Started from the foundation, now we here!
Once upon a time, my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the maintenance-free lifestyle of apartment living. There was no lawn mower to be had, nor a snowblower to be blown. No resentment towards fallen leaves, or hatred for overgrown weeds. No squirrels with which we waged war, and no mosquito attacks while throwing out the garbage. Nope, none of that.
Though we'd both grown up in traditional homes with lawns and, you know, space, we weren't in a rush to forfeit our lack of responsibilities even if it meant we'd have to continue sharing one television and one couch indefinitely. (Side bar: one television? How the hell did we manage that?)
But in the summer of 2015 that all changed.
A fatal bout with amyloidosis (a rare blood disease), took my mother from me just a few months before the summer sun made its way to New York. The story of her death is a hard one for me to write about, and so I won't do it again. (The original post about that can be found here.) But her passing was the catalyst that brought about many changes in my life, some of them hard and some of them harder. She had left me the gift of an inheritance that would allow us to buy our forever home. And at the same time, I'd be living without her visiting it. I'd utilize her gift, but without her leading the way. And the weight of that reality hung heavily on me, like a wet blank that felt too heavy to peel off. So instead, I sat there cold and uncomfortable until the Spring sun evaporated the weight, and I was able to stand and assess my surroundings. While I packed boxes upon boxes of her belongings and tried to figure out what to do with a house full of furniture, I had the sudden impulse to take my own journey of house hunting more seriously.
She'd always hoped I'd move into her home when she passed, but Staten Island isn't where we wanted to lay roots, it just wasn't us. So, I did the next best thing, and sold the house to someone I knew would love it and care for it better than I could, one of my best friends. I remember feeling a wave of emotions when I signed over the deed and handed the keys to her and her husband. I was so happy for them, unsure of how my mother would have felt about the transaction, and sad for what it all came down to - I'd no longer be able to visit my mother's house, it would now be my friends' home and I would have to learn to adjust.
So I did what any levelheaded person would do, and instead of focusing on a turnkey home, I consumed myself with the idea of finding the perfect fixer upper. I'd watched enough HGTV shows (what up Joanna Gaines?) and scoured enough Pinterest boards to convince myself I could design a home all on my own without the help of an architect or designer. I just needed to find the right house, a dependable contractor and poof! my dream home would appear magically before my eyes! It'd be that easy.
Except it wasn't.
And that's where this blog will take us, us being you and me, the reader and the person who has somehow already forgotten how intense this process was.
I'll share how we found our little diamond in the rough, the Pins and blogs that inspired me with design tips, and the moments along the way that tugged hard at my heart... and my sanity.
So if you like all things home, all things DIY, and all things life, feel free to follow along as I tell the tale. I'm not going to commit myself to a schedule of release dates for my posts, so please subscribe to be notified of new posts or, if you're my friend on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, be ready for a bombardment of social notices when the posts are ready :-)
Until then, happy home creating...
L
