Alternately titled: the one with all the parentheticals.
Life has been a whirlwind this year and it’s to be expected. Obviously, our pregnancy was a huge surprise, and it set us on a course unknown for the year. I spent the majority of the first few months in bed or dealing with nausea and it didn’t leave much space — mental or otherwise — to accomplish anything else. Since I started feeling better, I’ve been trying to play catch up in all areas of life. I’m filing my taxes today (if that doesn’t say procrastination, I don’t know what does), I’ve got two house portraits to finish that are so long overdue, my to-do list is a mile long, and I’m trying to budget for so many unexpected expenses that have (and will continue to) cropped up since January.
I’ve missed the blog so much, but I just haven’t had the time to devote to it that I’m used to. For weeks I’ve felt guilty about the growing list of topics on my calendar, because I can’t seem to get them onto the blog. I realized last week that it’s ridiculous to feel guilt over such an exciting time in our lives! Instead, I’m going to post when I can (likely 2-3 times a week, for now) and return to old school blogging where I tell you more about the things we’re doing and less about how you should live your life. How does that sound?
April has been a little insane. Ella is still dancing all the time and when she’s not, we’re at the studio working on a costume or practicing or packing and repacking our bags. Josh and I are heading to a concert this week and next week, I’m taking the girls to Chattanooga for a few days later this month, we celebrated Sophie’s 8th birthday (I’ll share photos tomorrow), and we’re smack dab in the middle of our first home renovation project. Did I mention I was growing a kid, too (probably a few too many times)?!
Now, about that home renovation project.
We’ve been in a bit of flux for the last eighteen months and it’s time to right our ship. When we first moved back into the log house, we were living with my parents (they moved upstairs into one of the kids’ rooms) and we were all contributing to expenses. This was partly because my parents weren’t sure what sort of house they wanted next and partly because we all wanted a break from responsibility and change for a few months. It lasted a little longer than any of us expected, but we’re ready to do something about it. My parents are almost finished with a temporary living space in their pool house and we are getting the ball rolling with our mortgage and will be purchasing the house in the very near future. Our plan all along has been to completely renovate the entire house, in a very short period of time, in conjunction with our loan. Of course, we then got pregnant and realized we needed to make some changes to our plans and that we didn’t want to live in a construction zone during the third trimester or during the first few months at home with baby.
I’ve had major nesting urges the last several weeks and had been trying to decide which projects to tackle first, when a super fun collaboration opportunity became available. It was just the motivation we needed to pick a room and just do something. Master bedroom it is! I’m a little embarrassed to show you what we were starting with, but despite our “just graduated from college / poor bachelor pad theme,” the room has great bones and so much potential.
This is the one room in our home where the interior logs were already painted. They weren’t exactly white, but it gave us a great idea at how the rest of the house might look if we did paint the logs. The wall sconces and the floor lamp are the only new purchases in the photos and everything else will be GONE this time next week. Those crappy, fifteen year old mattresses are getting the boot, Josh is getting a real office outside of our home, and the walls and ceiling already have a nice coat of bright white paint.
I’m still not sure where we’ll relocate Scoop’s crate and our bathroom renovation will be more involved, so it gets to wait for another day. In the meantime, we’re getting a new bed and mattresses and this wall to the left will have beautiful new artwork, our dresser, and a smaller bedside table. At some point (likely when we tackle the bathroom), we’ll close the entrance to our bathroom and closet area, but I’m not sure how. We’re thinking about installing a sliding door, but we don’t live in a farmhouse and I want it to be more modern. Until then, we don’t mind the walk-in aspect and we still have a fair amount of privacy.
Across from our bed will be a wall of bookcases and I cannot wait to unpack boxes of my favorite books next week. The bookcases still need to be painted (that’s next week’s project) and this dresser will be relocated to the spot in the photo above.
I’ll be sharing a room reveal post in another month or so, but stay tuned for sneak peeks on Instagram and likely another progress post between now and then. This baby was just the kick in the pants we needed to get started, so expect plenty of house updates in the weeks and months to come!
