The Bigger House

As this house was a new construction, we waited a year to paint and decorate anything. Let me tell you, that was a long wait. Nothing on the walls for 12 months.

When the time came, I was painting all the time! Check out the main areas of the bigger house.

One of the first rooms was the front room. Alex choose this color since it was her bedroom when she lived at home. After her wedding, it became a hang out room, a place where I did my homework or church work and a place to watch out the front window. We hung up cool documents - a family nursing diploma from 1898, Hero's parents baptism certificates and their wedding certificate and cool replica of an old map of our city.

This is how it looked once we started packing things up. It was a great storage room, cause we just did not use this room all that much.

Moving on, the foyer was painted next. See that ceiling? Fortunately we did not have to paint any ceilings - That vault is 14 feet high! I braved the very long ladder and got that painted in one weekend.

Into the great room, this color is called Alligator Tears. (Love the names of some of these colors!) I painted the fireplace wall one afternoon and did all the trim in one weekend. The walls were finished up the following weekend. The ceiling is at it's peak right behind the couch, which is where we put our Christmas tree every year. We always got the tallest one we could find out at the tree farm. One year the star just missed the ceiling!

The stairs and the loft all got the same color. It was tricky painting that high over the stairs, but Hero built a platform to put the ladder on. Secure? Yes. Still scary? Oh yes! 

Glad we moved before it needed to be painted again.

After the foyer and great room, the dining room was a piece of cake! I was done with that one in about 5 minutes. 

Can you see the stripes? They are actually the same color, but different finishes. Sometimes subtle, sometimes so different looking.

Into the kitchen, this color is actually the second color. We had originally chosen what we had hoped was a soft water-looking blue, but ended up being just not quite right. We had it that way for a few years, but one day I just could not take it. Hero was on board to paint one day and we got it done.

First floor laundry off the kitchen, that has the garage entrance, lots of storage and a clothesline. The color is very similar to the great room. Wonder why? Oh, it's because we had a bunch left over, so I took it back to Lowe's had it tinted darker and painted away. It was like it was free!

From the top of the stairs looking down into the great room. Lots of good memories in this room.

See how great a monster tall tree would be there? (We did move the couch for the occasion.) Last year, the boys insisted on a very fat tree, which in the past, I have avoided for good reason. Not even exaggerating - That tree took up a quarter of the room!

Upstairs in the loft. It started out as just a lounge -y area, but evolved into a crafty space. It worked out great. But still not utilized as best as it could.

Wow, looking back on these pictures, it seems like we lived there a million years ago. We are already adjusted to small house living. We are using all different colors in the new place - So ready to try something new!

I can tell you, just looking at this last picture, we did not keep any of this furniture for the new place.

What Brought This On?

Ever feel like things are a little out of control? Or maybe a lot out of control? 

Yeah, we don't either. Usually. 

But, this one time, we did.

We got to the point, after years of somehow barely making our monthly payments, that we knew things had to change. 

Let me back up just a smidge.

In October 2006, after years selling auto parts and the market seriously declining, Hero left the dealership world to take a contingent (meaning "we will call you when we need you") nursing assistant job at Garden City Hospital. Big leap of faith there. But we had a little house, little mortgage (only 13 years left on it!) and a plan. With Hero's increasing desire to fulfill his decades-long dream of becoming a nurse, he went back to college. He picked up momentum and applied to nursing school, GCH offered him a full time position (because they LOVED him) and we were on our way. 

And as sometimes happens, there was a change in plans. 

Hero's mom, after living months without Dad, wanted to sell her house and live with one of her children. Hero was the best choice out of all of his siblings, and we sold our little house and bought another 30-year mortgage. It was a great house - We loved it and we have created lots of great memories there. 

We have had graduation parties, going away parties, a baby shower, cookie exchange parties and many birthday parties at that house. 

We have had the tallest (like 13 feet tall) Christmas trees that actually held all the ornaments we own. 

There have been forts built, cupcakes baked, slumber parties held, movie nights enjoyed and friends over.

We lived here when we had a family reunion with Hero's family, when Hero became a nurse, when our daughters got engaged and married, and when we found out we were going to be grandparents.

(I tried to think of some events that were not so great, but could not come up with much.)

Except that Hero's mom passed in 2008. 

And life went on.

Our oldest went away to school and then got married. Our next oldest also went to college and got married. Our next oldest (after the second oldest) graduated and is now in search of a plan. We went from eight to four in just a few years while Hero finished up school. As soon as he graduated, we made the plan to downsize.

As things went in 2006, we bought high and sold low. (Crazy housing market!) But we determined that we would never recover the lost equity and decided to focus on the monthly savings. And that is how we came to sell our big house (2100 sq ft) and buying a small house (1000 sq ft).

In December, Hero found our house. It just so happened that it was the house he lived in for the first 7 years of his life. Our Realtor was convinced we were a little crazy for even considering this plan, and in fact in the fall we decided against selling with her counsel. When we told Marie we found the one we wanted, which was for sale  by owner and unknown to her, she was convinced we had some special connection to God. (For the record, she is very strong in her faith, but is quite impressed with the Mormons.) We put our house on the market in January, sold it the day we were celebrating our anniversary on February 18th (to a very cute family from Arizona who belong to our church), went through the craziest, most unbelievable getting ready to close process and finally closed on April 23 on both houses. 

Whew!

We spent 4 1/2 days tearing out carpet and a fake wood floor, stripping and sealing the wood floors and painting all the closets. We moved in on Saturday the 28th with the help of our friends in the ward, who also helped the new family right after.

What an adventure! We have been busy with lots of projects ever since, and will be for a while, but we are excited to downsize and minimize.
What about all the stuff we filled our big house with? 
It looked like the biggest hoarder family had just moved in!