New House Kitchen Design

One of the rooms I'm most excited about in our new house is our kitchen! I'm actually going with a similar vibe to our previous kitchen because I loved it so much. (In fact, I'm 99% sure I'm going to do the same Silestone Snowy Ibiza Quartz countertops!) and a subway tile backsplash (although I may do all white grout). The major difference in styling is that in our old house we went with oil rubbed bronze fixtures and hardware, and in this house we're  going with satin nickel. As I mentioned before, I'm going for a less traditional, more light/bright feel and I think the lighter fixtures complement that vibe.

In terms of the details, I picked out these beautiful Harmon Pendants from Restoration Hardware to go above the island. They just arrived... I can't stop looking at them! They will be the gem of the room! I also ordered these beautiful Riviera Counterstools  from Serena and Lily. They were the first thing I bought for the new house and I feel like set the fun blue/white vibe I'm going for! Love them. (In fact, the whole house is going to have a LOT of Serena and Lily details! The store is my current obsession!) We're also doing the Kohler Whitehaven farmhouse sink and the Moen Noell Kitchen Faucet (We had a similar Moen faucet in our old house and it was the best). We're also going with Kitchenaid appliances. So excited! It's truly better than Christmas!

The catch is that we are doing these details AFTER we get ownership of the house. The upgrades from the builder were just not 100% what I wanted, and quite frankly, they charged a freaking arm and a leg for them! So, we really only upgraded the cabinets with the builder.  We are doing the backsplash, sink, countertops, and light fixtures as upgrades once we move in. It's kind of a pain, but I want it to PERFECT and so I have no doubt it will be worth the hassle and the wait to get it exactly the way I want! Plus it feels good to pay for these things with cash rather than roll them into the mortgage and be paying interest on them. (I know, I'm a nerd). Anyway, what do you think?

I literally fall asleep dreaming about this kitchen, lol. :) 

New House Floor Plan!

So as I mentioned here, we are building a new house and I cannot wait to share it with you -  starting with the floor plan! I absolutely LOVE this floor plan. I feel like it has everything we need, and nothing we don't. I love the layout and the flow. It's the perfect little home for our family! 

While I loved our old 1940's colonial home in Cleveland, there are so many features that excite me about this new house that we didn't have in our old house. This includes:

1. An open concept. I'm SO excited to have an open kitchen/dining/family room. I absolutely love that I will be able to keep an eye on the boys while I'm in the kitchen, since I spend SO MUCH time in there. This will make parenting and cooking 1000x easier. Also, there are so many windows along the back of the house (which faces south!) and paired with the 9 ft ceilings, the space feels so big and bright. 
2. A home office. At our old house, I had a desk on the third floor but it was so dark and either really hot or really cold (depending on the season), that I never really used it. Having my own office space on the 1st floor will be so amazing and I can't wait to have all of my books, inspiration, files, etc. all organized. It is one of the rooms I'm most excited to decorate! It will have french doors at the entrance and it has a huge window that overlooks our front yard, so this will be another bright room. 
3. A split staircase. This is another thing that sold me on this house. My boys are RAMBUNCTIOUS and I'm holding my breath every time they go up and down the stairs. I love that in this house, the staircase isn't so steep (And yes, I will immediately be making and installing baby gates like we did in our old house! However, the older two are getting more independent and can pretty much go up on their own, but I'm still nervous about one wrong step and a fall! This makes me breathe much easier.)
4. Four Bedrooms on a single floor. Each boy will have his own room. This is MUCH needed! The older two seem to have very different sleep schedules. One is a night owl, one is an early bird. I think they will both get more sleep not sharing a room. 
5. A master bathroom. Hallelujah. No explanation needed!
6. 2nd floor laundry room. After doing laundry in the basement for 8-years, this is my idea of heaven. Especially with potty training three boys! Ha! 
7. Walk-in closets. After living in a house build in the 1940s with really, really small closets, I am so excited for all of the storage this house will have!
8. A huge basement. It might sound silly to those of you that haven't lived in a really old house before, but I love the idea of a fresh, clean, open basement. The one in our old house was tight, dark, had gross carpet, and was never really used other than for storage and laundry. This will be a much needed playroom for the boys in the winter! 
9. NO formal dining room or living room. I plan on dedicating an entire post to just this concept, but I love that this house does not have a formal dining room or living room. I just really didn't need it, didn't want it, didn't have furniture for it, didn't want to clean it, etc. I could go on ;) And I will eventually! But I LOVE that this house has 100% truly useful spaces for our family. 
10. An attached garage. I always tell people the hardest thing about having three kids is getting them in and out of the car, especially in the winter. I have NO DOUBT that having an attached garage is going to make this so much less painful! Bring on winter! (Just kidding, not ready for that QUITE yet!)

