Home is Where The Floor is

Making our house feel like a home, pressing send before I can overthink it, and planning what I'm going to bake this weekend.

Hello again.

For the past year I’ve been urging my husband, Tucker, to pick his newsletter back up and start writing just to have some output. Over the past week he’s been getting ready to press send after a hiatus, and I decided that I was ready to do the same.

By guilt and provenance my break is over because I have newsletter writing FOMO and the space I needed to give to my home has come to a gentle pause.

Before I get started saying much more, I did want to say that I missed you and being here and I am so glad to be back.

It takes hard work to make a place feel like home and I feel like I haven’t minced my words when I’ve talked about what it’s been like to get our house together after the unexpected twists and turns of the homebuying process.

Today, I have a gift for you for being along the journey with us.

When we visited our house for the first time and actually got to step foot inside, it was the day before our closing. We needed to walk through the place to make sure it was up to our standards of cleanliness before we officially closed. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t.

We walked into a dark house full of furniture, flowers still on the fireplace, stuff everywhere. We spent the next three days with our dearest friends ripping out carpet, beginning to paint, and throwing away so much of the previous owners stuff. We gave away what we could, and kept what we could, but lots of things in the house were ruined. I am now on a first name basis with the lady who sent out our roll away dumpsters.

Over the past month we spent every moment we had free getting the room ready for Thanksgiving. We painted everything white, repaired some damaged subfloors, laid new flooring and built out shelving out of wood from the old built in the previous owners had in the very same spot. It feels like a dream.

Now that it is finished it is my favorite room in the house. I spend most of my time there. What once was all dark and moody, is now bright and somehow cozy all at the same time? I don’t know how it is possible but it is. I think it’s the black accent wall + the black fireplace.

Eventually I will take proper afters to go with the befores, but for now I just wanted to share. Though it isn’t finished it feels perfect for now, which is a respite.

And I finally feel like I’m coming home.

• We didn’t want to buy a lot of stuff to decorate for Christmas this year but I did make two exceptions: a pink Christmas tree + these stockings from Anthropologie!

  

• I’m making my Christmas list (and birthday list) and checking it twice but so far all I’ve got on it is this cute wireless Nintendo Switch controller, these western pants from Big Bud Press (if they ever come back in my size) and pink sheetpans from Great Jones!

• Lately, Tucker and I have been embracing the early end of daylight with a fancy snack time + a tiny cocktail (otherwise known as an aperitif, but it felt too fancy to just say that) to chase away the ‘how is it so dark so early’ blues. So far? It’s working.

• We’ve also been embracing watching more movies. It’s my favorite pastime, we have this great living room now, and we’re trying to save a lot of money up for the kitchen renovation. So far this week we’ve watched Emma, and we’ve started a journey to watch all the James Bond movies. Please send any recommendations! We’re alternating choices.

• If you are a former evangelical who is looking for a giggle, might I suggest this video of a pastor talking about Lil Nas X?

• I’m still not over Jason Sudeikis’ SNL monologue.

• I am the world’s last Great British Baking Show hold out, but I just started a few weeks ago thanks to my best friends urging. Now I’m browsing biscuit recipes and planning a weekend bake. Considering Thumbprints or Almond Spritz!

WOW HI! You’ve made it this far! Thank you for supporting me by subscribing to this newsletter and sharing it with your friends. It means the world to me that you’d continue to invite me into your internet living room. 

Let’s say for a second that you like what you see here and want to continue the support. In that case, you can do one or more of the following:

• Forward this email to a few friends who would dig it.

• Buy me a coffee.

• Follow me on Instagram and share my work there.

• Hire me to write for your publication!