The last few days have been crazy.
CRAZY, I tell you!
I have so much to share, so many different emotions, and SO MANY pictures to show you that this story is just going to take a couple days to tell. Even the sweetest, most patient readers among you probably won’t read a couple thousand words about some real estate drama.
But a couple thousand words, spread over two days with tons of pictures?
Maybe.
Stick with me here.
See the kids in the picture below? No, not that adorable two-year-old and those premie twins. Those two young kids holding them. We look so happy. Yes, we were overwhelmed and tired and freaking out about having three kids two and under, but we had prepared for this. We had this beautiful home that we’d remodeled and improved for FIVE YEARS, all to prepare for this time right here. Every square inch of that house was set up so we could raise our family. This was our moment in our perfect, little house.
Yesterday, we sold that house. This house.
Just to clarify, we actually moved out of this house four years ago, but we’ve held on to it and rented it out. This situation was a win-win for lots of reasons.
First, because this house is really special to our family. Not only is it the house we brought these three precious kids home to, but it’s the house we lived in longer than any other place. It was hard to leave that neighborhood and move to Katy. BUT, we always said, “But we’ll always have Carriage Hill.”
Second, when we bought this old house so long ago it had so much ugly wallpaper and was on kind of a busy street. And we scraped together every red cent we had to make our initial down payment with the hopes we’d be able to renovate the house into something pretty. And we hoped the surrounding area would grow and the house would not only be a place to bring our babies home to, but it would also be a great investment. It was. The community grew and exploded with malls and chi-chi restaurants and even an American Girl store. M and I thanked God so many times for giving us this perfect house in just the right area.
Third, M is a really good landlord, so renting this house let us keep the investment while turning a monthly profit. And, I can’t say this enough times, I got to hold on to the house where I nursed and rocked and played hide and seek with all those babies.
Speaking of babies…oh, my goodness, the below picture. This picture summarizes what Carriage Hill means to us. This was taken the weekend before Catie was born. We had just poured that patio and M carved our names in the wet cement. Mike Loves Tina is still in that concrete today.
M tore down that old fence and rebuilt it in two days. TWO DAYS (with me nine months pregnant). We literally renovated/painted/repaired every square inch of that house with our own bare hands. Every time we pulled out a bathroom wall (pictures tomorrow on THAT monster post) or used our bleach-soaked fingers to pick off wallpaper, we said, “One day this house will make us a million dollars.”
It did not make us a million dollars. Maybe if we would have held on to it longer, it would have been worth more, but now we’ve sold it.
But not without some drama. The house was on the market for four days, and we got lots of good offers. Our realtor was putting lots of pressure on us to accept them, even though that was so counter-intuitive. We love that house, it was a great rental house, and so many people wanted to buy it. WHY WOULD WE TAKE IT OFF THE MARKET SO FAST?!
But we signed. We sold it. It’s gone.
No really, I’m over it.
I’m not, of course. I think (and thought the whole time) we shouldn’t sell it.
But sometimes you’ve got to just make a decision and go with it. That moment came for me when I looked at my phone and saw this:
All the calls from the realtor and from M about “sell or don’t sell” were adding up. Obviously, by this screen shot, I was avoiding all this by reading some Big Mama. I’m so lovely in a high-pressure situation. Really, the girl you want on your team.
And, all those voicemails were causing too much stress, which is now displayed on my lower lip in the form of four fever blisters:
Thank you so much, friends, for listening to my first world story. Really. I needed to vent about this. Please come back tomorrow for all the pictures of all those babies coming home to this special house. Oh, and come back and see the pictures of M and me looking like we’re twelve years old. And all the crazy renovations we did to that house.
I only wish I had a picture of that Mike Loves Tina in the concrete.
I guess I can go over and take that picture before the new family moves in.
I just hope that family knows they’re buying a very special house.
