I was recently made aware of a company called Compass. It's a home search company that works mainly in Washington D.C. and New York City that helps pair people with neighborhoods and agents that best fit what they are looking for. They are running a series called Starter Stories so it inspired me to write a little about our first homes we shared as a family. I always think of a home as any place you live; it doesn't have to be a house you own, just a place where you come home to be with family.
Jason and I have lived in a few homes in our time together. Our first "home" together was a three bedroom apartment. When we signed the lease, we had the two kids, the two dogs and ourselves. It seemed perfect because it was much bigger than the two bedroom Jason was living in and we only had the kids a portion of the time. Until we quickly found out we would be expecting a baby!
This apartment was the first place Jason's kids had their own rooms (at least for a little while, until Avery came along!).
It was the home my baby came home to for the first time.
We struggled together in this apartment, learned how to survive together here. We were broke, so learned how to redo furniture here. I learned how to make curtains and hang pictures.
It was the first room the girls shared together.
It was cramped. We had no yard, so we felt like we were always on top of each other. I was constantly having to tell the kids to stop running and jumping because we were on the 2nd floor. We didn't even have cable or internet for the longest time!! We had a digital converter box that got us through.
But Avery learned to stand up on her own here.
And we celebrated one happy year of marriage here.
Looking back, it wasn't what we wanted, but certainly what we needed.
We were pretty stoked when we decided to lease a house in Grand Prairie. It was a little larger than the apartment, but it had a wonderful perk - a HUGE backyard!!
The first thing I had the kids do was run and jump as much as they wanted. We loved finally having a house with a garage and a yard and space.
We made our first major home purchase here (new living room furniture).
Avery turned 1 here.
We got to have our first backyard Easter Egg Hunt here.
Once again, it wasn't our "dream home" but it certainly was a step in the right direction!!
I did a lot of makeovers in this house.
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I learned that just because it isn't a dream home doesn't mean you can't love living there and make it your own. I learned the feeling of delayed gratification and working hard on something. It certainly helped to learn all of that because our next house has been the biggest project of all!
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This is the house we hope to call home for a very long time. It's been a project in the making and will still continue to be, but it's got tons of room for all of us to be comfortable and grow up in.
What is your starter story??
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