The one thing our old house had that I absolutely INSISTED we have in our new house was a mudroom. That was the most functional room in our last house and I love that we have another one in this house right off the garage. Absolute necessity with kids! 

Can't wait to share more with you soon, including construction pictures showing the progress of the build! I didn't want to post every minor update, but it is REALLY coming along and I am so excited to show you what it looks like now! Stay tuned!

We're Moving!

So if you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen the news - WE'RE MOVING!

Actually, we're about halfway through the move at this point :) It is a bit of a process. I will explain it ALL below!

The Decision to Move

Why are we moving? We decided that we wanted to be closer my family! Plain and simply - I miss them and with three kids, I could really use the help they are more than willing to give :) I'm excited to be back in the area I grew up in as well. It has ALWAYS felt like home! Plus, I have some childhood/high school/college friends in the area that I look forward to reconnecting with. It is exciting because it feels like a fresh start, but it is also a place where we already have strong roots and connections. While it is definitely hard to leave our old house and our friends and family in Cleveland, I have no doubt this is the right move for our family.

Selling Our House

We REALLY lucked out on this front. We told our friends who live two doors down that we were planning on moving and were working to get our house on the market. Not two days later, I get a text from them saying that they were potentially interested in buying our house, and could they tour it and decide before we formally list it? Um, YES! God bless them, because our house was turned upside down when they did the walkthrough and they still decided they wanted it! SO thankful because this saved us an immense amount of time, energy, and money. I was absolutely dreading having to clean the house and scoot the kids around for multiple showings. The fact they wanted to move forward and buy our house was a tremendous blessing! 

Why buy our house when they lived just two doors down? Number one, we have the one of the most beautiful streets in our area. No question about it! (There is actually another young couple on our street who just bought the house across the street! See - no one wants to leave!) Second, while the houses are very similar, ours has a big mudroom, new garage, new fence, new driveway, and they - flatteringly- say that they just loved the style of our house! Seriously there is no bigger compliment! :) 

Our New House

After looking at lots of houses in our target area, we decided to BUILD! Honestly, I just wasn't up for a renovation and wanted to avoid the feeling of immediately needing to overhaul every room to make it my taste and style. Even the thought of having to paint every room seemed overwhelming! I'm all up for little decorating projects, but no major overhauls at this stage in life. I would rather spend my precious time with the playing with the kids!

Building gave us the opportunity to have a turn-key, fresh, blank slate. A house that I can update over time and make it my own, but feels clean and livable in the meantime. 

Our new house is scheduled to be done in October! I'm so excited. It isn't the biggest house or the most fancy house, but I love the location, the floorpan, and the potential! Stay tuned for more :) 

In The Meantime

While our house is being built, we are living with my parents! They live exactly ten minutes away from our new house and have plenty of space! It was SIGNIFICANTLY easier (and less expensive!) than packing everything up and unpacking it all in an apartment just to pack it all up and move again in three months. (I'm sooooo over packing, lol!) We pretty much only had to pack up suitcases and some toys to bring to my parents, which has been awesome. Everything else was loaded up into a pod  by movers  and will be delivered to our new house when we are ready. So seamless! We've been here for exactly two weeks and the boys are LOVING the quality time with Grandma and Grandpa! 

I'm so excited to share more about our new house as construction progresses and decorating plans take shape!