I’m excited to announce that today the Smith family said good bye to upstairs neighbors that apparently enjoy jumping rope with techno music blasting in the background at 2 in the morning; to having to play real life Tetris on a daily basis with our furniture in order to fit it all in, and sadly….to maintenance men at your beck and call.
That’s right, we’ve finally said good bye to apartment life, and picked up the keys to our first home.
What a great feeling!
Baby Noah had a great time with our lender during the closing.
After buying baby Noah his first rody horse, it was clear that our two bedroom apartment (one bedroom / one office) wasn’t going cut it. There was hardly any room for Noah to have tummy time, much less learn to crawl! I had always heard house shopping was a stressful task, and that it difficult to find a home, but I have to say it couldn’t have been more easy; we seriously found the perfect house for Noah to grow up in!Also it’s not the house hunting that stresses me out…it’s moving in general. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons we’ve put off buying a house for so long. We both hate moving! Seriously, the thought of having to pack up our entire apartment makes me a little sick to my stomach.
After our closing we swung by our new home to scope it out without having our (very nice) realtor with us. It really was awesome putting that key in the door, and walking into our very first home as a family. I just kept thinking about all the wonderful things that would happen in our house. Noah would learn to crawl here….learn to walk here…say his first words here. Wow. What a blessing.
Looking forward to watching our son grow up here.
Afterwards we headed over to The Home Depot to pick out some paint for a few of the rooms. Now let me just fill you in on a few things you may not know about me yet. I’m not your average manly-man. I don’t watch sports. I don’t like to work on cars. And I much prefer Best Buy to Home Depot. I’ll even go on record and say, I even prefer Babies R Us to The Home Depot. Any. Day. Of. The. Week! Shhhhhh…just don’t tell my wife.
Little did I know how much time I would soon be spending at The Home Depot. One great thing about apartment living….24 x 7 maintenance men. I would soon come to learn just how much I missed them.
While we were cruising the aisles looking for paint I decided to test out all of that hard work Noah’s physical therapists have been doing to help Noah strengthen his core, and see if he could sit up in a shopping cart. And I’m glad I did because he rocked that shopping cart! He was a little wobbly, but he did great. I was so proud of him.
Check him out!
Look at that great head control!
For those of you not in the know, one of the main physical characteristics of Down syndrome is hypotonia, or low muscle tone. (Which also means that children born with Down syndrome give incredible hugs! Noah seriously melts into you like butter….I love it!) So kids like Noah typically have to work really hard to develop the muscles needed to sit up (and stay up) on their own. And it’s only taken Noah 9 months to be able to ride in a shopping cart without falling over!
This kid has abs of steel!
Well now we start the nightmare process that is known as moving. It’s all good though. I’m at the best place I’ve ever been in my life. I have the most incredible family I guy could ever ask for…and now we get to continue our life in our first home. Life is good. I can’t wait to continue to share our story with you. Thanks for following along on our journey.
Do you have any funny ‘first time home buyer” stories? (The movie “The Money Pit” comes to mind.) Please share your story in the comments below.
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Congrats on the new home
That's a beautiful home! Looks like Noah will get to try out his stair-climbing skills, too!
We moved from a duplex to a "real" home two years ago. It's a 50-year-old home, but it was completely remodeled before we moved in, so it's lovely. No Money Pit stories here! It's all wood flooring, which is great for potty training...not so great for learning to crawl! We've got lots of rugs!
@Lydia,
That's awesome, so glad to hear about your home. It sounds like a great house! My wife is a huge fan of hard wood floors!
Thanks for your kind words. :)
@Gina,
thanks so much!
Congratulations!!!! What a beautiful home!! I'm so happy for you.There's nothing like having your own home. Your own little piece of the world where you are safe and happy and can do what ever you want! Best of luck!
Thanks so much! I appreciate that, and I agree. We've lived in an apartment the entire time my wife was in med school and residency, and while I've been in Grad school...so it's great to finally be in a house....with the exception of the move. :)
Not that you weren't safe and happy in your apt!! that came out wrong i think. But I remember moving from our apt to our home, and nothing beats it!
@Stephanie,
I know just what you mean! And with the amount of stuff we have, and how tight that place was a packed we probably WEREN'T safe! :)
my husband and i hated home depot. really, whats the fun about it? we also livedi in an apartment tho we didnt had maintenance men, but really how much maintenance needed? not much. we bought our house some years ago, and i love moving, so my husband just had to relax lol.
anyway once we have our home, we know that just a little paint isnt enough, and after 3-4 yrs living here my husband just began buying some handy tools, like a hammer, he began doing some work in the house weeks ago, and as he says 'i have an engineering, i can change a door right?' oh well he is doing great and i like to watch :p but really home depot can be stressfull, even if you like the idea of buying something for your house, it is stressfull, i will never go to home depot to just look around, but best buy.. well thats another story. although im in mexico, and we didnt had best buy (it just opened one store in my city 2 months ago) we love being in the tech area in every store :D
congrats on the new house! looks beautiful , too bad im far, if not i would gladly help moving if you babysitted my kids ;) he!
Congratulations on your beautiful new home! Our little Jarrett is a Pro-roller as well. He can roll anywhere he wants to go now...which leaves little motivation for crawling - but we are working on it! I love all of your videos and keeping up with Noah! What a cutie!
@Becky,
Thanks so much!
...and Jerrett sounds like an awesome little dude! How old is he?
Have you posted a picture of him yet on our Facebook wall? If not, you should. :)
http://facebook.com/noahsdadcom
Hello again!
Jarrett was born 12/2/10 so he will officially be 14 months old tomorrow...I just posted a picture of him on Facebook.
He is a totally awesome little dude...he charms positively every person he meets!
Congrats on your new home!
We hate moving, too...and I've only moved a couple times in my life (that weren't for college). Throw in the fact that I've inherited two households worth of stuff (and two houses), we have a lot of stuff.
I rue the day when we build our new home and have to move...I'm not looking forward to going through everything and packing and moving.
It'll be nice for Little Man, though...oh, and he loves watching videos of Noah. He gets all smiley and keeps pointing at the screen. It's adorable.
Congratulations on your first home. It's beautiful. I missed the 24/7 maintenance men too. We are on a first-name basis with Home Depot now, sadly. Noah is doing great and so very cute.
Congrats on the new home! What a cute little video of your homecoming with Noah! We were super impressed with Noah sitting in the shopping cart. Don't worry about the maintenance....before you know it Noah will be showing you "the ropes!"
Fantastic news for you all. The shopping cart is a funny thing, most parents wouldn't even have a clue when their little one sat in one but for us guys it's another of those small things that means so much xx
How awesome for you guys!!! Your family will have some incredible memories there!!!!
Thanks Lisa, we are looking forward to making them...and sharing them with you guys. :)