Saying Goodbye To Our First Home

Those who know us personally know that we used to live in Baltimore and still own a house there that

we’ve been renting out for the last 5 years. Now Hubby and I think its time to say goodbye to it.

To be honest, we never wanted to be landlords for 5 long years. But the market hasn’t been one that has

favored us, at least not in the neighborhood that our house is located (It’s been up and coming…for a long time).

The market is finally picking up but possibly putting the house up for sale is bittersweet for me. Let me explain.

The Sweet

It was the first big purchase we made as a married couple. We got married October 16th and moved into

the house on the 28th. So, when I think about my first two years of marriage the scene is always set in

that house.

This house is where I first started feeling the tickles of interior design and DIY projects (that I

never got to by the way). We had no furniture in the living room and finally bought one lonesome couch

(the first piece of furniture bought as a married couple). Our bedroom furniture was from college and we slept on a

full mattress (I don’t know how we did it!)

We had wonderful gatherings at our house despite the lack of furniture. Family visiting

for Christmas, friends over for game night (we played in our unfinished basement) and my beautiful Mother in Love,Nana

Bamahene, would come all the way from Ghana and stay the whole Summer with us. She loved taking strolls to the Chinese

restaurant down the street.

Ahhh, the memories. However it isn’t all peaches and cream…keep reading.

The Bitter

Being a landlord has its hardships! Things break down in houses. We have had to fix the washer/dryer unit

(twice), a leaking roof ( thank you, daddy and Damel, for your help), cracking ceiling , put up a fence (thanks Rekab) and a host

of other maintenance issues. I dread seeing those emails from our property manager, Pitina ( who is amazing by

the way). We can’t do most of the work ourselves (we have flown in a couple of times to do some ourselves)so we have to

hire others or contractors, which is costly.

I think the worst thing about being a landlord is that people can walk out on their rental agreement. We

have had one tenant walk out in the middle of the lease and we had to carry the mortgage for 5 months (this was before we got

Pitina)!

Through the hardships I have learned something good, though. Everything is all in God’s hands. Whether

we get a renter or not, whether we get a sale or not,it does not matter; there is no need to be anxious or

stress because whatever will be will be!

I know I have to give up something to get something else, but this house will always have a very special place in my heart, no

matter who owns it.

Tell me, have you ever had something that was bittersweet?