Our First Home

Guess what I came across going through my old emails? The link for the realtor listing home tour video for our old home! And it works even after 2+ yrs!!! Made my day! Strangely enough we never took  pics of the home before we sold it. This was our first home, the home that we brought our daughter into from the hospital (our son was 1 when we moved into the home), where the kids learnt to walk, talk, and be a family….

The house was a 3 bed, 2.5 bath 20 yr old (when we bought it in 2004) detached town home. A detached town home is where you do not share walls with your neighbor. In our case, the neighbor’s backyard ended at the wall of our house (behind the tree in this pic). Ours was an end unit, so we had no neighbors on the other side.

Heads up: These are the only clear pics that I could take from the video. The paint colors look kinda different (lighter/darker) in most of the pics.

Everything in the house was characteristic of the 80’s. The 8 ft ceilings, the stair rail, pink bathroom tiles, the master sink was actually in the carpeted master bedroom, etc…We didn’t really have a foyer instead we had a landing like this. The front door would be towards your left in the below pic, next to the stairs.

Notice the wood carving in the corner of the partition on the right? That was a traditional Indian temple decor  piece that we got from a store in Chennai. It was so heavy that we couldn’t hang it any other way than nailing it into the wall. So, sadly we had to leave it in the house when we sold. 🙁 We had a light colored brick fireplace, which I was not too happy about when we first moved in. But once we finished the living room it kinda went with the decor. See our Buddha in his peaceful abode on the hearth? Usually there would be more greenery around him. Since this was a realtor listing didn’t want to scare people away. 🙂

I still wonder why the folks who built the home  never thought of centering the fireplace on that wall…..strange. You can see the giant entertainment center all the way in the back in the family room shot below. We still have that buffet, which we are using as a dresser and the mirror in our current master bedroom. Details of how our style has evolved over the years here.

All the 5 years that we lived in that house, I was trying to convince B to change that 80’s crystal chandelier from the dining room. B for some reason or the other was very fond of it. So it stayed.

When we bought the home, the kitchen had  laminate counter tops, a monstrosity of an oven/convection oven combo, a gigantic boxy refrigerator from the 80’s and white tiled floors with black , yes black with 20 yrs of dirt, grout lines. Luckily the previous owner had updated the dishwasher, washer, and dryer. As soon as we moved in we replaced the stove with a stainless steel one and the kitchen faucet. We ended replacing the floor with laminate, counter tops with granite, the refrigerator with a stainless steel one, and the brass cabinet hardware with a brushed nickel finish. I think I may have some ‘before’ pics in my old email. Will do a post on the makeover if I find them. Our breakfast room and kitchen;

The faux stained glass window in the landing was a 4hr project and was pretty easy to do. I think I still have the left over paints from that project or maybe not, might have thrown them out last month? Anyway will do a detailed post later for those of you interested.

The kids room had  a cheery yellow paint color, was definitely not this bright to the naked eye. That was the best spot in the house in spring. The cherry tree outside would be in full bloom (see the pic all the way down) and you could just sit there, on the wide window sill,  for hrs enjoying its beauty. On one side was my son’s Ikea toddler bed in his favorite color and on the other was my daughter’s Disney Princess bed (thank God we are over the cartoon character stage!).

We never got around to decorating our master in all those years. Per B’s policy we have the liberty to finish up the master the last as guests don’t usually see it! The best thing about the home were the balconies, one off the dining room and another off the master. We had a nice deck out back too.

The third bedroom served triple duty, office, guest bedroom, and kids playroom.

Below is the common bath upstairs. See the pink tile! We replaced the glass shower doors with the Ikea curtain which opened up the space.  Painted it white to mellow down the pink (had no plans on investing in a bathroom redo). After 2 yrs in the home we realized that the sink was painted  (ya painted!!) over to hide the surface chipping underneath. Eventually we had to replace the sink.

I know, it has been a long post but the house is so special to us. Every time we go to NJ we drive past the house  (kinda freaky if you are the current owners…… still)  and the kids and I go “Our house…..” and well up in tears. At first B used to look at us with a “You guys are nuts” expression now it is more like the “I get it…” face. Here is a look at the front of the house during different seasons. Ain’t she beautiful?

Have you had to part with your first home? How did it feel?

PS:  By the way we bought the house just before the housing boom peak,  invested about $10k in home improvements, and sold it for $13k less than what we bought it for! So you could say the memory is bittersweet. 🙂