When we first started talking about renovating my parents' house, our circumstances were quite different. There were no plans to expand our family and everyone would have their own room. Given those facts, I felt sure we could finish the entire thing in 6-9 months. Clearly, I was suffering from temporary insanity. The hardest part about finishing the girls' rooms has been working around naps and bedtime. Before the time changed, Polly was in bed at 6 o'clock every night and we could only work on "quiet projects." Guess what? There aren't actually any projects that are quiet. Not a single one. I honestly thought we'd have the whole thing painted and ready for carpet in a few weekends and we're currently sitting at a few months. More than anything, this has taught us to really scale ...
log house
Log House “Before” Tour + Master List
It's been almost exactly eighteen months (this number seems to be a theme with us) since I shared the first episode of a vlog series that I expected to be immediately forthcoming. Buying my parents house hasn't been without it's hiccups, but we finally found ourselves home owners again, late last month. When we first moved in, my parents weren't quite sure of their future plans. They were debating a new build, finishing out the barn/pool house, or become full time RVers and we were giving them time to adjust to the idea of selling their forever home. We happily coexisted for a full year, before making some decisions that would get this beauty off of my parents' hands. What we didn't know then, is that we would spend an entire year debating property lines and driveway locations with ...
Wishing, Waiting + Nesting
The last year has been weird. When we moved into our home, I had huge expectations for how the following months and years would go, and honestly? Nothing has worked out quite like I expected. I'm a big fan of letting God lead us where we're called, whether that is to big plans or small plans or no plans at all. I thought we would purchase our home within a few months of moving and that surely we would be fully renovated and settled in and starting a new chapter of life with our big kids. I never expected to still be sharing this home with my parents or to completely change our plans when it comes to renovating or to be expecting another baby, yet here we are. To be clear, I couldn't be any happier than I am today. I'm just surprised out how everything has unfolded over the last eighteen ...
Master Bedroom Update | Part Two
I received free product to facilitate this post — all opinions are my own. This post also contains affiliate links, meaning any purchases made using these links will earn Taz + Belly a small commission. You can read more about our affiliate relationships here. It's been an entire month since I showed you this embarrassing view of our bedroom, but we have made so much progress in the last thirty days. The last eighteen months in this house have been equally weird and wonderful, but I never imagined it would take us this long to refresh a single room. We knew when we moved in that we wouldn't be purchasing the house right away and both families fell into a very comfortable routine of enjoying each other's company and not rushing to make any decisions. The house still hasn't changed hands ...
At Home | Sophie’s Room Inspiration
I haven't tallied all of the results from our Reader Survey just yet, but a clear trend is that you want to see more posts about our home. We're scheduled for some winter weather here in the south and the girls are out of school, so we're all cuddled up around the fire, watching for snow. While we're at it, Sophie and I have been doing some internet browsing for inspiration for her room. Wanna see? Sophie has wanted a "pink" room from the very beginning, but I was skeptical. I really want the girls to love their rooms, but I also want something that will grow with them and can be easily transformed down the road. I happened to be browsing the Matilda Jane website over the holidays and saw this beautiful line. Sophie is a big MJ fan and I thought this might be the perfect fit for her new ...
The Log House Vlog | Episode One
It's been just over eighteen months since we publicly shared our decision to buy by childhood home. We talked through so many other options before arriving at this one, but after living here (again) for the last seven weeks, it's hard to imagine we considered anything else. There hasn't been a single day where it hasn't felt like home, I haven't accidentally driven to the wrong house, and it turns out that living with your parents can be down right fun if you let it! I haven't shared too much about our move since closing on the Rock House, but I've been hoarding lots of details and I wanted to share them with you before our renovation begins next year. I'm going to play this like a Q&A, so pretend these are answers to all of your burning questions, okay? We haven't unpacked ...
Introducing the Log House Project
It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since I wrote this post. Only a few weeks ago, we found ourselves in that exact same place. We have continued to look at houses and even liked a few of them, but the market in our area is tricky. Everything is either similar in size and price to the Rock House, or it's a huge home on acreage with a matching price tag. We began seriously discussing whether we wanted to tie up all of our money into a house and land. We've looked at floor plans and Pinterest and we're constantly batting ideas back and forth, trying to decide what feels the most like us. Build, buy, stay? At the end of almost every conversation, we come back to the very same place. To make a very long story short, my parents have been talking about down-sizing for years. Their ...