Today I got the last of my stuff from my granny’s house. We sign the paperwork tomorrow and turn the keys over to the new owners. 

I didn’t realize how emotional I would be about this. It’s not like I ever lived there. I always lived in Nashville with our dads parents, Brandi & Steven lived in Ashland City with our moms parents. Heck, when I was younger I didn’t even really like visiting Ashland City. It seemed like 5000 miles away, it was actually only 24 from my house, but as a kid it felt like it took forever to get there. It was long distance to call my friends because they all lived in Nashville. There was no literally nothing to do for a preteen...I hated it so much. 

Once I got older, I really enjoyed time in the country at our grandparents house. September will be 5 years since my granny passed. I’ve actually enjoyed going to her house even since she’s been in heaven. I guess it kinda made me feel closer to my granny. Leaving the driveway earlier was a tearful moment for sure.  

Our grandpa built the house they lived in, like literally. He didn’t brick it or anything like that but he did work every single day in it for TEN years. He carved every single cabinet in the kitchen and bathrooms, he made every interior door and door frame, he made the towel racks for the bathrooms and even the toilet paper holders. He made this humongous mantle that went over the fireplace and he even lined every closet with cedar. I’m not gonna lie, It is a pretty amazing place. Everyone that came over always comment on how strongly built the house it. No joke, it has concrete floors and it’s built like a big commercial store. It was impressive for sure!  Yet another reason it’s so sad to sell it. I wish nothing more than if someone in the family could have purchased it but no one was able to. 

The last 5 years have been challenging to say the least. Big Mama and Paw Paw were.....let’s call them collectors. I’ve never seen so much stuff!  Seriously, if they had one of something they had at least 10 more somewhere!  I think I’ve possibly inherited a “collector” gene or two 😳. My garage is so full. There were so many things that I just didn’t want to throw away.....I definitely didn’t any of need them, but I couldn’t make myself throw them away. Even giving stuff away to someone else was kinda hard for me. Sooooo, I have a lot of stuff I don’t need in my garage for now. 

One thing that does make closing this chapter a little easier are the new owners. I was so worried someone would want to plow the house down and build 7 acres of tall-skinny houses. I’ve met with the new folks a couple of times now. They are super excited to move in and start getting things a little modernized. They want to keep all of the cabinets he built and they truly seem to appreciate all of the hard work PawPaw put into building their home.   I can’t tell you how much this makes my heart smile. 

I left a “Welcome to your new home” letter for the new folks to read when they arrive with a few surprises. I remember as a young kid watching TV while my grandpa was working on the blueprints for the house. I actually found them (how cool right!?) and I’ve left them for the new owners. I think they will love it. Honestly, I’m not even sure I could have agreed to sell if I knew it would be torn down. 

Well, I hope I’ve not bored you too much. I find that when I’m having a tough time it really helps me to write things down. It’s also pretty cool to look back later and just kinda relive the day you have written about. I’m gonna try to include a few photos. Hopefully I can figure out how to do it. 

Have a great evening and don’t forget to make time for the ones you love. Make sure they know you care. I know our granny and grandpa knew we all loved them but sometimes you would just give anything in the world just to tell someone how much you care just one more time. When I get sad about closing this chapter I’m gonna try to remind myself that it’s not the material things in life that make us happy. It’s the memories of special times with the people we love. We definitely have lots of memories to keep in our hearts. ❤️