Our House Love Story

Before I delve too deeply into this blog, I want to share our house journey and describe its gradual transformation from a bit-sized bungalow to a cozy home for a family of six. Here is our house love story.

When my husband and I were first looking for a house to buy in 1998, we looked at A LOT of houses. Some nice, some not so nice. As time went on, we realized that we had to remove certain items off of our "must have" list and settle with what we could afford. One of the things we had to take off of our list was a SHOWER. Yes, we bought a "charming" house with NO SHOWER. I cried. Seriously, when my husband told me that this house was "the one",  I cried. It was 85 years old, lots of previous damage, sheets of peeling paint falling into the yard, one bathroom (the one with NO SHOWER),  NO AC, windows that would not open and others that were falling out of the house. Sob, sob, sob. So, we bought it!

When we first moved in, we tackled things like painting rooms, changing out light and plumbing  fixtures, etc. The original metal kitchen cabinets were rounded and curved so that you could not find a thing in them, but, they were ours. We were thrilled to own a house and we convinced ourselves that taking a bath in the cool, retro claw foot tub, while trying to get out the door to work, was "relaxing". And, getting out of that tub only to start sweating from the lack of AC was just part of the "charm" of our house. Uh... not so fun. When our first set of twins arrived, I found out that there is no "quick bath". By the time the bath tub would be full enough for me to "jump in", a baby would start to cry.  Not a lot of bathing during those early baby years.

After six years in our house, and two kids later, we decided to take the plunge and renovate. We hired an architect, found a builder that we could afford, and got started. We removed the back part of the house in order to add a three story addition. We did as much as we could afford at the time. Of course with an old house renovation, there were surprises and things that we had to fix that we had not anticipated. During the renovation, after the house was framed and the drywall up, I discovered that I was pregnant with our second set of twins. Uh oh.

No turning back!

Packed and ready to move out!

Eight months later....Looking MUCH better!

So we moved back into our house and I literally sold ALL of our furniture on Craigslist. I did purchase a slip covered denim pottery barn sectional off of Craigslist to put in our new "great room" since I knew I would be spending HOURS on the said sectional nursing babies. It was NOT my first choice, but it would have to do. White furniture was not an option...yet. The rest of the house was pretty much bare bones.

Not so attractive denim sectional, but for that point in our lives, it got the job done

Two months later we welcomed our new sweet babies and went from a family of four to a family of six. My reality was now four kids, ages 4 and under. Not much time to think about what to do with the house and how I wanted to decorate. I was just a bit B U S Y. It is all a blur now...

Our new family of four kids!

Slowly, I started adding things back into the house, all from Craigslist, yard sales, or other budget friendly sources. You see, after our first set of twins were born, I stopped working. We went from two incomes, no kids, to one income, two kids. I have HAD to be budget minded, ALWAYS. And, I have found, that takes some creative thinking.

So now that you know some background of our house and the journey that we have taken, hopefully you will enjoy hearing how we made our house a home and all of my design adventures along the way.  Our house is 100 years old this year, so it seems fitting that I am starting this blog. This house has been my blank canvas to experiment with design, make MANY mistakes, figure out how to live with things that we could not change, and celebrate design successes. Besides sharing design ideas, tips, etc, I hope this blog is a way for us to document and celebrate our lives in this special home.