.jpg "This Little Miggy || Home Update")
We renovated a 1961 mid century home and gutted it from top to bottom. In addition to being our dream house, it’s also an accessible dream house. You can follow along from the beginning here and here with bathroom inspiration here and here, kitchen inspiration here, lighting here, and a discussion about universal design here.
Well hello there.
The craziness that was moving + Christmas in the same week has concluded. We have officially lived in our new house a week and a day and I LOVE BEING HERE. We all love being here, but I might love it the most–this house was another baby to me. From that very first walk through when we were kicking past trash, walking into spider webs and when I would not step more than 2 feet into the kitchen, to committing to purchase, to months and months and months (21 to be exact) of waiting/designing/planning, to surprises and baby steps the entire way, finally to this. Our accessible home. It is both beautiful and functional. Not perfect, but pretty damn close.
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. The moving truck came nearly 2 weeks ago, but we couldn’t actually live in the house for a few days after (waiting for our certificate of occupancy) so we had to stay in an Airbnb, which meant that for a couple of days we were spread between 3 houses. Zuzu also preformed in the Nutcracker, my mom was in town, we cleaned our old house and handed over the keys, we unpacked boxes and waited for the final OK and then we got it. We were allowed to move into our new home!
And then my grandma passed away. On the same day.
But we still had a week of unpacking and school to get through, 3 class parties + 2 school performances, Christmas decorations to put up including the smallest tree, a birthday to celebrate, A Christmas Carol performance to see, and then actual Christmas and now finally, finally,we rest. Until this weekend when we will go to Grandma’s funeral.
But we’re home. It is my dream home. Our forever home. And most importantly, it feels like home. Which is good because my husband has informed me he’s never building/renovating another house again and we will most likely die here. One less thing to worry about! Honey have you thought about where you want to die? In this damn house! Perfect. I’ll cross that one off the list. .jpg "This Little Miggy || House Update")
The neighbors have been so welcoming and gracious. “It’s so wonderful to drive by and see the lights on in that house!” “We love what you’ve done with the place, we’re so excited to have you!” We’ve seen more than a few cars park in front of the house for a few to take a gander. It feels nice–complimentary. And yes a little creepy. Window treatments are being ordered. But mostly nice. Our street is not a busy one so we know most people who stop for a peek are neighbors checking out what we’ve done with the place. (Remember it sat empty for years and was on the brink of being torn down.) One of our neighbors, an older grandmother, grew up across the street from our house. She remembered watching them build our house when she was just 8 years old. She was so excited to see our girls running the living room. As many of you know, the most recent occupancy of this home had a tragic ending, and it feels good to breathe some new life into these old bones made of post and beam..jpg)
We may have only had one week to get our Christmas cup filled, but we did our best. We watched It’s a Wonderful Life, we baked Christmas cookies and the first meal we ate at the dining table was Christmas dinner. Our girls had friends over today. The wide open spaces make it so easy for everyone to move around, and yes the elevator is quite the draw with visiting kids. We expected as much..jpg)
The girls having their own rooms is good. PSP especially was ready for her own space. And the bathrooms… they are wide and spacious and it makes my heart soar to see my Lamp navigate a space with ease that has historically been one of the most difficult. We did our best to make our old bathroom renovation accessible (it was a HUGE improvement) but when you can’t create square footage out of thin air, there’s only so much you can do.
I will eventually feature the house in some sort of home tour, but that could take a while. The house is not 100% finished–we don’t have a drive way (but coincidentally lots of mud!), there are paint touch ups and handles that need to be attached and we are missing some railings which means certain exterior doors are boarded up so we don’t fall off any terraces. Besides that there is still plenty of unpacking and moving in to do–furniture to purchase, pictures to hang, clostes to organize and don’t forget about those window treatments! But in the meantime I am simply loving being home.
There’s no place like it, am I right?
