the big moving day... we couldn't do much on Saturday because I had to shoot a wedding, so it had to be Friday... a day when everyone else was at work. We had one sweet man from church (Bro Maughn) show up to help us move and 2 great friends of mine (Sarah Lassen and Sherrill Moody) to help finish up cleaning and packing. We couldn't have done it without them- SERIOUSLY. My heart is overflowing with thanks for their kindness. My brother Solomon, who wasn't feeling well, also came to help us with a LOT of the work once Bro Maughn had to leave. He didn't have to help- but he did. And I can't thank him enough- he helped SOOOOO much!

My friend Sarah brought her two boys over and they played with Joselyn and Landen. I wish I would have got pictures... they played in the dirt and I am still trying to get dirt out of Joselyn's hair! SOOO funny. But I did get one picture of Joselyn and Landen sitting on the Uhaul!

 

By Friday evening, we still had about 4 hours work ahead of us- but we decided to put it off because we were so tired.

We hated to do it, but Sunday was the day we finished everything. We loaded up the last few boxes in our Packrat and said our goodbyes. It was actually really sad to think we would never be back there... the place where we started our family. Knowing that the new buyer was also going to paint over the walls and rip out the flooring we worked so hard on also broke our hearts. As we walked through each room to make sure we didn't forget everything, we recounted the many memories had in each room.

Although leaving was sad, we are looking forward to the many more fun memories to be made in our NEW home. It will be so nice not having to worry about kids running out into the streets because we will have a fenced in back yard. And instead of spending an hour scraping off ice on our vehicles, we can pull out of our garage. Joselyn and Landen will each get their own rooms as well as a play area, and Adam and I will have a room to ourselves again AND an office. We know this whole thing has been a big blessing in our lives and we are looking forward to this next chapter!