Getting the keys to your first home is an occasion worth celebrating, and so are all the little moments after that. From the DIY projects completed to the meals shared, even the yard work conquered, it’s a privilege to live life in a home with your name on the deed. Though eventually handing off those same keys to the next owner is bittersweet, you get to take the memories with you. Below, three Southerners share what they’ll always love and remember about their first homes.
The Character
Elizabeth Damrich, a creative director and designer, recently moved out of a historic home in Mobile, Alabama, to custom-build something brand new. One of her most missed features is “the grand architecture, where you knew every detail was carefully considered and thought through by someone long ago.” From the iconic columns to the generous front porch, that kind of character is difficult to replicate these days.
The Kitchen
For Victoria Ford, also known as Prepford Wife from Cary, North Carolina, the kitchen was truly the heart of her first home. “It took forever for us to slowly renovate the kitchen over time, and yet it was always the place where we were likely to cram ourselves for food, snacks, and conversation,” she explains. Though Ford has since moved out, her mom now lives there, and the kitchen remains the central gathering spot whenever she visits.
The History
Damrich often thinks of the many generations of families that called the Rapier House their home before them, “and all of our memories combined within her walls.” As her family builds their next home, she vows to “continue to carry so much of this house with us.”
The Responsibility
“In my first home—a 1939 cottage I called ‘Mellon House’—I took pleasure in the most mundane chores of homeownership,” says Melissa Smrekar of PaperCity Dallas. From power washing the front porch to painting the front door the perfect shade of “Carolina blue,” she describes every chore as a privilege “because for the first time, this house belonged to me and me alone.”
The Seasons
“My first home surprised and delighted me at every season,” Smrekar says. “I will always remember the joy of discovering what bloomed in my yard the first spring I lived there.” For Smrekar, spotting the pink roses and purple irises was particularly meaningful given that it was April 2020—the height of COVID—and bright spots were few and far between.
The Children
A mother of two, Damrich is especially grateful to have brought both kids home to the Rapier House. “I will forever remember the sound of baby feet running wild on those old floors and reverberating through the home,” she reminisces. “It was the warm feeling of something so old supporting something so new and young.”
The Personalization
Smrekar’s first home truly felt like an extension of herself—in every nook and cranny, there was color, pattern, and (probably) something thrifted. “I relished the honor of being its caretaker, and I felt so proud every time someone walked in the front door and said, ‘It’s so you.’”
