The Maddox Family: A first

So you might ask - what's a first? Well, remodeling, selling, and then buying a home :) For those of you who might just be joining this blog; Alan bought our house about 5 months before we were married, after the amazing day of May 13, 2006 I moved in and it became our house. From the day we returned from our honeymoon until today we have been remodeling this home. We didn't think it would take this long, we thought a little paint here and some new floors there, what's the big deal. Well it became a big deal, that's ok, but we're done.

Technically we're not done yet, but we are emotionally done for sure. And with Stephen and Augie running around we're ready for a backyard for sure!!!

So here are some teasers for you; these are all "before" photos. That's right folks I found them. I've been looking for them for ages, and I finally found them tucked away in a obscure folder from back in the day. So enjoy, this is the house during the inspection, gotta love Fr. Hay!

Since you're taking the time to read this blog, I'll go ahead and tell you the story of our home!

On Nov. 6 2005 Alan proposed to me :) We set the date for May 13 2006, Feast day of Our Lady of Fatima. As you can imagine planning began immediately, non-stop planning for six months; all the while I lived in Colorado and Alan was in Mississippi - did I mention we were getting married in Alabama :)

Part of that planning was - where are we going to live? At that time Alan lived at home with his mother to save up some money to buy his first home.....then I came along :) So off he went house hunting, and house hunting, and house hunting; but for those of you that aren't from around here those dates mean that Katrina had just hit and house prices around here had sky rocketed. Then one day Alan got a phone call from our dear friend Sonja (the lady who introduced us) and she told him about this house for sale, he drove by a few times, called Sonja, called the realtor, and went inside. Compared to all the housed we'd been looking at this house was huge! It had so many rooms - with space, and potential. Neighborhood pool next door, no yard but we didn't need one then, and a HUGE master bathroom.

So Alan gave me a call, I was actually in Fort Collins going to a Christmas Concert, he told me all about it and I said -PUT AN OFFER ON IT NOW!! It was such an exciting time for us; our first offer on what could be the house we start our lives in!!

So what was it that sold us on this house; it was a few things, but when Alan walked into one of the rooms upstairs and opened the closest, there was an Altar! Fr. Hay was a retired priest, therefore he still said Mass everyday at that Altar!!! That room was immediately made into our nursery.

So that's the story, the offer was accepted, Alan moved in that January - two kids later, a lot of paint, sweat, and long weekends, and we are ready to move on.

We'll be a little sad - Stephen took his first steps here, Abby started crawling here, you get the point.

But at the end of the day, I'll be so happy to just open up a door and watch Stephen and Abby, and Augie run out into the backyard and start playing, in grass, in the sun, and no car was involved!!!