House 2.0

We started the building process of House 2.0 back in early November. We got to pick out a house, the elevation, the plot of land it sits on and then all the finishing! Its an exciting process but at the same time overwhelming because its hard to visualize the conception of everything coming together.

We had lots of meetings over flooring and lighting. We have gone back and forth on color and design. Seriously its harder than it sounds.

We broke ground on January 25th and the process has been in top gear. We visit the house every Saturday morning and it blows my mind each time at how fast they are moving.

Week 1. 

Week 2.

Week 4.

Every time we pull up the street I gasp and my heart grows 10 sizes. Its still very surreal and I count my blessings each day because its only by the grace of God that we have been able to get to this point in life. I am thankful and so grateful for being able to accomplish this at this point in my life.

House Part 2.

We went back and forth so many times on houses and neighborhoods and different cities near by that we could not really find something we loved. Then the issue of buying older again or maybe building was still on our minds.

We then found a house that had a lot of things we loved. I will call this house Cashmere. Cashmere was the perfect size, it had the cutest backyard and the neighborhood was adorable. BUT........the interior wall color was ugly, the kitchen was not our taste at all and the schools were not that great. Also it was in a part of town that was unfamiliar to both of us and still far from his family. We went back and forth on this house so many times. We even saw it a second time with a realtor. After seeing it we would be like "that's it, its the one stop overthinking it" and then we would sleep on it and change our minds in the morning. We really liked this house but we did not love it. So our search continued.

A few weeks later we found a new development in the area where my husband grew up in and super close to his family. Its a brand new neighborhood and it was in our price range. We decided to check it out. We stalked the area, the houses and went through the pamphlets to the point they were falling apart and then the weekend of Thanksgiving on black Friday we drove over and dropped off our deposit for a lot. Thus House 2.0 was born.

Oh wait....we haven't even listed or gotten our house ready to sell.  So between that Friday and December 3rd we hustled and hauled and our beloved first home went on the market, and between December 3rd and January 26th we had 7 offers, 2 of which fell through ruining Christmas eve and Christmas. All of this also happened while we were on vacation in Rome keep in mind. This whole process aged us like nothing else. We ultimately were able to get a solid offer for asking price and we closed on January 30th and we moved out.

While all of this is happening, House 2.0 was going on in the background. So we were really maxed out at stressing. Do we miss our hold house? Yes and no. The process of selling was a lot of work and it was costly. The ups and downs really took a toll on use emotionally. By the time we sold and moved, which moving was another horrible process we were done. We wanted out and done and over. I have a picture of us from when we bought it and then a picture of us one last time after we closed.

We were finally able to breath on January 30th at 12pm. We can finally get excited about House 2.0

House Part 1.

Columbia was our first house together. It was our first HUGE purchase together. It was the next move on the chessboard to grow our relationship. We were young spring chickens when we bought it and we were so excited to not only own a house but own something historic and really really cool.

The house is a 4 sided white brick colonial with original windows and hardwood floors. Its charm and character is what won us over. We also loved the neighborhood it was in. Aged trees shaded every inch of the street and it was walking distance to coffee and restaurants.

The house was also 100 years old and with age comes issues. We didn't run into too many major issues while living in it but with age there is always issues on the horizon. We paid our fair share in expenses and over time we knew that this might not be our forever home.

After living in it for 6 years and having discussions about our future and growing our family I think we realized that we needed to decided if we were going to invest in the house and rehab it and make it truly our own or if we needed to move. We made a pros and cons list and went back and forth on what we hated and loved. What we really wanted and what would be nice. Here were some examples of things we discussed

Pros List

• Beautiful Neighborhood
• Walking distance is 10/10
• Historic and has lots of character
• Short commute to work
• Fenced in yard for dogs
• Gorgeous wood burning fireplace
• Lots of natural light

Cons List

• Detached Garage that is also a tight squeeze
• Cannot open windows during nice weather
• Outdated kitchen
• Layout was not ideal 

I could really go on and on. Chris's number one item was not having a finished basement. Our basement was fine but very compartmentalized. So even though we had decent height and space  it was not open enough to finish it.  My number one item...well more like 3 items was the kitchen was outdated and closed off, and I hated walking outside to our garage. I hated when it was -6 outside and snowing or raining or humid and sticky and walking to the garage. Ugh thinking about it makes me still cringe.

ultimately we realized that if we invested a ton of money into the house we would still have major cons on our list and for that reason we decided it might be best to start looking for something different all together.

So what did we start doing? We started going to open houses on the weekends and then we toyed around with the idea of building new construction so we started going to new communities.

This process was a lot more overwhelming than we thought because now this "idea" of maybe moving opened up path to so many decisions. What area do we want to live in? What are we sacrificing? Can we afford it? Would we really be happy? Can we picture ourselves here? It was like a true maze of if yes turn left if no go back type of path.

We would bring home pamphlets and packets and handouts to the point that the pile turned into a mountain of papers..........to be continued

Roman Holiday

We did it! We scratched off another item off our bucket list of things to do and places to see. Let me rewind to beginning of the 2017 Chris and I entertained around with the idea of going on another European trip. What places were we considering? well...we though Iceland would be amazing, Ireland, Italy, London.....the list went on. Well this was just an idea until we started talking about it some more. We some how narrowed it down to Italy. We kept talking about Italy and Rome and all the history and the food oh the food. This idea died as quickly as it became an idea until fast forward to July. I get a phone call from Chris while I was at work. "Honey he chimes I booked us a trip to Italy" I didn't believe him. This is not in his nature to do. Chris does not spring up surprises let alone a trip like that on me. He never has and I still didn't believe it. "You did what???" I yelled back "Yep December. Rome. Be there! uh I think I died and went to heaven.

So December 2017 we went on our Roman Holiday!! We stayed at the Relais Maddalena Hotel in the heart of Rome. We were a stones throw away from the Pantheon and right next door Lindt Chocolate. I had a coffee shop and Gelato shop on every corner. The cobble stones and narrow streets were something out of a movie. Everything was draped in Christmas lights and twinkled in the rain, since it did rain while we were there. We walked everywhere and ate everything! in the words of Joey Tribbiani "The Pizza? Good!" The Pasta? Good!

I might have also done a bit of damage down Via Dei Condotti (oops)

It was so magical and memorizing and better than you could imagine. I loved every inch of it and it now has a special place in our hearts. I can't wait to see where our next adventure will be in 2018.

xoxo
Simone