We officially said goodbye to our home in Virginia today. It is bittersweet. Sweet because of all of the fond memories we have of our first home, and sweet because we will no longer have to worry about it from across the country month to month. But bitter, very bitter, because of how much we lost on this house.
I had to force Brad to not look at the "bottom line" when signing the closing documents today. It was terrible to think that the lady who bought our house from us had to pay $500 to do it and we had to pay $1800 to sell it to her, not to mention the money we put down on this house when we bought it and the money we put into this house over the years.
Thankfully we had Brad's Dad who could advise us from across the globe that sometimes you
lose A LOT of money on investments that you once thought were good. And whenever that happens you have to just "stop the bleeding" and move on. So that is what we have done.
I think it has been especially hard for Brad. He worked super hard through college and saved a bunch of money so one day he would have a good down payment on a house for his family. He thought that would provide such a good start for his family and I think it has been hard for him to let it all go. But when it came down to it we just could not afford the month-to-month worries of making a 2nd mortgage payment and the bigger worries of if something big needed to be repaired. So now it is gone and no longer ours.
I am still sad about this. WE LOVED THIS HOUSE and all of the time we spent in it. It was the PERFECT little house for us. It was small and quaint but oh so charming. It is the house we lived in when we became a family. I wonder if we will ever live in a house that we love as much as we loved this one. Even though it has been a year and a half I still feel like I could fly to Virginia, walk in the front door and feel right at home. Up until now, I still could. But now it is someone else's. I miss sitting on that front porch swing and singing to our girls. It was the best thing to calm a crying baby. Our girls don't even remember it anymore. But I guess it will be good for us to finally close that chapter in our lives and end the worry that came with it. It's funny, I was the one pulling for us to get rid of it these last few months, while Brad was more resistant. Now that it is done I'm wishing I would have let Brad win this one. Ok, not really, but it is still always hard to say goodbye.
5 comments:
Oh that makes me want to cry for you guys!!! I'm so sorry! We miss you here and hope that it all heals up as quick as possible. I can't imagine how hard that must have been.
love you guys!!!
I'm sorry you lost so much - this market has been hard. I'm sure it's a great relief to be done with it though. Now you can move onward :).
This makes me so sad, it's like your last connection to Norfolk is gone now, even thought I knew you weren't coming back. But I'm glad you won't have to worry about it anymore! We love and miss you guys!
What a darling house, I can see why you miss it. I still think about our little house that we sold too. Rich built it and we put so much time into the yard and making it our home. It's been over a year and I still miss it. I'm excited to find a home that we can fall in love with again too.
That made me cry. It was a cute little house and you guys put a lot of work and love into it. It's hard to leave a place with so many memories attached. It was a lot of firsts--first home you owned, your first child was born there, first (any maybe last) semi-permanent house guests--as well as milestones with Heather's work and Brad's med school accomplishments and all the associated friends. That's all part of why you hung on to it so long. Keep the memories, let go of the regrets.
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