Old House Tour!

Parenting

This post may include affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.

I’ve got a house tour up for you guys today…of our old house! It’s a quick and dirty look of how we fit 8 kids into a 4 bedroom, average sized home and how we use the space. Big families don’t always have oodles of space but we made it work for quite a few years. Hope you like it!

Hey all! After a WAY too long break from my favorite job ever (i.e. posting on this blog) I’m back with a quick and dirty video of our old house! A few of you requested a house tour before we moved to an exclusive community, which I can’t wait to show you all when everything is in place. So naturally, I waited until we no longer lived there to get it posted 🙂

It gives me lots of nostalgic feels and memories to watch this thing…but mostly it just makes me SO glad that I took about 400 loads to Goodwill during the move. SO. MUCH. JUNK! Everyone should move every 10 years or so if only to clean out all the scary recesses of your closets! The amount of junk that must be found during Deceased estate rubbish removals would probably make your head spin – all the more reason to use such a service should the need arise.

And please forgive the shots that are out of focus…I’m new to this vlogging thing and still figuring stuff out. Let me know if you’d like to see more real life type videos and what kind! I’d love to show more of our day to day if you guys are interested in what 8 crazy kids and a psychotic mom look like on the daily.

Or if you don’t have time to watch my wobbly video, here are a few pros and cons of this cute house we lived in for 10 years. There’s lots about that I’ll really miss, and some things that I just won’t. But that’s life for you!



PROS:
*Amazing floor plan for a large family! Our split level with living space and kitchen on the main level, most bedrooms upstairs and a family/play room in the basement worked just perfectly for us for many years. We could split kids up and piano playing, school work and taking naps could all be done simultaneously without bugging each other. Best floor plan ever with all our Office Monster furniture which is serving a great purpose to utilise the space we have.

*Location: we lived at the intersection of 2 major freeways so we could get to just about 80% of the Phoenix valley in 15 minutes or less. It was SO great! Sadly I don’t think I appreciated it as much as I should have because I’ve gone through like 3 tanks of gas since we moved to the new house 11 days ago!

*Neighborhood: We did have an HOA but it had all the perks of a neighborhood association without the bad stuff! It was dirt cheap and we had access to the best parties, events and amenities plus added protection from some outdoor home security cameras that we got for free. Just down the street from our house (literally 5 houses away), we had 2 nice pools, tennis courts, a basketball court, lake, grassy areas, walking path and several playgrounds. It was SO perfect for a family with lots of kids and not much backyard.



CONS:
*That 2300 square feet was starting to feel a bit cramped. Granted, some of that was due to all the crap I’d let accumulate over the last 10 years but still. Just having one extra bedroom here in the new house has REVOLUTIONIZED bed time and quiet time! Seriously, the ability to separate my 3 biggest troublemakers has made me so happy!

*Land: The old house had just a spit of land in the backyard; about enough for a trampoline and a slip and slide. The side yard was fairly large but we parked a trailer in it and didn’t use it other than that. The new house is on 3/4 acre! We are loving it and cannot wait for cooler fall weather to get outside and enjoy it alllll day long! I’ll also add here that owning a pool is the BEST decision we’ve ever made. There’s no better way to live through a Phoenix summer (as long as there’s a locking gate and kids who can swim extremely well).

*Office Space: If you read this post about my sewing corner, you’ll know exactly what I had to work with at the old house…and my work supplies and area gradually migrated to the dining room table and corners once I started making video. The new house has a separate GUEST HOUSE (whaaaa?!) that I’m partially commandeering for my workspace. As I type this, I’ve locked myself inside and can hear nary a sound but some birds chirping outside my window (while the children inevitably get up to mischief in the main house). It has been by far my biggest blessing in this move!

That’s about it! Walking through the vacant old house the other day almost had me in tears remembering all the babies we brought home there (and the 3 I actually BIRTHED there!) but I know it’s time to move on. We moved a fair amount when I was growing up which has given me a healthy view of change: new blessings and opportunities can’t come into our lives unless we make room for them. Don’t push away the better stuff that’s waiting for you out there simply because you’re holding on to the old, comfortable things!

previous article
next article

1 Comment

  • Reply
    Kitchen Command Center • Daily Schedule for Kids
    August 19, 2019 at 5:13 pm

    […] really missed having my little desk area in the kitchen like we did in our last house (see the tour here), mainly because it helped me organize my life! So instead of that, I was keeping my planner and […]

  • Leave a Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.