When I started sharing about our first house, like this post from 4 years ago and little updates on our Instagram hashtag, I called it a “Project” because I knew there would eventually be an end. It was never meant to be our “forever home” but simply a stepping stone in this crazy fun adventure of ours. However, as soon as we put up the For Sale sign last week, I started feeling a tiny bit sad. And just moments ago I just put Dylan to bed here for the very last time… needless to say I’m feeling all kinds of emotional about leaving. Tomorrow is going to be a sad day.
In our four years working on “The Little Cottage Project” we:
Painted the exterior
Built a front porch
Upgraded the bathroom
Remodeled the kitchen
Painted… a lot.
Added a master suite
Built a bar + fire pit in the yard
Plus about a million other projects!
It went from the ugliest house on the block to the cutest little house that all of our neighbors wanted to sneak a peek of. We made the most out of every inch of this 800 square foot house. I’m not really referring to the stuff we filled it with, but rather the warmth and joy it filled us with.
This was our first house.
It brought Sam and I back to California after college; we built things and broke things, and argued and made up a few times too.
It was the place Sam plotted his proposal, where we planned our wedding, booked many plane tickets only to wish we were back home, and hosted friends and family as often as possible (even when we only had 600 sq ft to share.)
We decided to grow our family here, then it turned into a safe place to cry about too many negative pregnancy tests, and finally some time later this was the house where we brought our beautiful baby home.
I can look around and see where Dylan first rolled over, where she tried her first food and learned to yell (I mean, talk 😉 ), the stairs I can’t stop her from crawling, the spot where she first got hurt, the sink where she took baths, and the very first room that was all her own.
A part of me wants to stay here forever. There are so many memories wrapped up in these walls and I sometimes wish I could clutch on and keep re-living them. But change is a good thing. Over the past few months something was tugging on our hearts saying it was time to move on to the next adventure, whatever and wherever that might be.
Our little 1924 cottage has sold and is going to become apart of another family’s story now.
But as fate would have it, we’ll be moving into another 1924 house tomorrow. Its a smaller, bungalow style with a story of its own. And it is in need of a lot of love. But the moment you walk through the doors you can tell its a happy house. So maybe tomorrow night won’t be so sad after all.
[…] 30 days later, with just a couple bumps in the escrow-road, we moved into our new house (and sold our old one!!) Though… I catch myself every time I say “new house” since its actually very old. Original […]