A Great First Home It Was

I've already expressed how excited I am about moving into a new home.  Although I'm excited beyond belief, I'm also very emotional about leaving our current home.  After all, it's our first home.  It's where we got engaged and where we brought home two newborns from the hospital.  I've already had my fair share of cries and I'm sure there are many more to come.  To help cope, I decided to write a letter to the next owners (thanks for the idea, Brittany!).  I left it for them yesterday morning when they came to show their parents the house.  And for the sake of documenting all of my feelings in this crazy/happy/emotional process, I wanted to post the letter here.

To the (soon-to-be) new owners of this house,

Congratulations on the purchase of your first home!  It seems like we were just in your shoes yesterday, but nearly six years have passed by so quickly!  Even though listing our house is something we have wanted to do for some time, we could never quite pull the trigger.  You see, this house holds some very special memories for us. 

We bought this house (the first for both of us) as 26 and 30-year olds.  We worked our booties off for four months painting, painting, and painting some more (trim and woodwork included!).  This house did not look like it does now when we first moved in, yet we worked extremely hard to turn this house into our home.  Surprisingly, Craig popped the question at our housewarming—turned engagement—party four months after moving in!  We spent nearly a year planning our dream wedding in this home.  Eleven months later, we stepped out the front door as single people…and back in as newlyweds! 

We used our wedding money to purchase the stainless steel appliances and, boy, was that an upgrade!  We continued to update—remodeled all four bathrooms, new carpet throughout, and granite in the kitchen.  Fifteen months after getting married, we learned we were expecting our first baby.  Halfway through the pregnancy, we opened a box of blue balloons while sitting on our fireplace hearth at our gender reveal party.  Of course, we then spent countless hours planning the nursery and in July 2012, brought home our first baby from the hospital.  A year later, we found out we were expecting again (another boy!).  A second baby meant our guestroom had to go…until we decided to add a fourth bedroom in the basement.  Best decision ever! 

For the second time in under two years, we brought home another new baby.  This home is where I spent my weeks of precious maternity leave.  Where we saw both boys smile for the first time.  And laugh.  And have their first taste of solid food.  And crawl.  And for the oldest, walk and transform from a baby to a toddler.  This place is home to baby showers, and first birthday parties, and countless gatherings with our friends.  You see, it holds significant sentimental value in our hearts.  We have loved our last six years here—and spent the previous nine months just loving life in this house as a family of four.

We now have a 2 ½ year old and a 9 month old.  It’s definitely going to be hard moving them out of the only home they’ve ever known.  And that is just the tip of the iceberg.  We love everything about this place—the backyard, the neighborhood, the pool, the holiday sleigh ride, the fact that we can walk to get dinner and ice cream, and most of all, the people.

However, we are very excited for you to begin creating your own memories.  We know you are going to love it here, just as we have for the past six years.  We truly hope you enjoy living within these walls.  We wish you and your family nothing but the very best as you begin this thrilling journey in your lives.

Take care and cheers to future full of amazing memories!

Craig & Sarah Sides

And one more thing for this post in reminiscence of our first home.  All of the professional photos for the for-sale listing.  The photos are amazing and show off many of the amazing features of our current home.