remembering our Tennessee house

I'm so behind in blogging right now because things have been crazy since Christmas! Most everyone who reads this blog (hi family!) knows that we moved to Indiana at the end of January. Deric had a final interview with the new church while we were visiting his parents for Christmas so we came home from Christmas, took down our Christmas decorations and immediately launched into packing. January went by so quickly between packing, finalizing details with the new church and a moving date, and squeezing in time with all of our friends before we left. Its still surreal to me-- sometimes it'll randomly hit me that we're not just on an extended trip up north. We'd lived in Tennessee for almost six years and it was so sad to leave our church family and friends, but there are so many benefits to moving north that we could look forward to. We now live a town over from Deric's parents and have already enjoyed multiple nights of babysitting, plus we've been able to see Courtney and her kids a few times. Our drive to Port Hope has been cut in half (thank you Jesus!) and even the weather has been good to us--its been in the 60s for the last week!

Before we started packing the house, I took photos of every room so that we could always remember our first home. We've celebrated all of our anniversaries here, fixed up and painted every room (the kitchen twice!), brought home both boys to this house, and watched Jake start to crawl and take his first steps--amidst so many other good memories. We'll miss this little house.

Our living room was off the front door and immediately to the right. Its seen so many different arrangements, especially as we worked to find a way to give the boys room to play with their toys without taking over the living room.

Straight ahead from the front door was our dining room. Those shelves on the wall were one of Deric's very first carpentry projects! A year or two later we got that dresser off Craigslist and painted it to turn it into a buffet.

The kitchen was actually remodeled in November and I got to enjoy a brand-new kitchen for two short months before we moved. The view from the window looked out to the church and the playground so I'd always be able to see Deric coming home from work while making dinner, and usually shortly after watch Deric and Jake playing on the driveway.

A few years ago Deric built this island to put along the back wall of the kitchen. We've had quite a few people comment on it and I was always proud to tell them that Deric had made it himself. He's pretty handy to have around. ;) The door to the right is the pantry, and next to it is the door to the mudroom and garage.

Our spare bedroom never got much attention. It was a craft and guest room before we had the boys and then became a playroom and guest room. Our bigger toys--the train table and play kitchen--took up so much space that they couldn't stay in the living room. I painted the walls a light aqua a year or two back with a "big kid" room in mind but we never got to that point. 

My favorite room in our house was always the boys' room. When I was pregnant with Jake we painted the green walls this perfect shade of gray, hung dark navy curtains for naps, and painted that dresser (Craiglist again!). When it was just Jake in this room, the crib was where the toddler bed is now, and the dresser was where the crib is. Deric put up a shelf above the crib and we hung artwork that has meaning to us. The big print is from Thailand; to the left of the dresser, the navy print is a great motto of sorts for the boys: "Be brave, strong and courageous. Seek adventure and truth." We also hung a map of Thailand and their baby handprints. (Deric later built Jake's toddler bed!)

I love the first twelve month photos of Jake and plan to do the same thing with Reid's photos here in just three months (sob!). Another piece of artwork with the rhyme "Whales and snails and puppy dog tails, drapes as capes and little toys snakes". We made the Jakes Creek Trail sign after hiking along the so-named trail in the mountains. Below the sign I planned to hang his initials but once Reid came along, the room already revolved around Jake so I never did. ;)

The master bedroom! Not much to see in here as we really didn't spend any time in here except for sleeping. Suffice it to say I'm really looking forward to an actual master bedroom and a master bathroom as well. ;) I do remember painting the trim in this room the same weekend that we moved in. The previous renters had started to paint all the trim in the house but hadn't finished and this room was halfway done. The walls were dark brown so this room was one of the first to be painted. We built our headboard with my parents' help a few months after moving in.

And I couldn't forget the best part of our house, our neighbors! Bob and Jackie lived next door to us for four years and babysat frequently. Jake would wander over to their house to say hi, he would help Bob pick up sticks in his yard, and he loved to jump from stone to stone along their path. Bob and Jackie were so good to our family, and we miss them already.