It Began with a BBFT

Last month we had to say goodbye to our very first house. I get sentimentally attached to inanimate objects (I did a whole post dedicated to pacifiers) so of course leaving our first house tugged at my heart strings and definitely deserves a commemorative blog post.

A little history . . . Ryan and I got married right before I started medical school and settled into our first apartment, a cozy little 2 bedroom in Toledo, Ohio. We lived there for 4 years and had many happy memories as young newlyweds. When the time came to move to Columbus for residency we decided we were ready to be homeowners and after much searching picked out a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom ranch on a quiet street called Mohawk Avenue. It felt enormous compared to our apartment--with a basement and . . . a 1 car garage! (luxuries of luxuries for at least one of us). So we packed up our place in Toledo and said our goodbyes to our first apartment.   I think I teared up on and off all the way to Columbus.

When we first moved in 2006 it was just myself, Ryan and our new boston terrier puppy (a.k.a. trial child) Widget. I remember lamenting to Ryan about how big our new house was and how far away he seemed to me if we were in different rooms. I actually didn't like it at first and truly missed the smallness of our apartment.

Fast forward to 2012: Our little house was now bursting at the seams. We now had 2 adults 3 little ones and one boston terrier (Widget is no longer but now we have Bocce who was trial child #2) sharing our 'cozy' ranch which was now feeling less 'cozy' and more so just tight. The twins shared one room and we were able to squeeze two toddler beds in one little room (our house was built in the 60s when a luxurious bedroom was 10 x 10 ft). Ben had  his own room and of course Ryan and I had the 'master'.  The bedrooms were all very close together so we had to employ noisemakers in each room to drown out eachother's noises. The bathroom was one of our biggest issues because with 2 adults and more importantly 2 newly potty trained 3 year olds it was a revolving door of use. Ryan has had to use the facilities out back many a time under the cover of night:) Closet space was challenging too and at one point we each took a turn using the part of the basement as a make shift closet--I became very skilled at spider hunting. We learned to store things creatively as well--our backyard shed was used more so as an attic space and I would send Ryan out there in all types of weather to search through boxes for seasonal items, etc. When we found out #4 was on the way we knew we had finally outgrown our little abode.

In that house we made the transition from young early marrieds without kids to the parents of 3.5 kids, from med student to doctor, from teacher to web developer. We have so many poignant memories in that house, probably the most special being that of bringing home first Grace and Lydia and then Benson. Below are some pics that capture just a few of our favorite Mohawk memories.