First, I want to thank you for taking the time to visit our house. My entire family and I are very proud of everything we have done to this house over the years.

My parents originally bought this house in 2008 as place for my sister, Alexis, and me to live while attending college. While in college, my parents spent evenings and weekends completing a variety of updates. Some projects were small, like replacing the backdoor and the asphalt driveway. Other repairs were big, like replacing the furnace and roof, while updating the kitchen floor with tile. Being college kids, we did not think twice about all the hard work being put into the house. We were too busy spending time with friends and completing school work. That was until we graduated from college.

In 2013, my sister and I were offered the opportunity to buy the house from our parents. Although we had no experience with homeownership and were only mildly familiar with the responsibilities that came with owning a home, we accepted this challenge as an opportunity for experience.

Slowly but surely, and with the help of many friends and relatives, we continued in making small home improvements. The first big project was renovating the first-floor bathroom. With a lot of guidance and help from our father, the renovation was completed in no time! We tiled the walls and floor, replaced the old dingy cast-iron tub with a new tiled shower, and replaced the shower head and glass shower door. While this was a lot of work, this project revealed the real potential of our home and we were excited. Between being young and social, and trying to pay our bills and get ahead in our careers, we continued to make small progress by replacing the fans in the bedrooms and updating wall colors and trim. Eventually, my sister became engaged to her now husband and relocated to the Saratoga area to start the next chapter of their life. 

Now, I was tasked with the responsibility of continuing all the progress we had made. As I grew older my priorities changed and I began to dedicate myself to larger projects. Luckily, in this time, I now met my husband, John, who quickly became integrated with our home renovation team. Immediately, John helped me find contractors to install a privacy fence and replace the front windows in our living room. Never one to back down from a challenge, John took it upon himself to demolish our previous cement stoop and replace it with the new wooden one. Since then, he’s installed the new vinyl flooring throughout the first floor and most recently assisted with the installation of the hot water heater. Slowly and with a lot of work this house has become our home. 

We’ve spent eleven years living, working, and enjoying life in this home. John even proposed to me in this home. But it’s not just the house that made the last eleven years enjoyable. We love this city and neighborhood because it meets all our needs. We can’t tell you the amount of times we’ve celebrated “pizza Friday” at Navona or the Fountain on New Scotland or a weekend brunch outing at Capital City Gastropub or Albany Ale & Oyster. Simultaneously, our neighborhood is quiet which makes it easy to relax with the windows open or just hanging out in the backyard. The large fenced in backyard also makes it feels like an oasis from city life. It truly is the best of both worlds.

Eleven years ago, we moved into this house. This house did not stay “just a house.” In the last eleven years, we’ve grown from college kids to working adults to married and planning a family. We’ve been afforded the opportunity many young adults haven’t, and we are glad to say it’s shaped us into the people we are now. However, it is now time for us to start a new chapter in our lives. I will miss this house dearly, but I hope the next family who lives here enjoys it as much as we have.