that little key we got last thursday? well it has led to a whirlwind of days already hopping on projects…emptying our storage unit, painting a few rooms, wil setting up his new garage, doing laundry and using the dishwasher there [...]]]> hi blog. and blog readers. it’s been a while hasn’t it?

that little key we got last thursday? well it has led to a whirlwind of days already hopping on projects…emptying our storage unit, painting a few rooms, wil setting up his new garage, doing laundry and using the dishwasher there because we can, and taking little trips of a few chairs or a couple boxes here and there.

plus, in the midst of spending time over there, our current (and only) computer decided to irreversibly crash.

thus my absence.

i have a feeling i’ll be a bit absent most of this month anyways. in an ideal world i’d be snapping process shots and posting diy’s of the projects we are doing prior to moving in. and i’d be writing whimsical posts of the apple tree and lilac bush that we discovered, or the quaintness of hearing nothing but birds in our backyard while we’ve painted with the windows open.

but who am i kidding, i’m just eager to move in.

plus, in efforts to not be on my feet for a whole night (which is difficult for a restaurant hostess), but still continue working for a couple more weeks, my schedule changed a bit to cover the daytime reservationist position while they hire a new one. and right when i get used to working more days, they probably won’t need me anymore and i’ll have all the time in the world to tell you about life.

so hang tight till then? thanks.

this is my [...]]]> why did i stop doing this? i forgot how much i love these posts, so here’s hoping i get back into the swing of things. i know this week isn’t entirely wordless, but it’s a nice change from my wordy posts with NO pictures the last few weeks.

this is my little niece having a meltdown while at the beach. and i love that wil secretly caught it from afar.

you wondering if wil and i know what we are getting ourselves into? ha. : )

i’ve been thinking a lot of ways i want our home decorated and i love [...]]]> as we approach a new season, a new house, and a new addition to our family, i have had a stronger desire to have more words of truth and encouragement in our home.

i’ve been thinking a lot of ways i want our home decorated and i love the imagery of being surrounded by color, variety and words that mean something when you wake up, get ready in the morning, or simply walk down the hall multiple times a day. and being able to find cute old frames of all shapes and sizes for texture and interest.

in light of introducing a life into this world, as well as seeking our day to day routine to be more purposeful in regards to our marriage and future, i want our home to be a place where the bible is just as common place in our conversation and thoughts as a meal plan or discussion on scheduling is.

i’m hoping i can combine the elements of home decoration and encouraging words together to create some unique pieces for our home! i know naptime diaries is a great source (and great gal) to find cool graphically designed verse prints. pinterest of course has led me to a handful of free printouts (and we always love free!). but i’m also pretty interested in utilizing my own creativity and time to make pieces that are meant for just our home. painting the verse for easter sunday at church really wet my appetite, so i’ve sketched a couple ideas for some big and small paintings to hopefully grace our walls at some point.

i’m sensing i’m going to pile on myself a HUGE list of projects over the next 3 months…let’s see if i actually stay on top of them and take some pictures for you all along the way. if you’re following me, you might have noticed i’ve been a bit more active on pinterest the last few weeks as well, trying to get ideas for the nursery, laundry, pet and mudroom areas…in addition to the ideas that are brewing in my head!

happy easter friends. i pray you find joy and peace in the fact that god came to earth as man,

and he conquered death, just for you.

at one point about a year after being married, we were fortunate enough to both have steady and decent jobs in tennessee to buy our first house. the process was a blast…we lived in a condo that didn’t have any particular lease [...]]]> this is not our first time buying a home.

at one point about a year after being married, we were fortunate enough to both have steady and decent jobs in tennessee to buy our first house. the process was a blast…we lived in a condo that didn’t have any particular lease timeline on it, and we just essentially wanted a house in a good neighborhood. nothing really was on our horizon and we didn’t know what to expect.

it was leisurely (at least i think i remember it being that way!), and wil and i were discovering each other’s tastes in homes and neighborhoods through the process. we knew very little about remodeling and house projects, but the thought of an old home with some character sounded idyllic. wouldn’t you know we settled on a track home that was built in the late 80′s with a garage that stuck out in front :/ …all the ‘cool’ old homes in historic east nashville were always just a little too old, or the streets were just a little too rough. or maybe we just weren’t cool enough.

