Home Sweet Home ~ The Beginning

I was going through old photos so that I could work on Kaitlin's baby scrapbook over spring break.  I came across some photos of our old house.  Our first house.  And loved seeing them.  It represents such a sweet time in Dan's and my life.

We saved diligently for that house.  We picked the lot and selected our plan ~ one of 4 (or so) to choose from in the neighborhood.  (All of the houses were very similar looking).  No matter.  It was so exciting to watch the process and dream as the house was framed and built up.  We watched it become ours.  We brought Matthew and Andrew home to that house.  I didn't have a photo of the outside, but I had pictures of the inside with the exception of the office and bonus room.  The house was around 1875 square feet, if I remember correctly.  But it had many rooms, and so the rooms were quite small.  In retrospect, a "great room" plan would have been a better, more livable use of space, but live and learn.

The front door opened to the living room.  It was very small ~ too small to house a hutch of any kind, but we had our dining room table, and we used it.  Eating birthday meals in there off of our wedding china.  



The front door is off to the left.  The dining room opened to the living room, which was also tiny.  The sofa pictured was my "Grandma Helen"'s.  Not a blood relative, but a dear friend who left this sofa to me and Dan in her will upon her passing.  So thoughtful, as we were newlyweds and couldn't afford much furniture and so I know this was her intention.  The chandelier was hers as well, my Dad rewired it for us.  It hangs in our master bedroom now, and is one of my treasures.  I spent many hours sipping iced espresso under that chandelier with Grandma Helen.  I will always treasure the memories it holds for me.





Walking straight past the stairwell brought us to the kitchen/living room/nook.We purchased the island on the left from Costco to give us more storage.  It held tupperware and some linens and every morning Matthew saw to it that it was emptied all over the kitchen floor.  It was part of his morning routine.



This was our tiny family room, where we spent most of our time.  That is the love seat that is horizontal in the room ~ you can see it wasn't much wider than the width of our sofa!  It was very small, but it looked out to a pretty green space and a pond where a Heron would come to visit and frogs serenaded us at night.  The light shone into that room and I loved it.




This was the landing at the top of the stairs.  This was the only storage in the house apart from a tiny coat closet and the usual bedroom closets.  It was a challenge because we had very little furniture to store anything in.  Thankfully, we didn't have as much stuff. :) The bonus room, not pictured is behind and to the right of where I was standing when I took this photo. It was open to the stairwell.



The little half bath. The first stop on the left down the hall. Where I bathed matthew.  I had put the washcloth on top of the toilet lid like that because it was cracked.  :)



Andrew's nursery. Which was Matthew's bedding, with some minor changes. We didn't know Matthew's gender prior to having him, so his bedding (which my mom made) was a chambray blue with small red and yellow flowers. It felt gender neutral and I didn't want to incur the expense of changing it for our second baby ~ the resources went to making Matthew's room.  Some friends helped me put up the chair rail when I was pregnant with Matthew.  Dan was working "busy season" as a CPA and so we did it one weekend while Dan worked.



Matthew's "Big Boy" room.  I still remember moving him in here and letting him bring things from his nursery that he wanted to.  He carried in his CD player and that little lamp.  (It was a flower pot lamp, given to me by my mom...I had hoped to leave it in the nursery, but wanted his room to feel like home, so it stayed).



This was the master bedroom.  Mom helped me make the window treatments in our kitchen and family room. These were easy enough that I managed them on my own. But she helped Dan and I make the headboard. The room was not much wider than what is pictured, with the dresser (Dan's dresser from college that I painted) opposite the sofa.

The bedroom was open to the master bathroom.  There was a separate room for the commode, but otherwise the bathroom was right there.  We put a dimmer switch on the bathroom lights to help when someone was getting ready while the other person was trying to sleep.

Then, Dan got a new job in Vancouver and.....



This was taken in our house now.  Look how little the boys were when we moved!  This is really the only house they have known in their lives.  This house felt so big and luxurious when we moved in.  And I remember struggling a little bit with feeling like it was ours.  It felt like someone else's house for a long time.  I worked hard painting it ~ knowing that would help.  Painting in the evenings after the kids were in bed.  "Speed painting" as I called it, at nap time.  Slowly I made my way around the house.  The kitchen and our bathroom were two rooms that I liked and did not paint, and the entry/stairwell we hired.  But it felt good to finish that task, and it did feel more like home.  It is slowly getting decorated, though I haven't had the time to prioritize that as much as I'd like.  I'm hoping to be able to refocus on that sometime soon.  I finally hung a photo of Kaitlin on the wall in the last 6 months ~ at 3 1/2 ~ terrible!  There are so many little projects that I'd like to do, but simply haven't prioritized it.  I'm starting to itch to do that.

And while I still see this house as a lovely house,  mostly it's simply home.  I love our house, mostly because of the memories that have been made here.  The sounds that inhabit it.  The walls of this house have seen both a lot of joy and a lot of sorrow...a lot of life has happened here.  When the time comes someday to leave this house, it will be hard for me.  It's definitely home.