Homeowners: Downstairs Tour x2

Somehow it's already been two months since we moved into our newest home and while most of the "moving in" process happened immediately thanks to the daunting start of residency, we've been slowly putting the finishing touches together. There's still a handful of things I want to do/aren't quite finished, but really, when is a house 100% done anyways. So for now, here's a mini tour of our newest residence! 

We love how open the floor plan is while still creating specific spaces. Our front room has giant vaulted ceilings that let in the best light and it even spills into the upstairs loft area just at the top of the stairs. We have a formal dining room that definitely needs some additional furniture pieces to finish it off but I can't wait to host all our favorite holidays in that room. And speaking of holidays, I'm already day-dreaming about where our Christmas tree will go in our new house! Personalized art and hanging pictures of my family is basically my go-to decorating style and this huge gallery wall did not disappoint. Thanks to my lovely husband for busting out the level for these bad boys. 

Moving towards the back of our house into the kitchen and family room space... here's a tidbit for you, we purchased our house new but didn't get to pick the finishes like you "typically" do with a new build. However, I absolutely love our kitchen space. Gray subway tiles, white cabinets and plenty of storage space. Seriously some of our cabinets are 100% empty still! I still want to get bar stools for the island but am waiting until I find the perfect ones. We purchased all our family room furniture new for this house because the room is so massive and our old items didn't fill the space correctly. Our sectional is seriously huge and the most comfy to lay on late at night. Our little built in desk/bill/mail station is also a work in progress as I'd love to make it into a work space for me for any charting I'll have to do at home in the next few years. 

Down the hallway leads to the garage as well as our downstairs bathroom, which I might add is a full bath with shower and tub. J's office is also set up in our first floor bedroom and we have even more storage space in two hallway closets. One of my favorite upgrades to our home is the built-ins in the mud room. Having the littles makes it so we always have tons of "stuff" when we're headed out the door and this space is the perfect catch all for throwing shoes into the bottom, hanging coats and hats on the hooks and setting our famous dino back pack on the ledge. It also holds dog bowls and food and seasonal items like our pool bag. The stairs into the unfinished basement are also tucked away in these hallways and constantly sporting a gate for mischievous little boys. 

It seems like every new house we have feels like home quicker than the last but I'm still shocked at how much this place already feels "right" for our family. The boys absolutely love it here and so do J and I. A move is one of the biggest life stresses for sure and I'm so happy with the outcome of this new adventure. Here's to the next 3 years or more if we just can't seem to leave this place after then. 

#hollandsintimnath 

Homeowners: The Hollands Move - again!

In the whirlwind that this spring/summer has been I've failed to post here about our most recent adventure. 

We've moved! 

I briefly mentioned my Match Day results in a monthly post for Patrick but figured it was worth documenting all for it's self. I matched into the Family Medicine program in Ft. Collins, Colorado. This three year journey will begin in the beginning of July and over the course of the last few weeks we've closed on the selling of our 2nd home and the purchasing of our 3rd, packed & moved and unpacked in our brand-new home. I am taking full advantage of the free time I have to combo getting things done around the house and having lots of summer fun with my two tiny ones. I hope to share more details about our newest home as things come together but we seriously love our new place! 

It's Been A Year

We just passed the one-year mark since moving into our house and back to our home state. And oh boy, what a year it's been. Filled with celebrations, occasional downfalls, all four seasons and lots of change.

We've celebrated big events, hosted holidays and created traditions. We've had drop in guests, noise filled evenings and made lots of memories with those we care about. This house has turned into our home, such a different feeling than that from our San Diego house, that always had an air of "for now" to it. We take such pride in this house and it feels so much more permanent, so much better, just right, like home. This is where we're supposed to be, I just know it.

In the last year I've watched J settle into a work routine here and couldn't be more proud of him. He works so hard to provide for our family and it makes me beam just thinking about all his success. I have almost survived my first year of medical school and find myself thinking with fondness and sometimes dismay about all the places around the house I've cooped up studying late into the night.

I've cried tears of happiness and sadness in this house. Fought with my husband and fallen even more in love in this house. Cursed the heat because of our lack of AC and wrapped myself in blankets by the fire in this house. We celebrated one year of marriage and found out about our baby in this house.

When we first fell in love with this place I had ideas in my head about what this first year had in store. I never would have imagined it would turn out so good. Here's to year one and all that's in store for the next year!