everything about the process today seems different compared to 4 years ago. maybe being in different regions of the country, a different state of economy, and different phase of life would have something to do with it?

this time we are older and maybe a *little* wiser. we are very honed in on what we like and don’t like, and we are well aware of what’s important and what’s easy to compromise on. we even have the confidence and experience of a couple home improvement projects under our belt. of course, those things help us…but the fact that we have two very looming deadlines (baby and apartment lease), an income almost half of what it was, and much more specific needs make things a bit more complicated.

in addition to that, the market is so competitive right now that there’s no hesitating or you will miss out!

as a buyer, i don’t really feel like we’re in the driver’s seat right now, especially when we see so many listings switch to pending before we can get a showing scheduled. and to think we already had a deal not even make it past the first step…

there was one little house that we were able to keep in our grasp just long enough to make a move on it, and pending appraisal over the next couple weeks, it’s ours! to say this was divinely orchestrated is an understatement. on the day we were supposed to hear back on the first deal, we went out to see 4 or 5 more houses just to be safe and not lose time, in case they didn’t accept our offer. while killing time at home before walking out the door to meet our realtor, wil found 3 more listings…one i was pretty excited about that looked like it came on the market literally within the last 24 hours. but we just assumed we’d see those on a different day since it was such short notice to add those to our list…especially with our realtor heading out of town for his family’s spring break the next day.

about a couple houses in during our time together i mentioned this one new listing in particular and said it looked good on paper and i was interested in seeing it at some point. because it was vacant, our realtor had the ability to just go ahead and get us in that day. well wouldn’t you know it was just as great in person as it boasted on paper, and hit EVERYTHING on our list. and it was even within 6-8 blocks from 3 different couples we have become friends with these past few months through church. we walked away and during the rest of the houses that we were slated to see, i think wil and i both knew that this house would work for us and that we should consider making an offer.

we parted from our realtor under the impression that we’d think about it over the evening, and with him flying out of state the next morning, he said he could coordinate any more showings through his coworker while gone.

not 1 or 2 minutes later passed and he called and said, ‘do you want to write up an offer right now?’ as he realized he had more time free than he thought and that we could go ahead and meet back up at the closest coffee shop. and thank goodness we did, as it turned out when we heard from the seller that night, there already was an offer placed on the house (remember i said it had only been listed for about a day). but he liked ours better!

so much about this house transaction is never how i expected it to all go down…most houses we’ve seen have been ones we’ve pored over online for a a couple days, driven by, then walked through in person a couple days later, and then we’d come home and deliberate pro & con lists and then ultimately throw in the maybe/trash pile. this house was in our viewfinder for a mere 5 hours from discovering it online to writing up an offer.

but when you know, you know.

(this is just a picture from the listing...)

it’s got the perfect balance of age (built 1945) with some nice updates in the kitchen and bathroom, but then it’s a clean slate on the outside and the basement for us to make it our own over the next few years. and enough space that 5 years from now, we won’t be cramped. can’t wait to share the rest with you as we begin moving in! thinking someday down the line some fruit trees, landscaping, and maybe a pop of some window trim might be kind of cute. what do you think?

we remember seeing previews for the first episode however many years ago and being hooked by the pilot, to then watch the series as it happened one painstaking week at a time.

and one fateful [...]]]> wil and i made the mistake decided to rewatch the entire series of lost.

we remember seeing previews for the first episode however many years ago and being hooked by the pilot, to then watch the series as it happened one painstaking week at a time.

and one fateful night at the end of january, we restarted at season one, episode one. and then we just finished it yesterday afternoon…which according to my calculations, that means we averaged almost two episodes a day. in the midst of life, i am curious as to how we even had the time to devote to watching so much in such a short time. it kind of makes me sick.

after the credits rolled we looked at each other and said, what are we going to do with our time?

not rot our brains?

read actual books?

take the dogs for walks?

be creative and take my camera out of it’s bag?

have real conversations that don’t include the names ‘jack, kate, or hurley’?

go to bed at decent times?

reintroduce ourselves to the real world?

honestly, i am glad i am back to reality. just in time for the spring sun, a new house (WHAT? i’ll tell you more later), and some serious nesting that’s about to go down over the next three months.