Moving from a house into a home

I have lived in the quiet suburban community of Ajax, Ontario for almost five years now. This is where my husband and I, newly married and brimming with excitement, bought our first home. We live in an red-orange brick house on a quiet tree lined street where the neighbours are friendly and children play in the streets armed with hockey nets and mud-covered tennis balls. If it sounds like the perfect place to raise a family, you’re absolutely right.

And yet we’re getting ready to move.The decision to leave this house is partially about space (or lack thereof), which may have something to do with sharing our lives with a giant 90lb yellow dog that is a mirror image with the exact same quirky personality of Marley from the movie Marley & Me, but our lack of space probably has more to do with the introduction of a baby turned toddler and the never-ending mountainous pile of toys. Also, and this saddens me a bit, but this house has never felt like a home.

I’m nervous about this move. And I know you should never say never, but we want the next house we buy to be our final home and I am having a heck of a time scanning MLS and envisioning our family building a life together in a house decorated in hues only the Easter Bunny could love. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just paint, but endless pink tiles? Neither my husband nor I are particularly handy people and if any large scale renovation were needed, I’m pretty sure my skill set would be limited to organizing tool boxes and colour coordinating screw drivers.

Also? It’s hard to not to factor in the housing market during this troubled economy. Our neighbours across the street recently moved, and the sweet old man who owned the house they were renting was banking on that home to help fund his retirement. The house was for sale for months and months and word of mouth was the owner‘s first offer was $60,000 less than asking price. He finally ended up selling for the house for about $35,000 below the original asking price.

That makes my stomach sink a little. I’m nervous, very nervous about moving, both for financial reasons and for the fact that it’s all supposed to be so final and I can barely commit to the placement of my furniture and what colour I want my hair to be let alone pick a house that I can retire in. And yet, here we are, forging ahead, and preparing to list our home with heavy hearts at the memories we’ll be leaving behind and excitement at the prospect of finally building our life in the house we hope to call home for a very, very long time.

This is an original post to Canada Moms Blog. Karla Cadeau also writes on her personal blog Untangling Knots.