As you know, Xan and I moved back across the country to our home state of North Carolina in mid-January. After making the decision to move the natural next step was figuring out where we were going to live. The biggest question for us was whether we wanted to rent or buy. Basically since the day we met we’ve been dreaming of owning a house. When we lived in NC the first time we were always doing projects (within the limits of renting) and then when we moved to San Francisco that all stopped. It was probably one of the very hardest things for us. Xan is an architect with a construction background so he can make almost any change we want in a house and can quickly asses how feasible something is. And I’m creative and always dreaming about how to improve things. Not having the outlet for this creativity was really hard on both of us. Especially because in San Francisco renting rules are stricter than most places. Most of the time you can’t even paint and you can’t do anything to the walls that requires any more than a small nail, not to mention there’s zero outdoor space to make things. So you can probably guess that we 100% wanted to buy. But, since this move was a bit unexpected and we’ve never bought a house we weren’t prepared at all. We weren’t sure what all went into buying a house and if we’d have enough money to realize the dream. Luckily, we’ve been pretty good about saving (even though we didn’t know what for!) and all those perceived sacrifices finally paid off because we had enough for a down payment! Once we got that figured out we knew buying was what we wanted to do. I mean it’s really what we’ve wanted for the past 7 years.

When we got to NC we hit the ground running and found our house in a matter of days. But, I’m just now writing about it because there’s so much time in between when you put an offer on a house and when it’s actually yours that I didn’t want to put it out there until it was for sure. I’m actually planning another post about the whole home buying process, so more on that later. But, now I can officially say “we bought a house!” And, I mean, look at that cutie up there. We’re beyond excited. This seems like enough an announcement, right? But, wait there’s more! There are going to be a lot of changes around here too. With the move and all the changes in our life, it felt like the right time to change things here too. This blog is going to be less of a diary about our day-to-day lives and more about the home and entertaining space. The name will stay the same, but the content will be more focused and more frequent. Over the years I’ve come to see my home as my favorite place. It’s the space where I feel the most at ease, it’s a refuge, it’s a place to celebrate every day life, it’s always more comfortable and beautiful than a hotel (because it tells our story). And I believe this can be true for everyone (if you want it to be) and that’s why I’m making this change. I want to help everyone feel the same way – making their home their very favorite place in the world. Not that other places and spaces aren’t amazing too, but that when you come back home it always feels welcome and special.

So, welcome to the new version of the blog! I’m really glad you’re here, I hope you’ll enjoy this space as much as I enjoy creating it for you.