If walls could talk...

So, this morning, we officially sold our first home. We are now in a lovely apt here in plano... fun times. I didnt get at all emotional during the whole moving process, until I was at my house, alone, last night. I was doing that final walk through making sure everything was clean and out (and yes mom, i even hosed out the garbage cans). I was about to pull out of the driveway for the last time and i got really emotional. Lucky for me, my camera was in the car, and I was able to do a final walk through so I could jot down the memories I had with my house.

This room was the practice decorating room: it was the first room to be painted and it was the first to get crown moulding. Purple use to be my favorite color when we were first married. This room was a tribute to that color and that phase in my life. This is where my grand piano use to reside. I LOVED walking into my house and seeing my beautiful piano. We added the lighting and the chair rail. Becky Eastman helped me paint the room that color. The drapes cost less than the rod they hung on... I had most of my piano recitals in this room. I taught several piano lessons in this room. Choir practice and other music practices were held here too... And now, to my kitchen... I painted the room that red color (all by myself) - then i went ahead and added a shiny stripe (you cant really see it...) i also made the drapes, but they aren't my fav. (again, rod cost more than the fabric). This is the place we had lots of people for dinner and settlers games. This is also where i tried to avoid cooking.

Notice the back door? that was one of the GREATEST investments we made in the last year or so... even though we opened a big can of worms when we replaced it, SO worth it. oh ya, we also put in that 25$ light from home depot... a big step up from our ugly brass one people cracked their heads on.
This is just a shout out to my geek of a husband. He and his dad wired our entire house. every room was wired for highspeed and all of the wires came back to the master closet and the big networking station. we always had a server and maybe even more computers buzzing in my closet. now, many nice homes come wired like this, but not 5 years ago (and esp NOT in our price range). joe you rock.
This is the backyard my kids played in. This is where we had our trampoline. This is where Aaron would play baseball. This is where we put the bounce houses we rented for my kids birthday extravaganzas.
This was my office. It started as Joe's office, then I was able to move in with him, but then I kicked him out and it ended up all mine. Joe put up the crown moulding and chair rail and picked out the paint colors (and even helped paint!). This was the BOYS room. My mom helped me paint this. They built forts on the bunkbeds. They giggled at night and allowed charity to have sleepovers in there too.

This was where I would stand when we couldn't decide which room to have prayers at night. that way, all of the kids could be in their beds, but we could all participate together.
This was charity's room. mom helped me paint it and put the flowers on the wall, and dolled up the little valence with ribbons....
This is how we built out the closets. I needed a way to make my kids more able to hang their own clothes up... joe needed an excuse to use his pneumatic nail gun.
This was my room. I made those drapes the week before I put my house up on the market. I painted the room a few days before it went up on the market. (i was SO tired and did a terrible job - lots of areas need touchup - but that is for the new homebuyer to deal with, not me!!!) cherry and joe helped. cherry thought it was a waste of time, but painting my bedroom and bathroom made a HUGE difference! While all the houses on my street were still getting built, i walked up to one of those painting contractors (who doesnt speak english) and paid them 500$ to paint all of the main living areas which is almost the whole house -(and that included paint!) - these high ceilings were just too intimidating. 4 guys came one sunday (i felt so guilty for it) but they got it done in 2 hours... The drapes were a fun project too - cheap fabric (LOTS of it) and joe on a 18foot ladder about to kill himself as he installed the hooks and hung the drapes on them! SCARY! but speaking of ladders... in the middle of this ceiling is a smoke and carbon monoxide detctor - there were a few times we had to replace the batteries. we would call our buddy greg eastman over to help joe hold the ladder straight up and down so i could climb to the VERY TOP and replace those stupid things... lots of cuss words... scary.
This was my kids toy room. the kids would drive me crazy dropping toys down and popping their heads over the ledge. This was the only fan we installed successfully in the house. too bad it was in the upstairs office.
my mom and i made this upstairs bathroom the under the sea room... that was a fun project - messy paint!
I made the bench with my dad, and laid a bunch of stones to walk on...

After we closed this morning, I drove the kids by so I could take their picture in front of the house so they could remember it. Good ol' 11512!!
This was such a great house, and this was such a great neighborhood. We picked out the house when Joe was finishing grad school (and we were living w/his parents in houston). I was pregnant with Charity. We moved in when she was 2 months old. Nate was born while we lived there. We had so many wonderful memories there. I loved this house and was really attached to it. I love the people I met while living there. As I was packing, the song from "unsinkable molly brown" kept playing through my head... "She's my friend, and she'll stay my friend..." it is a great song, and I really feel like I will keep in touch with the great people I met while living there in keller. My friends are so wonderful! Thanks to all the people who helped us move.