A Look Back...

This post may be boring and mundane for most, but it is meant for the girls.  I want them to be able to look back at their first home.  They may not remember too much about it, so these pictures are for them.  Kevin and I have been married for quite some time.  We had several apartments in college before buying our first home.  I still remember the day that we got the keys to the home.  Kevin was still in California finishing up school.  I remember running through every room feeling like a little kid at Christmas.  I thought there was no way we would ever fill this house up.  It did not take us very long to do so.

We started first with our golden retriever Cooper then followed up a year later with our chocolate lab Coco.  We got Cooper as a puppy from a breeder.  The following year we took Cooper with us to the humane society to pick out Coco.  We were very glad that we took Cooper because the first dog we had picked out did not mesh well at all.  Then we brought out Coco.  It was love at first sight.  They have not left each others side since that day with the exception of one trip where Kevin took Coco on a solo trip.  The day he brought Coco home the dogs nearly ran us over trying to get to each other.

We certainly experimented with color in this home.  I remember the day after we painted the sitting room, Kevin kept thinking it looked like an office building.  It took awhile for him to get used to this one.

When we first moved in, the counter tops were white AND the cabinets were white.  That is way too much white.  We put in gorgeous "Norwegian Blue Pearl" granite counter tops.  The name was a tribute to the Ludefisk and potato sausage we are "privileged" to eat every year at Christmas.  (That was for you Terrell:)). 

 I do believe that every door knob and light fixture has been changed in this house...

We are very lucky to have a mother who does window treatments in our family.  My mom helped me design this one.  She did an incredible job helping us outfit our windows.  I am looking forward to seeing what we end up doing in our next house.  Mom already has her books packed to bring down for the holidays.  We will be busy dreaming up new ideas.

This powder room was one of our weekend projects (before kids of course).  I really wish that we had some before and after pictures of this one.  It was another white room with a huge vanity and plain mirror.  We had a lot of fun doing this.  Kevin even ripped out the flooring and put in wood flooring.  Very nice job!

The master bedroom.  These draperies are definitely coming with us.  I thought for a moment that I could leave them, but my sentimental side won the battle.  My mom made these for us last Christmas with pillows to match.  I was not ready to part with them!

This bathroom was our latest mini-project.  It was amazing what a few cans of paint was able to do.

The girls bathroom was a lot of fun to do.  We went with a frog theme.  They have already decided that their next bathroom will be pink and purple (surprised?).

I will NEVER forget decorating this room.  We were SO excited to welcome our first baby - a little girl - into our family.  Grandma Terrell and Grandma Karen were down for Thanksgiving that year and we did a lot of shopping in preparation for the arrival of Baby Kendall.  It was Mushrooms and Snails for Kendall.

Not even one year later came the news that Baby Sidney was on the way.  We decided on flowers and Ladybugs for Sidney.  It was so much fun to come up with a theme for each of the girls. 

Then there is the man cave.  Yes, Kevin is spoiled.  It has already been decided that he will have another man cave in our new house.  I must admit, I really like the man cave.  It gives him a place to do his own thing!

 We are DEFINITELY going to miss our beautiful deck and hot tub.  My dad came down for Easter one year and helped Kevin put the cover and railing on our deck.  They worked non-stop through the rain.  It was so beautiful when they were finished.

We have had a love-hate relationship with our yard.  For two people that had no clue what we were doing, things turned out pretty good in the end.  Now we get to start over.  Our new house is a blank slate.  There is a lawn and two trees.  The possibilities are endless.  Our downfall is that we will want to do it all "right away".  If we have learned one thing, it is that yard work takes time.  It does not happen overnight or in a weekend.  It will be interesting to see what we settle on.

We are really going to miss this house.  We are excited about the idea of moving on, but we will definitely miss our first family home.  If you would have asked us a few months ago we would have never dreamed that we would be spending September packing up boxes getting ready to move.  Now here we are just a short time away from moving into our new home.  Crazy!