Random Photos: Our First House (and Our Son)

After thirty-four years in our current home, my husband and I have started looking for another house. The process is slow and time-consuming, and I probably won’t write much about it until we make a decision. But it is a topic that is much on my mind.

Today’s random photos relate to the first house that my husband and I bought. That process, too, seemed slow and time-consuming. The realtor showed us houses that were too big, then houses that were too small. After getting a sense of who we were, she began to narrow in on homes that were the right size.

Or at least they were the right size then.

We found a home in a good neighborhood. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside was beautifully decorated. Ready for us to move in.

We purchased that house before we had children. While it survived the addition of one child, it was not large enough for a family of four. So we moved into our current home before our second child was born.

Toddler son in master bedroom. Unfortunately, the reds aren’t quite right. They weren’t this purple.

As a first child, our son was photographed quite often, in a variety of everyday settings. Many of the pictures from his toddler days were taken in our first home. I recently ran across an envelope of pictures taken in that house when he was about 18-20 months old.

Now that we are looking for yet another house, I was glad to be reminded of the bright wallpapers in many of the rooms in our first home. Unfortunately, the colors in the snapshots are fading, so I scanned a few of them to preserve what color is left.

Toddler son in his room with bright patchwork pattern. Colors have faded in this picture.

As mentioned above, I can’t claim credit for any of the decorating. My tastes are much more mundane than those in the house we purchased. But my creative spirit responded to the colors chosen by the earlier owners. I smiled as I looked at the pictures—not only because my son was so cute, but because I remembered the happiness we felt moving into that home and making it our own.

Unfortunately, the earlier owners had not focused as much on the furnace and wiring as they had on the decorating. If they had fixed the innards of the house, we might have been tempted to add on instead of building a new house thirty-four years ago. But after replacing the furnace in that first home and knowing that much of the electrical and plumbing systems were 80 years old, we were ready to start anew.

Still, I will always treasure those early days of home ownership, when three bedrooms and one and a half baths seemed like a mansion. Even with only four window air conditioners to cool the seven-room house.

What memories do you have of the first house you purchased?