As one door closes...

As a sentimental gal, I felt it only necessary to pay a loving tribute to my home in a photo montage. We'll start at the top and work our way down. Please join me in the tour, but remember to bring tissues. For me.

I wore these jeans every time I painted a room in the house. You can see all the many colors I experimented with. Last night I realized that the only walls I did not paint were in a small hallway. The only thank you I can say to the people who owned the house before me is, thank you for not having wallpaper anywhere. Every wall was white, a veritable blank canvas for me to go nuts and paint every wall a color that no one but me would probably ever like.

This is the master closet. This room looked absolutely nothing like this when I bought the house. It had insulation everywhere and there were no walls. We hung drywall, got carpet, had recessed lighting installed and painted. My husband was kind enough to finish the trim around the door and window. This, by far, was my favorite before and after. What a difference. This is where I had all my clothes and my vanity. You can't tell too well, but the walls were a light green. Love it!

Another photo of the master closet. Something tells me the gentleman who bought my house will tackle this wall first...
The master bedroom. The house is a story and a half. So I made this area my bedroom. Painted walls, pulled up carpeting, painting the railings. Track lighting was already there.

Another pic of the master bedroom. Those white doors are closet doors. This house had tons of storage for being built in 1942. This side is where I had my lounging chair and lamp for reading. I think I read there one time. But it looked fabulous!

This is where I tried to get creative. In one of the downstairs bedrooms. The wall was brown with this light blue square. Fancy, eh?

If you thought that was fancy, get a load of this! 3 squares! Handpainted by moi! Three of the walls were this light blue and the one wall was the dark brown accent wall. I totally love this color combination. I had super cute curtains in here too although they were removed prior to taking this photo.

Another bedroom. This one had little pink bunnies at the top. I didn't care for them so I painted this room orange.

Ah, the bathroom floor. (The previous owners had carpet in here. Horrible idea.) This bathroom is small yet it took my Dad and me two days to lay this peel n' stick tile. We almost got divorced over it. To spare my Dad the embarrassment, I didn't take a photo of the one section where I turned my back for 5 minutes and he put the tile on wrong, he matched up the white with the white, thus eliminating the nice checkered pattern. That area is now covered up by the garbage can.

The bathroom. I painted the cabinet and mirror black, the walls periwinkle and got a new toilet. I, for one, think it's tres cute.

The bay window in the dining room. Lovely.

Another shot of the dining room. Check out that curvature of the walls and coved ceilings. Try finding that in a new house these days. (I didn't take a photo of the living room because it had crap it in still, but it was the tan color you see in the alcove. It complemented the dining room nicely.)

My red kitchen. Second favorite room in the house. I absolutely love the way it turned out. My Mom did a fantastic job standing on the counters to paint above the cabinets. I couldn't have done it. White cabinets, white appliances, Pergo flooring (already there).

The basement. Ugh, this is the room that caused me the most grief. It leaked and I cried everytime it rained. So I had it waterproofed. If you're thinking that's cheap, you're wrong. What a mess. But right around the time we got a lot of rain, I was sleeping like a baby because I knew the basement was safe. So I paid for peace of mind and it was worth it. You're welcome, new guy.

My backyard. Not large. But totally big enough for me to put a lounge chair so that I could lay out. Plus it took 15 minutes to mow.

And, here we are at the front of the house. I got a new roof and painted the porch and spent many, many hours on flowers and weeding. I only wish this photo was taken when my tulips and lillies were in bloom. The flower bed on the left is filled with red and yellow tulips in the Spring. They are gorgeous, I will miss them. When I bought the house, there were these two large (taller than the house) skinny evergreen trees that we cut down. One unfortunately (read: hilariously) fell on top of my Dad's car that was sitting in the driveway. Oh the laughs we had over that one... the next day.

So, there we are, good 'ole 2643 Tully. Four and a half years of sweat, blood, tears, independence, happiness and comfort. It was the perfect first home for me. It was so cute and is filled with so many wonderful memories. I will be sad to say goodbye.

HOME SWEET HOME, indeed.

Closure.

1:30. Friday. I will close the door on my house forever.

(I will actually probably close it for the last time on Thursday evening, but I was going for dramatics there.)

Are your fingers cramping up yet?

All of you who are currently sitting there with your fingers, and whatever other flexible body parts you may have, crossed, can stop. It's officially official - the HOUSE.IS.SOLD!

Well, according to our realtor, as long as the guy doesn't get hit by a bus, the HOUSE.IS.SOLD. I'd like to make a personal request to the buyer that he stay inside for the next week to avoid any such awful occurence. I hope that's not selfish of me.

