Home!

It feels so great to be back, its been about 2 weeks now. We pretty much jumped right into things.  Less than two days after we flew to SFO, we drove down to LA and had reunions with family and friends. Ever since we got back we've dived straight into home stuff, more reunions, and getting to know our new 'hood (essentially the whole bay area, one block at a time haha). What we've figured out so far:

Finalized flooring, paint colors, and identified other immediate house needs. We'll be going with caramel with an ever so slight red tone wood floors to bring in warmth to our mainly gray, blue, and off white color scheme. Pretty easy decisions so far, we just needed to educate ourselves on what's available.

Decided on some big ticket items- sofa and area rugs. I already picked out our couch (btw, what's the diff between a couch and a sofa??) last year and I just had to figure out what size and shape fit best for our new living room. The area rug size was dependent on the sofa. Here it is, I ended up with a 6x9. I didn't really need to order it right away but 75% off is a huge deal and so I'd rather get it done with.  I also picked up a herringbone rug for one of the bedrooms, I haven't decided which one yet. Good thing I bought it anyway, looks like its only 35% off now. So yay, tangible purchases!

There are a ton of other house decisions to be made, but I feel like I need to live in the actual house for a bit and slowly tackle the other items one by one. I used to want to have the house completely move in ready and "perfect" prior to move in, but honestly now I want to live there first to figure out what our needs are. Really the only immediate priorities are safety issues like rekeying the locks, painting and flooring (for obvious reasons, if you've ever had to prep for painting you know how annoying it is!), and wiring for lighting. Other than that, I don't even need cute curtains or perfect kitchen cabinets before we move in. I'm willing to live with the ugly blinds and an unkempt yard for a while until I have more time and energy to tackle those things as we're ready. Hence, our Pinterest board is called an "evolution."

Striping off 4 layers of paint on our fireplace. A priority for sure! It's a messy and stinky project.

Spackling is a biotch. Ugh, I think I hate it more than painter taping.  But it's so worth it!

Other stuff on our list...Olympics watching, job hunting, more bay area discovering, and I am super excited for the day we move in and I can go to Trader Joes and stock up our kitchen, AND sleep in my own bed! I've missed my Kind bars, homemade smoothies, and my beloved Oregon Chai with warm milk! I think once we get the big stuff done with, move in, and then we can take care of everything else at our own pace. Traveling has really changed me! The pace we are doing things right now is pretty manageable and reasonable for the amount of time and energy that we have. More updates to come!