*Update* I wrote this post a while back and held onto it for awhile. I wanted to reread it to make sure it sounded ok. Some of the beauty I claim to have created has fallen a little to the waist side but it's only been 100 degrees outside which doesn't bode well for yard work! :)
In July we will have been in our house for five years!
I looked for homes in this neighborhood for a year before we bought. When I taught kids were zoned from this neighborhood to the elementary school where I worked. I knew it was a great family neighborhood with lots of older homes, trees, and fairly sizable yards. I was convinced this was the only neighborhood I wanted to live in when we decided to move closer in to Summerville (we lived in N. Charleston at the time).
On a Wednesday night we rode through, as we had done countless times, and saw a For Sale By Owner sign in a yard. We called and inquired about coming by to see the house. The owner was very friendly and said we could set up a time but she'd had people by that day that were coming back for a second viewing and were probably going to make an offer (the house had been on the market for less than a day). We set up a time for the following day and when I gave her my name as contact info she said, "Amber Byars from Beech Hill Elementary?" "Uh yes," I said. "Amber this is Tina, Sean's mom!"
Sean had been a fourth grader in my class a couple of years before that and Tina had been my room mom. To say I was shocked was an understatement. What followed was nothing less than miraculous. We came the next day and got our tour. We were sold. We made a better offer and the house was ours. We got very close to their family between that first tour and the closing. Tina wasn't selling property she was selling blood, sweat, and tears. She had worked tirelessly on the inside and out of this home. What we inherited was a home and yard on a silver platter.
She overwhelmed me in those weeks with information about the ins and outs of the house and yard. She was an interior designer, a perfectionist, and it was a show place. The amount of work she had put into this home was incredible and it had been updated way past it's 1983 original!
I found out later they divorced. She knew when she sold this house that it was going to happen and they had decided to move together to live in the same zip code for the children. I often think back to how relieved she must have felt to sell this home to a couple that was going to appreciate it and fill it with love and children and laughter. That night when she heard my name I wonder if she knew then this house was going to be ours. I really don't think she could have sold it to a stranger and she told me several times how glad she was that someone she knew would be living in it.
For a long time it was Tina's house. I felt like we were taking care of it for her and it belonged to us but wasn't really ours. I still tell people in the neighborhood when I first meet them that we live in Tina's old house. She was that well known and loved in this neighborhood.
The house held on it's own for quite some time. That was good considering I was pregnant less than two months after moving in, sick for the first fourteen weeks, working for the rest, had Katie Jo, stayed home full time, got pregnant again when she was 18 months, was sick for 12 weeks, pregnant with number two while running after number one, giving birth to Georgia, chasing after a two year old while balancing a baby, and now I finally feel like I might be able to come up for air! I mean really, who has time to keep up a house and yard with all that. I got tired just revising that sentence! :) The yard too was pretty maintainable with no real tricky plants or flowers. Along the way I changed things inside the house but very carefully. I always felt like each time I changed something major it was taking a piece away from Tina. I know that sounds so bizarre but I took her efforts very seriously and didn't want to undo her hard work needlessly. Very slowly it became our house and almost all the rooms now have our stamp of living here. Except the red room which I will never paint over no matter how much Jay tries to sway me!
It's been a long dark winter for me. When spring came, more came to life than the nature around me. I finally found the energy and motivation to get er done like never before.
The yard has been my sanctuary for the past several weeks. I looked around and was sickened by the sight of overgrowth, deadness, and drab. I have worked very hard in reviving it and have enjoyed every moment. Jay has said several times he doesn't know who this woman is. He said he didn't think he'd ever seen me in the yard but he liked it. And he likes what I've done. I'm no where near finished but what has been completed fills me with joy and tonight as I looked around and took in the color and neatness I told Jay, "I think Tina would be proud!"
So here's a little tour of some beauty around the outside.
This trellis of confederate jasmine was here when we bought the house. It is so fragrant and sits at the corner between the garage and the back door sending it's sweet odor straight to your brain every time you walk by.
I'll have to be honest and say one of the things that sold me outside was how many gardenia's Tina had planted. That is my favorite flower and now they surround me all summer long. Here is the first bloom so far.
These are the gardenia's at the side of our house. They will be filled up in a month or so. Afterward, they will have to be trimmed back. They're one of those things we let get away from us these last few years.
Our beautiful Magnolia tree in the back yard
I wasn't kidding when I said Tina took her home and yard seriously. She put together a binder of info and included a detailed map of her back, side, and front yard. I guess maybe I should start adding to it!
This was really long but I've always wanted to tell the story of our home. It's special and I appreciate the love that went into it before we bought it and the love we've added. I'm sure there are details I've left out and some of what I was trying to convey might have gotten lost in translation, but let me assure you I don't claim to be Martha Stewart. I'm just a wife and stay at home mom that is finally finding the time to do some justice to the beauty I inherited.
Jim (Jay's Dad), Jay and Amy (Jay's Mom)
