Top Decoration

I have suddenly found myself with some extra time on my hands.

Always a pleasant surprise!

With Will on a trip, it means that our Dining Room-turned-Playroom project has been put on hold for the weekend, which gives me a chance to get caught up around here.

Besides, I feel like I owe this post to those of you who weighed in with your opinions on whether I should visit our old home in Arizona while we were there on vacation visiting...

To my surprise, 41 of you took the time to give me your opinions.

Thank you for that!

Overwhelmingly, you responded "No - Don't do it!"

27 of you said "no" and most had personal experiences to back up those opinions.

7 of you said "Yes - do it"

And 7 of you said "maybe" or "it's up to you" or "good luck with your decision."


After thinking about it nearly non-stop, I had decided that it just wasn't a good idea. We would not be going by the old house.

Whew!

It felt good to have a decision made.

But...

you know the saying:

"the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"


And that's exactly how it went.

We were in the West Valley, visiting friends, stopped and ate at my favorite lunch spot, cruising around seeing how everything had changed, when in a moment, Will said to me:

"So? You wanna?"

And my firm and calculated decision flew right out the window.

I said: "Fine. We can drive by, but that's IT! We're just driving by."

We made a quick right turn and before I knew it, we were driving down our old street.

When we got to our cul-de-sac we saw a truck parked right in front of our driveway.

I was fine with that! It would insure a quick drive-by, just like I was hoping for!


Until...our old neighbor came walking out of his front door and we realized that it was his truck sitting in front of our old driveway!

(I thought it looked familiar)

We said "hello", got caught up on how everyone has been doing the past 2 and 1/2 years, and then we immediately started asking about the new owners. We just couldn't help ourselves.


Ready for the dirty little details? Get this:


Turns out that the people that bought our house are great! Good people, great neighbors - super nice, friendly, clean, take care of the house, yard, etc

However...

they decided to take advantage of the low prices that houses are selling for and they bought a house in the East Valley.

As soon as John said this, Will and I looked at each other, puzzled...

he went on to tell us that they had tried to sell our house, for quite some time, but couldn't get the price that they needed out of it.

SO THEY WALKED AWAY FROM IT!


What??

We were shocked!

Obviously, these days, you hear about people doing it all the time, but to be standing in front of our old house, that we love, and hearing that it was empty...

abandoned...

John told us that we should go through the gate and take a look around.

"Really? Are you sure? We don't want to....you know.........it's not ours."

I'm pretty sure he would have opened the gate for me, had Will not gotten there first.

John knew we would want to see it...

and in an instant, my feelings had changed.

Our house was empty.

I didn't have to see it with another family's life in it.

It was definitely a strange twist of emotions, but all I had was that moment, and with the new information that we had learned, I knew that I wanted to see as much as I could!

So we took the opportunity, and I can say now that I am happy we did:

Everything in the yard is so much bigger than it was when it was ours!

When we moved in, it was nothing but dirt, so it was so neat to see how it had all taken shape.


These next photos were the best we could get of the interior. They were taken through the side lights by the front door and through a few tall, decorative windows in the entryway...

It was really interesting to see the changes they had made with paint and the things that had remained the same.

Now, before you go and say "That was trespassing!", let me explain why we're ok with it, and why I'm pretty sure the current owners (who have now abandoned it) would be ok with it too...

We had to move back to WA from AZ in mid-November of 2006. We got an offer on the house and we were ready to be done with owning a house in a state we no longer lived in. We were all set to close in late December and we were thrilled to have a buyer in a market that was rapidly declining.

A couple of weeks prior to the closing we got a slightly frantic call from our real estate agent telling us that "everything has all been taken care of" and "not to worry" and "they've now got it all under control".

Huh?

Turns out that the not-yet-owners of the house that we still owned, had started building a shed on our property!

From what we learned from our agent, that's a really big no-no.

So, we'll just call this whole "trespassing" thing, quid pro quo.

.........................................


So, there you have it.