And if you want to see what a difference actually watering your lawn makes, 

here's what it looked like last year compared to now.

Homeowners: The Office

The office has become one of the most used rooms in our house and just so happened to be one of the first places I tackled once we moved in. Since J is working from home and I'm in school, we both knew we needed to have specific places to work instead of just spreading out on the kitchen table or somewhere else in the house. 

After a paint transformation from pastel-pink with sparkle to a soothing sage green plus the addition of two new desks and some decor we already had, here's a peak into where we've been spending a lot of time lately. 

We decided to take the closet doors off and put my desk snuggled into the space. It worked out perfect because there's an overhead light inside all our closets and it helps the room not seem too crowded with two big desks.

This is the usual state of my desk... covered with Basis of Disease books or lab manuals, tons of notes and colored pens and of course, coffee! I reused the frame that held our table-settings at the wedding to hold some of my favorite pictures from that day. As much as I hate how much time I spend sitting here, at least I've got my own little set-up to make me smile.

We bought two bookcases from Target that now hold both "for fun" books as well as all my textbooks. Our diplomas are finally hung and I made a few prints of encouragement to lighten things up. I have to say my current favorite shelf is the one that holds all my new med school equipment, purple stethoscope and all!

The office window faces to the front of the house and lets us know who's coming and going throughout the day/evening. And there are always signs of Ollie in the form of dog hair, toys and sometimes even his silly self making the office that much better.

Now if only I wasn't spending hours upon hours up here ;-)

Homeowners: Downstairs Tour

Home: one's place of residence

We are in love with where we live. The house itself. The people here. The city. It's a work in progress and we love every minute.

Home: the social unit formed by a family living together
J & Ollie make this house a home. Our family is little and so, so happy. 

Home: a familiar or usual setting
The place we wake up each morning and share dinner together. The place the finally feels permanent after years of unsettled feelings.

Home: a place of origin
The place where we plan to grow over the next many years. The place where memories are made, love is endless and life together flourishes.

at Home: in harmony with the surroundings

Finally feeling like we have everything that we need and so much more. Finally feeling like this is where we're supposed to be.

at Home: relaxed and comfortable

My favorite place in the world.

Homeowners: Brand New Flooring

It seems as if this project has been going on since we moved in (which is somehow already 7+ weeks ago) but now that our "adventures in flooring" are finally complete I can share with you the final product. 

We are absolutely in looove with our new hardwood and the fact that we did it ourselves is a huge confidence boost in the DIY-department. When I say "ourselves" I really mean J and his dad since my "helping" consisted of picking out boards that I thought were pretty and handing them off to the men. 

Previously the entire downstairs minus the kitchen and front entrance was carpet, and crappy carpet at that. J and my personal preference is to have hardwood in high-traffic & eating areas while still having carpet in living spaces to make it more cozy.

After ripping out the old carpet & prepping the subfloor, the new hardwood was finished over the course of a weekend. In total we laid about 250 square feet and then had the new carpet professionally installed a few weeks later. 

The wood we picked is Brazillian Koa in 5" width and the carpet is Martha Stewart from Home Depot in the color "Ganache". One interesting thing about this hardwood is that over the course of the next 6ish months, it will darken into it's final color from exposure to the air and sun which means we have to keep moving our kitchen table around so that it darkens evenly. (hello puppy nose!)

The wood has such amazing character and I love all the grain variations between boards. This little dark board was one of my favorites so I made sure it was placed in a visible place. We ran the new wood in the same direction as the existing Hickory in the kitchen and I love the contrast between the blonde and red woods. 

This was definitely the biggest and most expensive/time-consuming/nerve-racking home improvement project we've ever tackled and we are thrilled with the results. We love how our entire downstairs is coming along and are so happy we put in the effort with the flooring. Even Ollie's a fan!

Another checkmark in the homeownership department for us!

Homeowners: The Disaster of a Move

I never thought the day would come when this would be the sight out our front window. This was the first time J and I have used a moving company for a move and we learned so much from the experience. We learned about reading contracts, about taking someone's word and about the importance of customer service towards satisfaction. We learned new things about each other, what really makes a home and how generous those around us really are. The companies we used were downright horrible and we were honestly worried about our things even making it to us in the first place so when this truck backed down the cup-de-sac we both did a version of a happy dance.

