Bittersweet

When Travis asked me to move in with him, I had never even considered that an option. I was working & in school full time, had a handful of bills I was comfortable with paying, had a nice bedroom, and a fridge full of food at my parents house. I was perfectly content living at home. After all, I was only 18. But after much begging and pleading I said ok! I was in love after all. Besides, what was the worst that was going to happen? We would break up and I would come back home.

His cousin was building a new home & it just so happened their mobile home was going to be vacant. I was hesistant. Roscow Hollow. Mmmhmm. Me, Sarah...living in Roscow Hollow. Fifteen minutes from Red Bud. In the opposite direction I had to go to work and school. No cell phone service. Right next to all of Trav's relatives that I had yet to meet. But...it was in the country. And it was the perfect 'first place' for a young couple in love.

The week we were supposed to move in, something fell through. I'm not sure why, but that's not the point. Needless to say, we were all packed up & ready to move in. With nowhere to move in to. So Travis being the dingleberry he is found the very first thing he could find. I get a call from him to meet me at this address. I pulled up & thought oh hell nahhh, no faareakin way. ((Brown trailer on North Taylor street. Check it. GROSS)) We walk in & he say's "We'll take it!!" WTF.......

There was no discussion, there was no looking around, there was our first arguement in our new adobe. It was h.o.r.r.i.b.l.e. Like, I cried myself to sleep every night. Not really, but I felt like it. The kitchen was the width of the stove & mini fridge. How do I know this? Because it took up the entire wall on each side of the kitchen. Complete with a kitchen sink and an itty bitty counter. Yes, the size of a camper kitchen. The living room was pretty big, but long not wide. Soo.. when you would open our front door it would hit the couch. The "spare" bedroom/laudnry room was bright yellow with sunflower curtains. Of course, we couldn't put a washer and dryer in there because it was only big enough for a doll house version. The bathroom.... the bathroom was the only room with a door on it. But not just a regular door, oh no... a closet door, ya know the one with the slits? Hello privacy! Then the bedroom... oh my. The bedroom could only fit a full size bed in it & that was it. Our entire bedroom was a bed. And the best part? Trav's feet hung off the bed & into the hallway. We couldn't open any of the windows because they were all bolted shut. You could see the sunlight coming through the cracks in the hallway.

As well all know, I am a princess & this wasn't going to last. I know some have it a lot worse. But I did not have to move out and I had a nice, warm house to go home to if I wanted. We lived there 6 weeks, maaaybe. Six weeks looong weeks.

That brings us to the little yellow brick house.

Once again, Trav called me to meet him at this address to check out this house. First thing I said to myself when I pulled up was "It's yellow, nuh uh!" However, I am a sucker for old homes & I decided to go in. Hoping I was going to find a diamond in the ruff. Hahaha. Not quite. The living room was ok. White walls, new carpet, big window. Ok I could do this. Then the kitchen. Oh em gee! White metal cabinets that wouldn't shut. One black counter top. One brown counter top with gold swirls. Probably the first stove ever invented. A fridge in the middle of the room (because there was only one outlet). Indoor/Outdoor brown carpet with grease spots everywhere. Disgusting paneling. Not just one set of paneling..two on top of each other. The bedrooms were 'ok'. One had green carpet & the other had orange shag carpet. The bathroom. Yack! I don't even know what color the floor was, but it was carpet. Why not? Some genius already had carpet in the kitchen. The sink was the size of New York while the bathroom was the size of Rhode Island. It was just bad. Real bad. Trav could barely fit through to get to the toilet. A blairwitch basement. No driveway. This was a big fat negative.

The next day during class I get a text from the love, "I bought the house!!!!" WTF.....

Ha, this is what I thought to myself. What.ev.er! It is better than the dump & my name isn't on the papers. If we break up, I'm in the clear & will move back to my parents ;)

None of our friends had their own place, so our house was the place to be. We had parties all.the.time. Then my mom's worst fear came true lol. We were expecting. I tried my hardest to make this house into a home. We regutted the entire kitchen (which is gorg btw now), regutted the bathroom, put new carpet throughout the house, painted, built a deck, put in a side walk, a shed, new doors, changed out all the outlets and light fixtures. And I did it. I made this yellow brick house a home for my new little family.

When we brought Luke home in the middle of December, we lived in the bedroom for the first couple weeks. The house has horrible insulation and this was before we put in new doors. So the living room was faareezing and the only way I could keep him at a comfortable temperautre was if we stayed in the bedroom. Yes, it is one of those houses that the bedrooms are super warm in the winter while the rest of the house is freezing cold and they are super cold in the summer while the rest of the house is extremely hot.

It worked. The yellow brick house worked with a family of three, even though I never in a million years thought I would be raising a family in this house. And well, the rest is history. Logan was born and we knew there was no way we were all four going to fit comfortably in this 900 square foot house.

The house has many quirks. For instance....

• We have to plug the garbage disposal in to run it
• There is an extension cord running behind the counter for the fridge because the outlet behind the fridge doesn't work
• There isn't a three way switch for the kitchen nor the living room, so at least once a day Trav has to stand at one light switch and I have to stand at the other and flick them on and off until we can get one light on
• We do not have a hall closet, so... Trav shares a closet with the boys, the cleaning supplies, the towels, the file cabinet, and all the other odd and end things that go in closests.

These are a few of the little things that drive be absolutely crazy & I know that I will look back and laugh one day. Yesterday, there was a pathway through the house. Not because of packing, but because we have so much stuff & not enough room for it. Between Luke's couch and bat cave & Logan's bouncer and play gym the entire living room was taken over. Today, the house is bare. With just a couple odd and ends waiting to be put into an empty car. Our pictures are taken off the wall and there isn't a trace of our 'home' left. As excited as I am to move into our new home, I can't help but shedding a tear here and there all morning.

Last night was our last night in our first home. We had a dance party and played flast light tag and had a slumber party in the living room. Just the four of us, in our home. The house that drove us to the brink of insanity. The house where Travis proposed to me. The house where we found out we were pregnant. The house where we brought our boys home from the hospital. The house where we had many sleepless nights. The house that we loved in and fought in and made up in and loved some more.

Yes, this little yellow brick house will always have a special place in my heart. And one day, I will bring the boys back to show them the little bitty bedroom they used to share when the were little. And I will show Luke his footprints in the sidewalk we built. It is a bittersweet day.

I can't wait to see the new memories that we are going to make in our new home. Signing the papers at 4 p.m.!!!!! EEEEKKKK, sooo excited!! :)