Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Goodbye...

WARNING: Long, journally post

Tonight, our house was poked and prodded to see if it would hold up for the future owners. In preparation, I scrubbed (again) and grabbed my camera before we messed it up again. I want to remember this house. It has been good to us.

In the laundry room, I painted this wall blue and added clouds to make it feel like I was outside putting my clothes on the line. The window treatment is a group of doilies hung on a clothesline.
A few years ago, I saw a system like this in a friends house. It has changed my laundry life! The kids sort their clothes even before they can read by looking at the pictures.
The family room, where we spend a lot of our time. When we put our house on the market, we were told to remove personal photos. I couldn't stand to take these pictures down. It wouldn't feel like home without them.

The kitchen, pretty bare I know. My fridge doesn't normally look that clean!
These window treatments were very easy to make and I love how they look.
When I look at this room, I think of the late nights painting. I know the wallpaper is dated now, it was one of the first things I did when we moved here. I really like the bead board Tom put up and the laminate floor we put in. We bought the chairs for this dining set on clearance. When we had saved enough to get the table, it was gone. I found this one at an unfinished furniture store and stained it to match.
This room is pretty new. We painted and re carpeted to get it ready to sell.
Courtney's room is my favorite room in the house. We were given this vanity. It was painted a deep green and didn't have a mirror. I painted it yellow and used a mirror that went with another dresser. The shelf is a very cheap unit that I stained with the yellow paint. We taped the walls for the fence and used a template for the rounded tops.

The inspiration for the room was this yellow quilt my grandma made for me as a graduation gift. It has a butterfly stitched in the middle. I was thrilled that Courtney loved it and wanted it in her room. Tom made the headboard to match the fence and we stained it yellow. This room is about 8 years old now, and Courtney is ready for a change. Her mom isn't.
The memory I have for Cam's room, is pulling an extreme room makeover on him while he was away at scout camp a few years ago. We gutted his room by taking down the stars and moon wallpaper, painted, reorganized, bought new bedding and surprised him. It was a lot of fun.
This is another room that we repainted to sell. It used to be a pale pink and purple that matched their bedding. This is Maddy's side and I love the shelf that holds all her wolf collections and Indian doll. Her pillowcase was given to her by a friend. The fabric is, of course, wolves.
Mckenna's side is much more girly, with the porcelain dolls on her shelf.
I fell in love with this bedding and thanks to my sister and the handy dandy gift card she gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago, I was able to get it.
Even though I am excited about the next chapter in our lives, I can't help but get nostalgic on what we are leaving behind. This is the only home most of our family has ever known. When they remember pillow fights, or being sent to their room, they will picture this house.


11 comments:

Jan said...

I know the feelings all to well. But it is so worth it. It leaves quickly too.

us8now9.blogspot.com said...

Everything looks so nice! I guess we still have some work to do before putting ours up for sale. I would love to hear more about your laundry system.

tharker said...

I think it is very obvious that this was just not a house, but a HOME. It seems to me that is what your children will rememeber most. And that is a blessing.

I can't wait to see what you do with your new home!

Em and Ms said...

Good for you taking pictures of everything to remember it! Too often we forget to do things like that. Moving used to be a foreign concept to me since I never moved while growing up. Marriage changed that. I think it's fun to start fresh, but also hard to leave memories behind.

Amy J. said...

Terri I loved hearing about your home room by room. You will be so glad you took all these pictures before leaving. You table story was so funny, but only because I knew you found another beautiful table since there was one in the picture!

Debie Spurgeon said...

If it's your house why am I feeling so nostalgic too? Homes mean so much. I bet your looking forward to creating some new memories in that brand new home of yours.

Sonja said...

I love what you did with the laundry room, I'm sure the new owners will appreciate your handiwork on the paint.

meohmyers said...

Ooooh! I love seeing what other people have done with different rooms in their homes. You'll be so glad you have all these pictures and memories in this gorgeous home! I can't wait to see what you do with your new one!

Any word on a rental yet? You'll need to hang out longer at the pool one of these days so we can catch up again. I'm there at 10:30 - or close to - everyday!

Ally wants to tell Mckenna hi!

Bren's Life said...

It's nice to meet you. We are fellos award winners from Jans blog. Hope your moving goes well & that you've found a house!!

Bren's Life said...

It's nice to meet you. We are fellos award winners from Jans blog. Hope your moving goes well & that you've found a house!!

Anonymous said...

Moving sure is tough to do. Not only are you leaving memories behind, but finally having the feeling that you've finished decorating your house completely takes so much work before you actually get there.

Have a safe move.