This Old House

Today is moving day!!! It's an exciting day and a bittersweet day - all at the same time. I have waited for this day to come for years! I'm so excited about our new home and can't wait to make it "ours."

But we will be a little bit sad to say goodbye to our house. So many landmark moments happened in this home. We'll take those memories with us, but we will miss this house. The photos I am sharing below are from the listing so it doesn't quite look like it did with our stuff - truthfully, it looks better because our realtor has amazing taste! We will be gradually upgrading our furniture and decor in the new house and hopefully it will look a bit more like this in the end - it's good to have inspiration!

The house we moved out of was built in 1915 and it was the first home in this area. It was an original farm house that was part of an area called "Lyndale Farm" - so it was surrounded by farmland, which is hard to imagine. This house has seen so much history in the last 104 years. But we sure made a lot of history and formed many memories in the last 6 years. I'll share some below.

I'll never forget trying to get up these front steps after my hip surgery in 2016. You can't tell in this picture, but the landing of the front stairs is very small and the storm door opens one way while the front door opens the other way - so it's kind of an awkward entrance. Poor Phil had to carry me into the house (it was too small/awkward of a space to try using my crtucches) while trying not to bump my hip against anything and in that moment I thought I was going to throw up from the anesthesia. Oof, that was quite the day. I moved in with Phil on a Friday and had hip surgery the following Monday so we really had a trial by fire experience of living together. But you know what? It was totally fine. A lot of people talk about how difficult it is to move in with someone but I have to say it wasn't all that hard for us! I think it helps that we are both tidy people and are super practical. There were some disagreements over which dishes to keep and whether I have too much kitchen stuff but all in all, it was pretty smooth.We were also both older (35) when we moved in together - so I think we had a good idea of what battles to pick and how to let things go.

In this living room, we got engaged! We also had many, many conversations on this couch before getting engaged. Deep conversations about faith, priorities, family (both of origin and the family we would build together), what marriage means to us, etc. I'll never forget the time Phil prepared a list of questions about my beliefs as a Catholic. I think he must have had 20+ questions on that list and many of them were very difficult to answer because no one has asked me why I believed what I believed before. There were times I wanted to consult the Catholic catechism for help! It wasn't an attack on my beliefs - he just truly wanted to better understand what I believed, especially since we planned to raise our children Catholic.

This is also the living room where I spent countless hours rocking our sweet baby. And pumping. Oh my gosh, so many hours were spent pumping! It's also where Paul had so many firsts like rolling over, crawling and walking for the first time.

I also nursed my broken heart on this couch while recovering from my miscarriage with mindless tv shows to distract me from the physical and emotional pain. Not all memories made in this house are good ones - but that's life.

I prepared so many meals for our family in this kitchen. I mastered canning for the first time on my own in this kitchen, with several calls to my mom, the canning pro! We prepared a post-Thanksgiving day meal for my family in this kitchen as well as Paul's post-Baptism celebration.

Many meals were shared at this dining room table, like the celebrations mentioned above and smaller dinner parties. This is also where my "girls gone mild" bachelor party took place. I think we had 18 people around the table (it has 2 leaves so is quite large!). That was one of the most fun nights I've had in this house - there was so much laughter and the most amazing Mexican food.

Lastly, the backyard. We hosted parties and small gatherings in this space. Many meals were grilled out here and morning coffees were enjoyed on that deck. I spent a lot of time in that cozy hammock that is on the left in this picture. We discovered Paul's intense dislike of grass in this backyard- which had yet to go away at the end of the summer. Maybe 2020 will be the year he excepts the texture of grass!

So much happened in this old house. We'll miss her, but I know we'll love our new house as much if not more. What will happen in the next house? I have my hopes and dreams, like bringing a 2nd child home, sending our kids off to their first days of school, and celebrating milestone wedding anniversaries. Goodbye, old (1915) house, and hello to our new (1925) one!