This was my first home! 1508 Doherty Ave.
I loved everything about it. Back then, I thought life couldn't get any better! I remember I would spend day's in my yard making sure everything was picture perfect. We were newly weds living on a tiny budget and I mean tiny! We saved EVERY-SINGLE- PENNY- literally!. All our income tax returns were spent on fixing and improving this home. We started out by renting this house. At the time, we were also planing our wedding so, we had two irons in the fire, so to speak. I sometimes would forget about our wedding and spend the money on paint, rugs, plants... anything and everything for our home. I convinced my husband to paint the entire inside of the house all without permission.
( I still can't believe that ) After our wedding we continued beautifying our home so much we didn't take a real honey moon (other than the beach) till a year later... The landlord started noticing improvement after all, he lived right next door... We started landscaping, watering the yellow grass, and decorating the front deck.
Before he knew it, we were painting the outside of the house. How crazy is that?..Needless to say he loved it, and felt so bad for us that we were investing in his home.. So bad that he offered us the house for Fifty thousand dollars! (our mortgage payment was $350.00 can you believe that?) we of course accepted and he replaced the roof for us... By the time we closed the pitiful hurricane fence was replaced with a nice new white picket fence!
We have so many sweet memories of us planting lantana's that could be seen a mile away. Not to be braggy, but this house would stop traffic
.
We were also very blessed with furnishing our home! At the time my father in-law worked for furniture store and gave us a never before heard of discount! I loved decorating this house!... I think my camera setting was wrong and stamped 1997 as the date. The actual date was some time in 2003.
I will always treasure the labor of love and sweet memories of my first home!!
After we fixed, and remodeled our home we started getting offers from people who would drive by.
After much thought we decided to put it in the market and sell and I'm glad we did.. It was the right move for us at the time. We ended up with an amazing return for our little investment!
Wow, Marissa, you were really fortunate that your landlord sold the house to you! It does look beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYou had a beautiful first home. I love the porch.
ReplyDeleteMarissa, I loved seeing your first house, your honeymoon house! You both really poured the love into it and you can tell. It looks like a happy house. What good memories you have there.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post, Marissa!
I loved seeing this home that you love so much and always will. I can see why it stopped traffic..it looks like the home of someone that loves it!
ReplyDeleteLovely home Marissa. The porch is expecially cute. The treasured memories. I wish you were my neighbor too...Linda
ReplyDeleteMarissa your first home was BEAUTIFUL! You always put your special touch to all your homes! You clearly have a fascination with homes and it shows! (( hugs)) KIM
ReplyDeleteAs a lover of old homes and a landlord, I can see why yours offered you this gift. I hope the next home owner's loved it just as much. Beautiful! blessings ~ tanna
ReplyDeleteThat home was so cute! I wish we had bought a small little cottage when we were first married and then kept moving up. Instead we saved a long time to buy a medium sized house and now we won't make anything on our investment when we sell it to get a bigger house. But, I don't think we will lose anything either, which is a blessing in this economy!
ReplyDeleteThat house was absolutely adorable! I don't blame people for stopping as they drove by to get a better look. It looks like a storybook cottage. I think that turned out to be a wonderful first house!! Much cuter than mine was. I'm glad that it worked out to be a wise investment and allowed you to move to another house when you were ready.
ReplyDeleteCongrats ;) nice house
ReplyDeleteCute house! My first husband and I bought our first home in Cordele, Georgia for $23,000 -- that was in 1989. I loved that little blue house! Wishing you a wonderful weekend. Tammy
ReplyDeleteThat was a very cute house. The front porch was gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteHi there, What a gorgeous home you had. I bet the old owner was sorry to see you go. It is so beautiful but I know you've done an equally incredible job on your current home.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend Marissa.
Hugs, Noreen
Hi Marissa, I have just come over for a visit after reading one of your comments on Aunty Sezzz blog. I totally agree with you, be yourself and be real.
ReplyDeleteI've been browsing your blog and enjoyed the variety and loved the story of your first home.
I've decided to follow and hope you'll pop over for a visit sometime.
blessings,
Diana
I really miss this house. It always felt so cozy and inviting. If walls could talk, these walls would have enough words to fill a thick novel. So many memories were made in that house on Doherty.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by to visit me and your kind worda about my blog. Love your little house and its porch, now I will have to read on to see what you moved into after you sold it!
ReplyDeleteAwwwww, what a precious first house. Thank you for sharing it, with us.
ReplyDeleteWe remember our first house, don't we! First time jumping-in-feet-first, into adult property owning! :-)
What a lovely house indeed! And the story you and your husband had with the house is something worth telling. I’m pleased to know that your investment for this house has paid off and that you got to sell it easily. By the way, since you haven’t mentioned it here, have you found another home to live in? I definitely want to hear your story about that. Please update us.
ReplyDeleteSage Leung
Splendid! The house seems to have a lot of stories to tell. No wonder you were able to sell the house so quickly. Regarding the house you moved into, is it as elegant as this old one? I hope you were able to have a good residence incurred at a reasonable price without legal conflicts. Please keep us up to date. We would love to hear from you. Kathleen Salazar
ReplyDelete