January 23rd, 2009
I grew up in that house.
It was the first house my parents bought. They were in their late twenties just like Adam and I are now. I was 6 when we moved in. We lived there for 6 short years, but it seemed like my whole childhood.
When I was 12 or 13 my dad began to sell real estate. So my parents decided to sell the house and move to the farm where my Grandmother lives until we could build a new house.
Usually that is where the story ends. You move out of a house and that’s it. But not with us.
My parents sold the house to some friends of theirs. Their friends were a young couple and they were just starting their family. They lived there for several years but they ended up moving out and the house became a rental.
When I got my license I would go out of my way to drive past the house really slow just to remember. I stalked this house. I loved it. I had such happy memories and I told my parents that one day I wanted to live there again. Over the years I kind of forgot about that dream. It didn’t go away, it just faded. You know… real life kind of got in the way. I got knocked grew up and had a little family of my own.
Fast forward to 2003. We were renting a house not far from my beloved childhood home. I remember sitting on the front porch with Adam one early summer night. I was dreaming of our future home and I just knew it was out there somewhere. It was weird to think that at that moment, someone was living in the house that would be ours someday.
Actually, they were moving out. They hadn’t paid their rent in a few months and they packed it all up and left in the middle of the night. My dad’s friend was ready to sell.
All it took was one phone call from my dad and my dream about living in that house came flooding back with full clarity. I told Adam about it and he was unsure. We weren’t quite ready to buy a house yet. How would we afford it? We had student loans and a 4 year old in Montessori preschool.
And we hadn’t even been inside the house yet. I couldn’t wait to see it. I was ridiculously eager to get inside and see if it looked like I remembered.
I didn’t expect it to be so bad. The renters had left a lot of stuff. A bunch of nasty junk really. It was filthy and the appliances were like 30 years old or maybe even older. The counter tops were horrible and the wallpaper even worse. It was a hot mess ya’ll. My hopes were dashed for a bit, but I could see the potential. I only wish we had taken before pictures because we decided to take on the project and bought the house!
We had new counter tops put in, had a new pantry built and bought new cabinet handles and appliances. We had the wood floors redone and we ripped down the ugly wallpaper. We pulled up carpet and we painted A LOT. My parents and my brother helped us get the house in MUCH better shape.
I was pregnant with Alivia in the picture above. It was Easter 2007 before church and Addison was less than thrilled about having her picture taken.
Easter 2008…at least Addison was smiling! Even with Alivia pulling a big chunk of her hair out!
A rare TN snow day
As much as I love this house I am ready for a newer one. A house with more than one bathroom and level floors that don’t creak so loud that it wakes the baby up when we go into the hallway.
But for now it’s our “Crooked House” and as long as the rest of the 007’s are here I am happy with that.
Filed under family, life | Comments (11)
What a great story!
You aren’t the only one that has really great memories of growing up in that house, and I didn’t spend a whole six years there–
-the barbie house that had real carpet
-the upstairs bedroom that felt like a hideaway
-sleeping on Trooper in the living room while watching “The Worst Witch”, still one of my all time favorites thanks to you
-learning to play horse in the driveway
-playing monopoly on that cool kitchen table
-the best cereal ever like that alien cereal with puffs that looked like little spaceships (what was that stuff?!) and the rice krispies with marshmallows and another one I don’t have a clue about, but I can still taste when I think about it
-burnt popcorn
-chasing and running from Dustin and Justin
-the scary and cool basement steps
-was there a cool bookshelf built in to the walls in the living room?
-and I can remember being totally awed by the fact that your tv was in a cabinet
Am I remembering this stuff right?
You know that I love love love your house! It is so cozy and quaint. Huh Huh, I just said quaint, lol!
What a cool story! I feel the same way about my grandparent’s house, and hope that I can move in to in someday!
I do remember playing in that house too. The tree house in the back. And playing ‘Dick Kasey’(the detective).
“Quick, someone just ran over your cat. Bring me the spatula!” Classic.
What a great story! I’ll just make a guess, but I’ll guess that you’ll leave it in much better shape than you found it.
I love your Crooked House story. It’s a beautiful home.
p.s. we still live in our “starter home” and I will be SO happy some day when we live in a house with more than one full bath…but I know I will miss it
That is soooooo sweet! I would have never thought about buying my parent’s house. I guess I never liked any of them that much – lol!!!
What a sweet story- how neat you had this experience!! I was able to see my childhood home once when some friends of a friend lived there but it wasn’t the same as I remembered- and everything seemed so small LOL!
Steph
sweet, sweet, sweet!
What a great story about your house. It’s funny, I have such great memories from the house I grew up in my original hometown. A couple years ago, while visiting relatives, I took my family and drove by the house and took a couple of photos. Strange how my memory had the house SO much bigger. I would give anything just to go inside and look around.