House Sold!

Well, today is a very good day because, after seven months of aggressively trying to sell our rental property, we closed the sale today!!

Most who read this know that this was our first home - and it happens to be just right across the street from our current house. We bought our current house three years ago, and it was a sudden move, as we really had no plans to move. But it was a house we always liked and we moved fast. As such, we didn't have our house up for sale when we bought it - so we decided to rent that house out.

It's been an adventure. Three years ago, the market was hot. So who would have thought that, by waiting three years, it would be one of the worst times to sell??? Being a landlord was a great learning experience. We had some nightmare tenants to start with (unless you think it's cool to have the police come over because they were shooting birds out of the neighbors trees), followed by some of the best tenants you could ever ask for.

So why did we sell now? Well, we'd have to pay capital gains tax on the house unless we sold it by the end of November. With the uncertainty of where property values will go from here - and the desire to not have a hefty tax bill - we decided it would be best to sell now. And for the last seven months, it was a major stress - and it's a HUGE relief to not have an extra mortgage now.

But even though we're so excited that it's sold, now's the time where we're reflecting on all of the memories from our first house. So, I'm going to take you down memory lane with us. So, now's the time where we get all reflective. Start playing the sappy music that Clark Griswold listened to while watching old home videos in the attic . . .

When you see these photos, you'll probably think the same thing we're thinking when we look back at the house when we bought it - which is "what we're we thinking???" I really don't know WHY we would have bought the house, seeing how it looked then. Well, a few excuses: (1) we were wide-eyed, not-yet-married, and just excited to be getting something of our own. (2) we bought the home for the great area. My sister moved in the month before, and it was a convenient location, a good value, and we liked the large trees. (3) we saw potential. Our goal was to make it into a home we loved over the few years that we'd live there. This house was livable, but also had plenty to improve upon, which was something we liked. And I think we ended up doing a decent job of improving it.

Seriously. This is the photo from the flyer from when we bought the house. Notice the beautiful foilage in front of our house. Yes, that is the front of our house behind the overgrown fetzer and junipers.

The very day that we closed on the house, our good friend, Gordon, came over and helped us cut down those junipers that were blocking our front door and front of our house (as you can see in the photo below):

And what about this beautiful stone-work? The funny thing is, I actually liked the stone work when we first bought it. And trust me, the pictures do no justice with how bad the "stone work" was. It was really bad. It took me two years to realize what a meager job it was, until one day, Jamie came home and found me ripping it all off with a crow bar and sledge hammer. With no warning, I had enough.

Well, here's what the front of our house looked like as of now:

Backyard when we bought it:

Backyard when we sold it:

Our beautiful kitchen. I loved the color scheme in the house when we bought it: white. The whole house was just spray-painted white. We later found out why - it was covering up a much worse paint job.


Kitchen now:

Our family room:

The same view of our family room a few years later:

The main bathroom at time of purchase:

The main bathroom seven years later:

So, good-bye, first house. We hope you can provide as many valuable memories for the new owners as you did for us. And at least you're not going anywhere - we'll be seeing you often whether we'd like to or not.