This Little House Anniversary

I had been living with my parents my whole life. I never left to go away to school, never moved in to an apartment and did the room mate thing.  Every weekend for as long as I can remember, our family would hop in the car and take drives to look at real estate.  I grew to love it, my brother's grew to find ways to get out of going on these excursions.   One Saturday a few months before my 23rd birthday, my mom, dad and I were out on one of those drives and we happened upon this little yellow house in the NoDa neighborhood.  We did the typical get out of the car, walk around the house look in the windows thing that we did at every property we thought we were interested in.  My Dad got on the phone and 30 minutes later we were walking through the house.  "Ape, this would be a great house for you. Let's put an offer in."  "OK!"

24 hours later my offer was accepted and I was a first time home owner! So I thought. Long story short, once the house was inspected there were some serious issues that needed to be resolved and the seller refused to fix them or give us any money off the purchase price to fix them ourselves.  My Dad was in Chicago that weekend working the Kitchen and Bath show and called to break the news that the house just wasn't meant to be.  I was bummed but he assured me when he got back to Charlotte we would continue our hunt for the perfect house.

I spent the next couple of days scouring the internet.  I wasn't really falling in love with anything.  That is until I found her.  I remember scrolling down and seeing the house for the first time. My heart almost jumped out of my chest. Without even seeing the inside I knew this was my house.  I fell in love with the cobblestone brick.  She had so much character and I just knew.

My Dad came back to town and we met with our realtor to see the house.  My Dad wasn't totally sold.  I was head over heels and so we agreed to put in an offer and after going back and forth for a few days they finally accepted.  I closed on June 15, 2006.  That afternoon my best friend Candace armed with her Dad's truck, Adam, my Dad and I moved all of my belongings in to the house.  Somewhere in all of that, we decided Adam was the lucky guy that got to be my roomie.  That was our first night in the new house.

A lot has changed in that 5 years.  Paint colors {every six months} landscaping, we put in a new kitchen, new windows, added on a laundry room, made a baby, got married, cried lots of tears and had a ton more laughs. Our names are carved in the cement stoop and my family cat is buried in the backyard.  There is one thing that has always remained the same.  I have loved this little house everyday as much as I did the first time I saw her on my computer screen.   I've run my hands across that cobblestone brick more times than I can count and I've laid in bed at night and been so thankful my family has a roof over their head.  So to most people it's just a little ole house.  To us, it's one hell of a home and we love it.  Happy 5 Years Hartford Avenue.

First Picture