I simply cannot believe it. What an enormous weight this is off of our shoulders. We will finally be a one-mortgage family!*

Closing will be next Friday. And I must admit it will be a bittersweet day for me. I bought it with the intention of living there for no more than 7 years, which is why I got a 7-year balloon, so I knew it wasn't my lifelong home. But it was MY home. I bought it, I decorated it, I mowed the lawn and planted flowers and pulled weeds, I painted it, I loved it, I cursed it, I was proud of it. So it will be a sad goodbye, tears will be shed. No doubt about it.

But I am happy that we are moving forward and won't have the burden of our 'summer home' to worry about. And my Dad can retire as lawn boy since he was gracious enough to take over after I moved out. It'll be nice to live our life in the home we are currently creating and possibly have a little more freedom to do so. And we'll get to buy that pair of jeans I've been wanting.

So thank you all for your well wishes, prayers and happy thoughts, they were very much appreciated. Now, let's celebrate!

*At least until we buy that timeshare in Hawaii that we really wanted.

Hurry, please. My insides are liquifying.

No official word on the house just yet. I think people are just trying to mess with us. Apparently the bank appraiser is appraising and inspecting this morning. We'll see.

This part is grueling. It seems so close, but there is still a possibility it could all be so far away. These pins and needles that we are waiting on are starting to hurt my feet.

Keep 'em crossed, please!

First inspection is complete. Everything is good. They didn't even write anything down that they want us to fix. Phew. I guess we did a good job covering up all the bad stuff! No, I'm totally kidding Guy Who Is Buying My House! That place is a gem. You were lucky to find it.

Now, we just wait for the almighty bank to come and appraise and do their inspection in the next couple of days.

I'm not relaxing just yet. I guess almost two years of worrying about selling the house doesn't magically go away after a couple of weeks. And I'm not exactly Easy-going Eileen on a good day.

So, let's keep our fingers crossed for a couple more weeks, shall we? Thank you.

We saw Chelsea, Lately.

In case you don't have a sense of humor and don't pay attention to things that are funny, the woman in the center of this photo is Chelsea Handler. As part of my birthday present, MD got me tickets to her show (her stand-up, not the one on E!) last Saturday. We also got the distinct pleasure of meeting her at a book signing at Barnes and Noble beforehand, as depicted above.

I would admit that Chelsea's humor isn't for everyone. She can be crass and inappropriate at times, but let me tell you, she was incredibly gracious. She did this book signing and spoke to everyone beforehand saying that she appreciated everyone coming out and buying the book and that she would stay as long as it took to get everyone's book signed. She also offered to stay after the show that evening and sign autographs. Most people would have gotten off that stage as quickly as possible and onto their fancy planes and would have told Rochester Hills, Michigan to kiss off. So you have to give her credit for that.

She was so fun to see in person. She's just hilarious and has such a natural delivery. It didn't feel like she was doing a "bit". I enjoy that. I'm a fan.

Positivity Pending.

I honestly never thought I would be able to type this on my blog, but I think we may have sold my house. I'm reluctant to type anything with certainty or excitement because there is still a 3-day window for them to escape and an inspection to pass. But papers have been signed and if everything goes as they are supposed to, then we have made our last mortgage payment. The buyer wants closing at the end of August.

It's been on the market since January 2007. That's 20 long, frustrating, maddening, disappointing, painful, sad, upsetting, hopeless months. I didn't even have one offer since it's been up for sale. And yes, we even buried the St. Joseph statue in the backyard. My dad was Catholic once so he presided over the burial to keep it legit. Then Mark, our third realtor, on a mission from Above, came down on a cloud carried by angels and sold the house in 10 days. (Pending, of course.)

What's ironic about this house is that it's initially one of the things my husband found attractive about me before we met. The fact that I was able to buy it on my own and live on my own was a major plus. A few months ago I asked him if it was still attractive to him that I had a house. He said no.

It's exhausting, but someone has to have this much fun!

I can't believe how quickly this summer has gone. Between Vegas and my birthday parties and going to Chicago and our niece staying with us and going to Tigers games and becoming an aunt and eating lots of hotdogs and going to Cincinnati last weekend and going to see Chelsea Handler this weekend and going to Chicago again in a couple weeks to see the new baby and summer hours at work, it's been a freakin whirlwind.

And it's all been too much fun.

My husband likes to say that we should have experiences, not things. I'd say we've accomplished that quite nicely.