Let Me Introduce You… {A House Story}

Buying a house is a big {kind of scary} deal. Three years ago today, we found our current home. When we went through the process, I was afraid to share it here. But the story is miraculous and I still get emails after mentioning it on the Modern Sewciety podcast, so I thought I would introduce you to our home.

Two years ago, my little shop had grown from a small closet shelf to completely filling the spare bedroom, the master bedroom, and the mudroom. We cut fabric on the kitchen counter and folded it on the dining room table. We used our garage for extra storage and our little boy slept in a crib in the master closet. The business I had started had taken over. This was an awesome ‘problem’ to have, but a very hard problem to live with.

One day, while cutting 5 inch charms of Tula Pink’s Prince Charming on the kitchen counter, I felt a very sudden, strong need to get my kids in the car and go for a drive. I’ve gotten that feeling before and had learned to listen. Quickly, I buckled my little people into the car and started driving. After 40 minutes of winding through neighborhoods, I found myself ten minutes from where I started on a road I’d never seen, staring at a sadly neglected craftsman home.

I snapped a picture and sent it to my husband who forwarded the picture to our real estate agent. Then came the news. Even in it’s sad state, this home was way out of our budget. I turned my car around and went back home, but the feeling wouldn’t stop.

Our real estate agent called later and asked to meet us at the home. We agreed. When we walked inside, it was obvious the home needed work. Abandoned several years before, the previous owners left it open to the elements & animals when they left. But the home had a good floor plan that included a separate recording studio – a great home for our fabric! I loved it immediately. Our agent asked if the current owner came down in price, if we would want it. We looked around, surrounded by the mess and the chaos and said no. Luckily he had a hunch this home was meant to be ours, and he didn’t take no for an answer. Nearly a week later, he called and let us know he’d been back and forth with the owner, and the house could be ours at a price that would allow us to move in. Despite the work ahead of us, we smiled at each other as we signed the contract. 

We got to work as soon as we moved in, repairing one part of our home each month. If we weren’t cutting fabric, we were fixing plumbing, or electrical, or putting in a landscape. Now, nearly three years in, it’s finally starting to feel like a home should. The rooms we anticipated moving our shop into have now allowed us to grow our business. It has truly been a blessing.

(our shop before)

(our shop after)

Since we purchased the home we’ve:
Finished an unfinished dining room
Repaired plumbing in all of the bathrooms & kitchen
Repaired electrical on the outside of the home
Repaired stucco & stone on the outside
Solved the problem of basement flooding & cleaned up mold
Replaced {absolutely disgusting, cat smelling} carpet
Put in a landscape (this was one of my favorite projects!)
Updated the cabinets
Updated the front step (another favorite! and very inexpensive!)
Remodeled the pantry/powder bath
Put a sliding barn door on the door-less bathroom (why do they make bathrooms without doors?!)
And now we are converting a small, awkward nursery off of the master in to a master closet (My own closet! I’m so excited!!)

And can I confess something? I love that it isn’t ‘perfect’. It is perfect for our family. This home allowed me to use my imagination to create a place we love to be. I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of tweaking it, making it more ‘us’. The joy in this journey is seeing something become new again and leaving it better than we found it.

I have a couple of little, inexpensive remodels that have made a big impact on the function and fashion of our home, and I’ll be sharing those in the coming weeks & months. One of the biggest ‘fashion’ changes we made were updating our cabinets, and it cost less than $300. 

(My husband built our new dining room table! I love it to pieces!)

Thank you for reading! I can’t wait to share more and I hope I share a little bit of inspiration (on a budget!) along the way!