SOLD!!!
I didn't want yesterday's big event to go unmentioned on my blog. Yesterday Tom and I closed on the sale of our house in Saint Louis. It was almost 5 years to the day of us purchasing the house. This is a picture of Tom and me standing in front of the house on signing day - April 15, 2005.
When we found out I got the job with U.S. Africa Command in Germany, Tom and I discussed what to do about the house. After being an absentee landlord with a house in Georgia for nearly 10 years, Tom did not what to rent the house. He preferred to try and sell it.
Also being factored into the decision was the fact that we don't plan on returning to St. Louis. Neither Tom nor I are from the Midwest, and aside from some very special, dear friends, we don't have any family in the area. So, in mid-August we put the house on the market and since early September it has been sitting empty, ever since the movers came and packed up all our household goods for overseas shipping and long-term storage.
Needless to say we are very happy the house sold (I didn't like the thought of the house sitting empty for so long). And the family that purchased the house is very excited...which is nice too.
Our house on Mardel was very special. It had lots of room...truthfully probably too much room for just Tom and me. It was a one-story, with finished basement. There was a nice covered balcony off the back and a small yard. You might find it strange that I mention the size of the yard but neither Tom nor I like yard work so it was ideal for us. There was a dogwood in the front and two red buds in the back and they were so pretty during the spring.
This was the first home I'd ever owned and so it will always have a very special place in my heart. Due to the market, we certainly didn't make any money on its sale, but we reminded ourselves several times that we bought the house to have a home, not to make money, and for 5 years the Lord blessed us with a very special home.
We celebrated Tom's 40th birthday there and threw a big bash when I graduated with my master's degree. We hosted a home fellowship for a while and opened our doors to many family and friends at what we called the Dalrymple B&B.
While living there I deployed to Iraq for a second time, and Tom traveled to the Sudan with Far Reaching Ministries. We traveled to Scandinavia and picked up our brand new Volvo C30 from the factory in Sweden. We made small improvements to the house over the years - putting more insulation in the attic, installing a new garage door and front door, getting the A/C replaced (thankfully while the house appliances were still ensured by our home-buyers warranty), replacing the furnace (unfortunately not under the home-buyers warranty), replacing all the brass outlet plates with polished nickel, and painting some of the rooms.
I had a very good commute to my job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in downtown St. Louis at the Robert A. Young Federal Building. In fact for more than a year Tom and I commuted to work on the bus together, that is until they canceled our bus route. He was working for the Department of Veteran's Affairs just a couple blocks away from my office.
We had easy access to all three of St. Louis's three major interstates, and we were just down the road from Forest Park -- home of the St. Louis Art Museum and History Museum and the St. Louis Zoo. We went to Forest Park every summer to see musicals at the outdoor theater The Muny, as well as Shakespeare in the Park.
While in St. Louis we went to a couple St. Louis Cardinals games, volunteered at the USO at Lambert Airport for more than five years, and had the sweetest church home with Calvary Chapel of O'Fallon.
So many wonderful memories surround our time in St. Louis and the sale of our home there just served as a nice way to reflect.
When we found out I got the job with U.S. Africa Command in Germany, Tom and I discussed what to do about the house. After being an absentee landlord with a house in Georgia for nearly 10 years, Tom did not what to rent the house. He preferred to try and sell it.
Also being factored into the decision was the fact that we don't plan on returning to St. Louis. Neither Tom nor I are from the Midwest, and aside from some very special, dear friends, we don't have any family in the area. So, in mid-August we put the house on the market and since early September it has been sitting empty, ever since the movers came and packed up all our household goods for overseas shipping and long-term storage.
Needless to say we are very happy the house sold (I didn't like the thought of the house sitting empty for so long). And the family that purchased the house is very excited...which is nice too.
Our house on Mardel was very special. It had lots of room...truthfully probably too much room for just Tom and me. It was a one-story, with finished basement. There was a nice covered balcony off the back and a small yard. You might find it strange that I mention the size of the yard but neither Tom nor I like yard work so it was ideal for us. There was a dogwood in the front and two red buds in the back and they were so pretty during the spring.
This was the first home I'd ever owned and so it will always have a very special place in my heart. Due to the market, we certainly didn't make any money on its sale, but we reminded ourselves several times that we bought the house to have a home, not to make money, and for 5 years the Lord blessed us with a very special home.
We celebrated Tom's 40th birthday there and threw a big bash when I graduated with my master's degree. We hosted a home fellowship for a while and opened our doors to many family and friends at what we called the Dalrymple B&B.
While living there I deployed to Iraq for a second time, and Tom traveled to the Sudan with Far Reaching Ministries. We traveled to Scandinavia and picked up our brand new Volvo C30 from the factory in Sweden. We made small improvements to the house over the years - putting more insulation in the attic, installing a new garage door and front door, getting the A/C replaced (thankfully while the house appliances were still ensured by our home-buyers warranty), replacing the furnace (unfortunately not under the home-buyers warranty), replacing all the brass outlet plates with polished nickel, and painting some of the rooms.
I had a very good commute to my job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in downtown St. Louis at the Robert A. Young Federal Building. In fact for more than a year Tom and I commuted to work on the bus together, that is until they canceled our bus route. He was working for the Department of Veteran's Affairs just a couple blocks away from my office.
We had easy access to all three of St. Louis's three major interstates, and we were just down the road from Forest Park -- home of the St. Louis Art Museum and History Museum and the St. Louis Zoo. We went to Forest Park every summer to see musicals at the outdoor theater The Muny, as well as Shakespeare in the Park.
While in St. Louis we went to a couple St. Louis Cardinals games, volunteered at the USO at Lambert Airport for more than five years, and had the sweetest church home with Calvary Chapel of O'Fallon.
So many wonderful memories surround our time in St. Louis and the sale of our home there just served as a nice way to reflect.
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