Home, Sweet, Home

Guys, I'm so stoked to be blogging again! I thought I'd jump back into blog-land with an introduction to the major thing that caused me to stop blogging in the first place:

Our new house!

B and I were not planning to buy a house last November. We were planning to buy a house in, like, 2013. Maybe. However, I started doing a little house hunting last fall just to see what was out there, how much things cost, where we wanted to live, etc etc. I wanted to make sure that when we started the "real" house hunting process, we had as much information as possible and had our finances all ready to go. When I came across our current place online, I thought it was way too good to be true. The location was great for both of our commutes, the size was just right for us and a (possibly sometime in the future) growing family, and the price was kind of unbelievable, given everything else that was out there at the time. All of that combined with a ridiculously low interest rate on our mortgage and one Sunday afternoon after spending an hour signing our names, we both looked at each other and said, "Oh my gosh, we just bought a house!"

So, for the past five months we (OK, mostly I) have been nesting. There are still plenty of things left to do, but that's part of the fun! Here's a little tour of our new casa. I hope you enjoy it!

The entryway is, hands down, my least favorite part of the house. I cringe at it at least once a day. It's kind of cramped and I really hate the open, carpeted stairs (we almost didn't put an offer on the place because I felt so strongly about them). I am still looking for a little table to fit in the corner to the right so we have a place to leave keys, sunglasses, leashes, etc. and I'd like to hang some art eventually. This area doesn't get a whole lot of love!

Right inside the entryway is a door out to our garage. It's a little bit of a mess right now because we just kind of threw stuff into it when we moved in and didn't organize much. It's on my summer vacation to-do list! We do squeeze B's car in there (my antenna gets stuck on the garage door, bummer) because the parking situation in our complex is a little tough sometimes.

The washer and dryer came with the house - hooray!

Back inside, there's a little half-bath under the stairs,

And a coat closet that I turned into kitchen appliance storage (what?),

And then our kitchen!

Things I love about our kitchen:

• counter space!
• ice maker in the freezer door!
• double sink!
• breakfast bar!
• it's so open and airy!

Things I don't love about our kitchen:

• stupid side-by-side fridge/freezer - who thought these were a good idea? It's not in the budget to replace this (it came with the house), but man would I love to eventually!
• low ceilings = cramped cabinets, requiring me to turn a coat closet into appliance storage

The pros obviously outweigh the cons. I LOVE cooking in this kitchen, and the best part is that B and I can cook together and not drive one another totally crazy. We are planning to add pulls to the drawers and cabinets this summer, because they get dirty crazy-fast without them (or maybe I'm just a slob?).

Then we have our living room.

Isn't the fireplace awesome? It was a big selling point for me! The very first weekend we lived here, I had a service come out and clean the fireplace so we could use it for the rest of our (very short, rather warm) winter. Those plantation shutters came with the house too and are upstairs as well - we love them. You'll also notice we still don't have a TV - hooray! I love how quiet and peaceful our living room is without one.

Our dining "room" is pretty basic. I want to replace that chandelier eventually. We got the art from my uncle, who bought it at an estate sale at Stanford back in the 70s and has been storing it behind the headboard of his bed for the last 30+ years.

The entire downstairs (except the entryway and kitchen) is carpeted and now that we have a dog (more on that later), it's kind of a pain. Budgeting for laminate floors is currently in the works!

Heading upstairs, we technically have two master suites, which is pretty cool. We have so much space upstairs! B and I took the one at the top of the stairs with the awesome double doors for our bedroom. It's HUGE and still a work in progress, but since B and I are the only ones who see it, it's not really our priority.

Across the hall is our office/guest room/future nursery. Right now, it's basically B's man cave since I mostly use my laptop downstairs. It has its own bathroom, too. We have a super comfy Aerobed that we can pull out for guests (ahem, Teri), and lots of storage up here.

And finally, our backyard! We have probably spent the most time (and money!) working on the backyard since we moved in. For reference, when we moved in it looked sort of like this:

Haha, but seriously, it was a major jungle. We spent several weekends hacking through overgrowth and then had a tree service come take out 5 pittosporum bushes that had turned into crazy 15+ foot tall "trees" and were crowding out the actual trees. I ripped out a ton of ivy that was taking over the yard, not to mention the mint invasion you may remember if you follow me on Instagram. Then, we planted the agapanthus and decorative grasses just a weekend or so ago.

All the grass died because the yard wasn't getting any sun due to all the overgrowth, so we will reseed it in the fall and keep our fingers crossed.

I have a little garden where I'm growing (contained!) mint, rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, and tomatoes.

We are eventually going to remove these rosebushes too and extend the patio space so we have more room to entertain, BBQ, and do yoga/burpees. :)

And that's the whole casa! Thanks for letting me share with you - we are so happy to be homeowners and are looking forward to making lots of happy memories in our first home!

B and I are camping in the Sierras with the dog for the next few days, but I'll be back in action soon.

xoxo,
Megan