Good Bye To The House On Excalibur Street

We signed the papers on the sell of our house, left the keys and garage door openers for the next owner, and said goodbye to my very first house purchase ever and to the first house purchase as a married couple.  It is exciting but also bitter sweet all at the same time.

 

After Kenyon and I got married, we moved into my tiny one-bedroom apartment in Nampa as Kenyon’s lease was up before mine.  We only lived there a few months until we moved into a townhome rental in Boise.  This was our first real experience living together as a married couple where it felt like we could start from fresh and combine our two lives.  The townhome was a nice temporary home for about a year but like with most rentals, it comes with more problems than it is worth.  What I like about living in a rental is that somebody else comes to fix things that break and when you move out all you have to do is clean it up to ensure you get your deposit back.  Selling a house was a whole different ballgame.

When our lease came up, we decided to go month-to-month so we could eventually move into a house.  I had attended a class for first time home buyers and met a realtor named Christina and a mortgage broker named Lee.  Kenyon and I made contact with Christina, who then worked for Swope Investments, and set up an appointment to start looking for houses.  I was interested in a particular area in Boise as I wanted to be close to the West YMCA. 

When we looked at the house on Excalibur Street there was something great about the house that kept drawing us back.  Obviously at first look it was totally move-in ready.  It had all new carpet, paint, appliances, linoleum, and even comfort height toilets.  But it also had more than that.  It had beautiful archways and original wood crown molding.  I really liked this house, but it was a bit out of the price range we wanted to spend.  So we kept looking.  And boy did we see some houses in pretty bad shape.  We kept going back to the house on Excalibur and finally after the third look Christina recommended we look beyond the fresh paint and cleanliness to what we really loved about the house.  That is when we really zoned in on those amazing archways and even noticed there was all pocket doors. 

We knew this was our house and knew that we were willing to pay a little more money…but not break the bank!  It was a pretty easy home buying experience with only one minor snag.  Pretty soon we were the owners of our very first home as a married couple.

 

It has been a great home.  We have done much entertaining through the seven years we have lived at the Excalibur house.

 

 

We added a hot tub and extended the patio.

 

We logged many hours mowing lawn and raking leaves (when we actually raked them…what a job).  We made friends with some of the next door neighbors.  We replaced or repaired things around the house (well, Kenyon did) and we even had a few house guests stay the night.

 

Finally, we have celebrated many holidays in our little home.

 

I hope the house on Excalibur Street is as good to the next owner as it was to us. 

I am excited for the next chapter.  We have picked a house with much less yard work (hooray) and with much more room for entertaining.  We will even have an actual spare room, not just a junk room, which that will be ready for many more house guests to stay the night.