Top Decoration

Just out of curiosity...have any of you ever been given the chance to take a walk through a house that you used to live in?

Did you enjoy it?

Or was it agony?

Are you happy that you did it?

Or do you regret it?


Here is why I ask...

On Tuesday we're flying down to AZ to spend the week with great friends!
(We're so excited, we can hardly stand it!)

Back in June of 2004 we packed up our things and moved from the rainy, Pacific Northwest to scorching hot, Avondale, Arizona and called this house "home" for the next 2 and 1/2 years...

We bought it while it was in the process of being built, which made the anticipation and excitement to move in, that much greater!

I could not wait to get my hands on it!

The day we moved in, it was a blank slate and a sea of white!
We transformed every square inch of that house and I loved every moment of it!

Rooms were decorated and redecorated. Painted and repainted.
In June of 2006, I repainted the living room and dining room with this cool, refreshing blue. Finally, I had it just how I wanted it.

Not quite four months later, Will got the call that would potentially move us back to WA.

Exactly one month after that, in November of 2006, we were loading up the moving van and saying goodbye to our home...

The boys shared a room (not because they had to, but because they wanted to...and we wanted them to, as well!) and, naturally, it was decorated with a nod to aviation...

Ellison's nursery had turned out just how I had imagined it...

...but the playroom was the favorite, for sure! The boys, still to this day, talk about that playroom and ask if I can paint it all over again here!

I miss this house more than I can express. It was mine. All mine.
I loved the layout and the way that it functioned for our family. I loved the way the sun flooded the back of the house in the morning and in the evening flooded the entryway with gorgeous pink light. I loved the three windows in the front of the house that looked so great with wreaths hanging from wide, red ribbon at Christmas. I loved that we could host a party and have more than enough room to fit everyone. I loved the 10 foot ceilings through the entire house, the skylight in the playroom, the archway that connected our master bedroom and bathroom, the plant ledges in the kids' rooms and the guest bedroom, the window bench that we built in the kitchen, the way the cool tile felt on our feet, and how the floors never creaked because of the concrete below...

But most of all, I love the moments that we had in that house.
Memories that I will cherish for a lifetime.


I have found a way to get in touch with the current owners. Would they think I'm a lunatic if I emailed and asked to see the house?

Probably.

Right?

I just keep wondering how I would feel if I got an email like that?

yikes...

I'm not sure what I would say.


My husband keeps telling me that I would regret walking through the house. That it would erase the memories that I have and replace them with a new memory, that has nothing to do with us.

I suppose I agree with that, except that I am not one of those people that thinks my house will remain the same after I have moved out. You know, like on the show Moving Up on TLC when the old owners are so disgusted that the new owners would want to change it! I don't expect to walk in and see any of what I had done still there. I want to see what they have done - their take on our house!


So I ask...would you want to walk through a house that you once called home?

I'm thinking I'll see how I feel when we get there.

The owners might just be getting a knock on the door...