The funny thing is that, after saying "goodbye" to our old neighbor, and making our way back out through the neighborhood, we couldn't help but try and figure out a way to get our house back!

After a couple hours of daydreaming and trying to scheme up a plan, we finally realized that we just need to let it go. Because really, our emotions are not tied up in the house, it's in the life we had made.

We do love Arizona!
It will always hold a special place in our hearts. We formed amazing friendships and it's where we brought our baby girl into the world! But chances are, we will never call it home again. It's a great place to visit though - especially when you live in the Northwest through 9 months of gray skies and rain!

But if there is one thing we have learned about this life, it is to expect the unexpected...


For now, we're happy to call the Northwest "Home"

and with projects like the one we're working on now, we're well on our way to making this house a home that we love, equally as much!

We're trading one heat wave for another,

but at least in Arizona we will have air conditioning and a pool!

We've been packing and cleaning and cleaning and packing...

but I couldn't leave without saying "Thank You" to all of you that responded to my post about seeing our old home in AZ.

You helped me sort through my feelings in a way that I haven't been able to on my own.

I loved that some of you felt the same way that I did!
A little bit nosey and curious!
(There's nothing wrong with that!)

And I loved the honesty that came from those who had been in my shoes before, and warned me not to do it!

It was those of you that had been given the chance to walk through your old homes, and taken that chance, that weighed the heaviest on my decision.

I was overwhelmed by the underlying feeling of...

once it's done, it's done.

Once I've walked through my home that is no longer mine, I can't take it back and un-see the changes.

And I can definitively say that I am not ready for that.

My emotions for this house are not about its four walls, but about the life that we lived for that two and a half years. The friends that I made, that so quickly became a part of my life and took on the role of "family"...not just friend.

I miss that life.

You helped me see that too.


I will not be touring our old home, or knocking on the front door...and I'm not sure that I even want to do a drive-by.

I want to see my friends...my family.



So we're out of here!

We'll be back in one week!


And again, thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

You're the best!

Don't think I don't know that!!

XO

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...

When we moved down to Arizona in June of 2004 we bought a brand-spanking-new house! I loved this house! It was perfect for our family! I was so sad to have to leave it in November of 2006. But more about that in future posts.
The most exciting part about this house was that it was a blank slate! We had so much fun transforming it to work better and smarter for us!

One of our many projects was to add a window seat in the bay window of our kitchen. (You can see it on the left side of the photo - painted white with the blue pillows sitting on it) We not only wanted it to look great, but to feel like it had always been there and to store and hide all of our kitchen appliances that we didn't use on a daily basis.

Here was our process:

This was the floor to ceiling bay window in our kitchen's eating area...

Our little artist adding his signature before it all got covered up with MDF...

We bolted 2x4's to the walls to be the support system for the seat and created a sturdy front for the facade.

Then we covered the front with MDF. The two corners on top got covered as well. The opening you see is where the lid will sit.
The boys thought it was funny to sit in it with dad...

This is where we had to finish for the night.
He just couldn't wait to sit on the new bench!

We added decorative panels to the front to make it look more polished and pretty, the front span at the floor line got a piece of decorative trim to finish it off and to tie in with our existing floor trim and the whole seat on the front edge also got a decorative routered edge.

It was about 7 feet long so it held A LOT of stuff that we were able to take out of our kitchen cabinets and pantry...

And here is the finished product...

It was a relatively easy project and completely worth every bit of time and money that it took to make it happen! In fact, we loved it so much that we put one in our Master Bedroom where we had a matching floor-to-ceiling bay window! Perfect for storing extra blankets, quilts, pillows, etc.

I highly recommend doing this project if you have the space, like a bay window or nook, that could be used more efficiently. Not only did it give us extra space in our kitchen cabinets for items that we used everyday, but it added a ton of seating to our kitchen...and we all know, when you have a gathering, everyone flocks to the kitchen to socialize!

Has anyone figured out exactly why that is?