Old House/New House Top Five(ish)

As we are closing tomorrow, I find myself thinking about what I am most excited about in the new house and what I will miss most about our current home.

New House (in no particular order):
1.  Space - We will have about 4300 sq. ft. of finished space.  Sadly, I don't think we'll have a problem filling that!  With three kids, two cats and two large dogs, we will fill up the house in no time.

2.  Walk-In Pantry - We do not currently have a pantry, let alone a walk-in.  I use the upper and lower cabinets next to the refrigerator as a pantry and have extra shelves in the basement for overflow.

3.  Cul-de-sac Lot - While we currently live in a closed development with only about 75 houses, we have a few neighbors that refuse to abide by the 25 mph speed limit and drive like maniacs down the street.  Some of these people even have young children but refuse to slow down when they see kids playing in the front yards.  I can't wait until we live on our street with 4 houses!  Talk about low traffic!

4.  Yard - We will have a little less than 1/3 acre.  This is about the size of the yard I had as a child and I think it's perfect.  Big enough to have lots of room but not so much as to have to spend the entire weekend caring for it.

5.  Floor plan - I love that the master bed and bath is on the opposite side of the house from the kids' rooms.  No more worrying about waking up children by showering.  The stairs are also near the master, so we can come and go without tip-toeing past the kids' rooms and they have to walk past our room to leave the second floor.

6.  Location - DH's commute will go from about an hour each way to twenty minutes each way.  We are looking forward to more family time.  We will also be fifteen minutes from DH's sister and her family.  We are excited for the kids to be able to spend more time with their cousins.

7.  Master Bath and Closet - Have you seen our master bath??? It's gorgeous, if I do say so myself.  It might be one of my favorite rooms.  The closet is huge and will be more than enough room for our clothes.


Old House (also in no particular order):

1.  Neighbors - We will miss our neighbors immensely.  We have all lived here for 8-10 years and have watched babies being born and growing up.  It's comforting to know that if you need something, there's always someone around to help.  I'm hoping we have good neighbors in our new home!

2.  Three Car Garage - This has been such a luxury.  Though we no longer have three cars, it's so nice to have the third area for all the kids toys and lawn equipment.  This will be quite an adjustment.  We'll see how long it takes before the shed has to go up.  The three car garage also comes with a three car wide driveway.  The neighborhood kids always end up in our yard because they can easily play basketball in such a wide, level driveway.

3.  Mature Trees - One of the reasons we chose our house over other houses in other neighborhoods is because the developer left a lot of the existing trees.  While this meant we were unable to get satellite, our backyard is mostly in shade and is a great retreat during the hot summer.  However, it does require a ton of raking in the fall/spring, so maybe we won't miss the trees too much :)

4.  Kitchen Island - I have a feeling I'm going to regret not getting the island in our new kitchen.  We will have the peninsula, so there will be plenty of counter space and we are always getting in everyone's way with the island, but that is where I do all of my prep work.  We opted not to do it knowing that we could always add it down the road.

5.  Most of all are the memories that we have created in this house.  Our oldest was 19 months when we moved in.  Although he lived in two other houses before this one, it is the only home he remembers.  We also brought home two more babies from the hospital and have watched them grow.  It will be bittersweet to leave here, but I know we will make many new memories!