And after 3 very long weeks we finally have all of our stuff from San Diego. 

A bed, a glorious non-airmatress bed. A pantry full of food. A new kitchen table to enjoy meals together. Lots and lots of things for the walls. All our kitchen supplies. Fresh clothes and shoes. Yesterday was an awesome (and tiring) day and as I sit on the patio this morning, drinking my coffee and enjoying the shade of our umbrella, I'm feeling a thousand times more excited for our new life in CO.

And this my friends, is the aftermath of our unpacking efforts from yesterday. I'm pretty proud of us and all we were able to do in just one night. There are about half a dozen boxes still unopened or partly full inside the house but we made so much progress already that waking up this morning felt glorious!

Homeowners: Bits of Color

Having an awesome backyard space is something that's a huge priority for J and I. Between enjoying dinners on the patio together, having a space for our O-dog to play, and hosting lots of get togethers with friends and yard games we can't wait to get our yard in tip-top shape. 

When we moved in the yard was in rough shape, not quite as bad as our first yard, but it still needed a lot of work. The former owners knew they were selling so they spent little time with anything yard related, even watering unfortunately. I spent a whole day pulling weeds and wild-grass (something that we'll always have to deal with since we back to a green belt) and we're still working to get the grass back to life. Lots of water and some new seed should definitely help in that area. 

But we have been making lots of progress in the yard already and I can't wait to share! We've spent a ton of time getting our planter boxes filled with gorgeous perennials and have made some progress with shrubs around the edges of the yard as well. We wandered around the nursery for quite some time picking out items that we love, things that will fill out in years to come and I can't wait to see them grow!

J named our smokebush Smokey Robinson, such a silly husband I have.

Here's a list of what's in our yard so far!

Double Play Gold Spirea :: Gaillardia // Celosia // White Sage // Coneflower :: Aurora Deep Purple Delphinium // Purple Picotee Dianthus :: Royal Purple Smokebush :: Blue Mist Bluebird :: Rabbitbrush

Now if only we could get our patio furniture and fire pit from the movers. It seems as though the moving truck took a detour to Alaska before delivering our stuff so it could be a while still. Oy vey!

Homeowners: An Adult Guest Bath

Updating the guest bathroom upstairs was pretty high on the to-do list once we moved in and since we still don't have our stuff from the moving company (also read, the horrible nightmare where we just hope we get our stuff someday) I decided to tackle this project to keep me (and my mind) busy. 

Incase you didn't believe me that this bathroom was in serious need of an update let's take a look at the before.  

Yep. It was seriously that color. I understand that the previous owners had 3 young kids but really? We found the paint can in the basement and it's literally "Alien Green". Why any company would actually choose to make such a color is beyond me but regardless, it needed to go!

The color in the "After" picture is the most accurate to the true color in the room. Bathrooms and their lack of natural light are always tricky to photograph. And the best part of this project? It was basically free. The can of paint we used was completely full in our basement which equals free. The shower curtain, rod and liner were extras from my mom's house after she moved, free again! The towel rods and such were already there and the white frame was a Goodwill purchase for around $4. Add in a few bucks for painters tape and I am thrilled with our guest bath!

On to another project in the new home!

Homeowners: We've Moved

It has been quite the stressful, busy, hectic, and yet amazing last week or so as we finished preparing for our big move, made the drive to CO and are finally in our new home. We have yet to get all our belongings delivered by the moving company and are anticipating their arrival on pins and needles but we are thankful to be in the new home even if it is a little off still. 

Here's a glimpse into the adventure so far....

 the sweet pup finally starting to adjust after being pretty out or sorts // generous spare items from family to make things a bit more workable around here

porch lights that signal we're home to the neighbors // delicious homemade & warm treats from next door

 the dying front tree that we're fighting for // the back tree that doesn't quite know where to grow leaves from

 air mattress beds and bits of home in the form of dog toys // a master bathroom with super high countertops that I love

cozy house pants that bring a bit of life inside // a front porch on a cul-de-sac to display more gorgeous blooms

lavender waiting to go in the ground // empty planters waiting for a garden

this view from our upstairs, I seriously can't get enough

Now let's just hope that our stuff arrives sooner rather than later so we can have more clothes, furniture and a full kitchen again. Until then we're making due with what we have, relying on the generosity of our friends and family and loving our new life back in our home state.