The star of the blog

Okay so enough about me.  That's probably the most you'll ever see of me on here.  I promise.

So you saw the house in my first post.  Like I said, it wasn't exactly the crown jewel of the block.  So why, you might wonder, did we chose that house over our other options?  There are really three reasons; it was in a good location, it had a pretty decent size yard for the location, and there were small details that charmed us.  Let's break that down to size.

Location, location, location: I mean, everyone says it, but our previous home taught us the hard way that location really does matter and for us, was much more important than the size of the house.  Theres always a trade off, right?  The whole, "what you get for your money" thing.  We moved to this house from the city and part of the reason we chose to move here was because the downtown area is packed with cute little unique shops, great restaurants and bars and has lots of fun activities and festivals.  We knew right away that if possible we wanted to be able to walk to all that we love about the town.  This house offered us a chance to be able to do that in a realistic price range.  We knew as soon as we looked at it that it needed a ton of work.  But luckily we both had a very clear vision for what it could be and lucky for me, my husband is handy.  Lucky for him, I give clear and abundant instructions. ;)

We did projects in phases.  We continue to do projects in phases.  We have three major projects in our back pockets right now.  And I have a few spaces that I'd like to reinvent on top of that.  But I don't always let my husband in on all of that at once.  That will be my first tip: Ladies, we don't always need to spill our house guts all at once to our husbands.  Start with a lamp, move up to the couch.  And always ask with a smile. And if you have a kick ass job and make your own money and don't have to ask; you are my idol and I celebrate and revear you. I'm just saying for me, a little extra butter on the toast helps, if you know what I mean.

To save money we did most everything ourselves.  My husband swears that anyone with google and the right tools can do it, but in addition to being handsome and witty, he's very modest. (Do you see what I did there, ladies? (see previous paragraph)) I'm not very handy or crafty, so I recognize that it's not that easy, but I would say to look for the things you can do.  There is definitely something.  It might be demo.  It might be repurposing furniture.  It might be making your own art.  It might be sanding your own floors.  I would encourage you to look into it.  Be willing to learn something new and get dirty.  Believe in yourself!

The Yard: I'm a very emotional person and I'm not always very rational.  Just keepin' things real.  Turns out that I shop for homes the same way.  I want to instantly picture myself there.  I want to instantly picture my friends there.  I want to see my children all tucked in tight in the bedrooms dreaming sweet dreams.  And in the case of this home search, (again I think largely because we were coming from the city- with very little outdoor space) I wanted to picture my children playing in the yard.  When we pulled up to this house, I commented that there was a place for Marin's (our only child at the time) pumpkins on the front steps.  I felt like we needed to have enough room in the back yard to run the bases in future fictitious baseball games.  Yard space this close to town can sometimes come at a premium, but this house had a decent enough yard....  Especially after we moved the garage.  And here in lies an example of how my husband and I think.  Some call it a gift.  I think he'd call it a curse.

The Details: Try to look beyond the glaring downfalls to reveal the beauty and charm of character in

 the home.  Almost every home has it.  That doesn't necessarily mean that every home will have enough charm or character to make you want to buy it,  but when there is enough, you'll know.  In our house, we luckily were able to look beyond the orange and green shag carpeting and the orange linoleum floors, to appreciate some of the original details that came with a home built nearly a century ago.  Specifically, we loved the original casement windows flanking the fireplace in the living room, the clawfoot tub in the upstairs bathroom and the lovely built in cabinet in the dining room.  Our home was built by the Wilson Brothers, and no, not as in Luke and Owen. August and Oscar Wilson were builders at the turn of the century who were heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, whom they studied under.  They built about 70 structures in our small town and thanks to historic preservation, they stand today.  One of the traits common to the Wilson Brothers was built in glass interior bookcases.  We fell hard for the one in our home....although it sits on a wall that runs right down the middle of what prevents a much more open kitchen concept, but more on that to come.

So here's the deal.  No house will be perfect.  No matter where it is or how big it is or in what year it was built.  But every house has potential.  Like a blank canvas waiting to be painted.  Look past the nasty and find the potential.  Look past the house and find the home.  Picture pumpkins on the front porch.  And then get in there and make it work for you.

So there you have it.  How a little brown house with faded siding and orange shag for days, became the king of our hearts and the star of this blog.

Marin and me with her first pumpkin on the front steps

Our family this year with our pumpkins on the front steps.