As of yesterday, our first home in Georgia is no longer ours. We have some good memories and friends there still, but it is weird that the sale of our house feels like punctuating our time in Georgia with a period. I’ve been wanting to write some reflections on our first home to share my sentiments, but also gratitude for the peace and sanctuary it brought us.
OUR HOME SELLING EXPERIENCE
We were lucky/ blessed/ elated to have an above asking offer within 48 hours of listing our home. We had already researched the averages that it takes a home to go under contract in the area for the time of year, and we did a great job at just avoiding people who tried to remind us often that it wasn’t a great time to list. We had a job in DC waiting on us here and we knew we had to move for me to get a new doctor quickly for the baby. We knew if we put in the work, prayed hard, and got help that miracles could definitely happen and they did.
When we handed the keys over to our real estate agent, the fresh paint looked beautiful, the home had been professionally cleaned, all of the switch plates and door knobs had been updated and new. We loved our home and I’ll be honest that I was slightly envious of whoever was able to call it their home next.
In almost less than a month after we even listed, our house is sold. We were gracious we were able to find people who wanted to live there and we were able to ignore investor options; in the fifty years since our house was built, there had only been five families [including us] who had lived there.
WHAT OUR HOME MEANT TO ME
This was the house that made Georgia feel more like home. My time in Georgia was filled with indefinite longing. I never could place my finger on it, but it never seemed to fully click for us there. I tried, and tried, and tried. When we moved to Georgia, I was bubbly, newly married, and had idealized what our future would be like there 1000% to the max. My lows in Georgia were really low, but our time there was slowly getting better the longer we stayed.
There was chronic pain from car wrecks, my autoimmune diagnosis, my sister’s passing, abusive jobs that left me questioning my ability to do anything, and loneliness that came from my husband’s very demanding corporate job.
… but at the end of the day, I could always come home. It brought me a great deal of comfort, an outlet for creativity, and peace to open our front door. I loved the familiarity of the area, the flowers that I lovingly planted in our front yard, and all of the adorable chipmunks that ran everywhere.
The longer we lived in our home, the brighter life became. There were cheap plane tickets purchased to go to Europe and Ireland, a positive pregnancy test, and graduating with my master’s degree. I filled my time with books, therapy, and lots of walking.
SHOULDA, WOULDA, COULDA
I wish we had prioritized some home projects for us prior to moving. This year we put the money back to fix things for us or for the next people if we did move. I’m really happy we were able to see projects come to fruition, like painting the fireplace white. When I handed the keys over, our house was every bit as beautiful as I hoped it would be. I would have loved if we had had a master bathroom with functioning drawers when we lived there, but our frugality and planning allowed us to travel and for me to graduate debt free.
OUR PLANS FOR OUR NEXT HOME
We’re going from a brick ranch with single story living with a half acre lawn to a three story town home with a very small yard. At the first, we were a little ??? about what that transition would look like. However, the longer we’ve been house hunting in the DC area, the more of a relief it is that our yard will be easy to maintain and we’ll have our weekends just to spend time together. Our future HOA will also end up covering a lot of the things like snow removal for us and I’m excited about just spending this time with our little girl.
The market right now here is insane. Last week alone, we put in three different offers on three different houses. We were so lucky because the fourth town home we put an offer on was apparently our sweet spot and it is our favorite one yet! We move into our new home so soon!
BLOOMING IN 2018
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on if I “failed” my word of the year. I wanted to feel more at home in Georgia, put in a concentrated effort of living there, and miss it if we left. However, we made a great choice for our family that gave us the opportunity to have work/life balance for the first time in our professional lives. I know we made the right choice even if house hunting here is discouraging.
I can honestly say that blooming has a lot to do with growing; this year I have definitely done that. The work we put into our house while massively pregnant made it easier for me to goodbye to our first home, but I do miss some friends.
Here is me with Baby E, at 35 weeks, on our last day working in our house. I had bloated up 10 pounds from working so much, but lost it the first week we were in DC. I hope someday we can drive by our first home and show it to her!
