(Please listen to this song in it’s entirety. It’s so beautiful!)

 

Back in March, Adam and I decided to start house hunting. What a FUN process! I loved looking at houses online and doing research. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the military and moved every year, because I LOVE to go into empty spaces and imagine all the things I could do in the room. Furniture, paint, decorating, I love it all!  I still (sometimes) look at houses online, just to look!

But as Adam and I started to actually go into the houses we picked out online…it got kind of depressing. Some of my key words when looking for a house were: historic, charming, unique. As it turns out, most historic, charming, and unique homes were OLD (aka. decrepit) and over-priced (not to mention, they needed so much work!)  The houses we looked at were old, had wonky walls, and were smelly (seriously, if you’re trying to sell your house, wash your dog and light a candle!).

We made an appointment to see the house that we are now living in, and on the way to the house I told Adam: “Okay, remember: we are only looking at this house for FUN. Do NOT fall in love with this house. We just need to see something nice to encourage us as we continue to house hunt.” Adam nodded, and we pulled in the driveway.

As we toured the house, I just thought “Awesome, this house is so great. Good for the people who live here.” I didn’t take it seriously, because it was over our budget and outside of the downtown area I wanted to live in.  As soon as we got in the car after touring the house, Adam said “Let’s go home and re-evaluate our budget. I think we can make this work.” I slapped my hand to my forehead and exclaimed “Dangit Adam! I told you! This house was just for fun!”

You see, Adam is from Vermont. And I spent a lot of my youth in Rhode Island. We both love New England, so this house has a particular appeal to us. And, obviously, we made it work. We bought the house and we plan on living here for the rest of our happy little lives.

The house is a colonial style, saltbox home. The couple we purchased it from designed and built the house and put in some amazing features. The post of the staircase is antique, and so it one of the fireplace mantles in my office (yes, my office has a fireplace!). And so even though the home is only a few years old, the whole house looks antique.

Oh! And one more totally amazing thing: my house is painted in the exact colours of my business card.  The downstairs is all a deep red/maroon, and the upstairs is all a khaki gold. #?!?!?!?!?!?!?! SO COOL.

Check it out! I’ll narrate as we go along.

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When choosing furniture, I discovered I had to be a lot more specific than I was used to. Most homes, when they’re empty, are a blank slate as far as buying furniture and decorating go. This house though, when it’s empty, still has a very particular style and it’s colonial! So I’ve been putting my hours in at the antique stores and SouthEastern Salvage (in Chattanooga, TN. I’d highly recommend it!). We got this farmhouse table, bench, & leather studded chairs all from SouthEastern Salvage.

 

A gun over the fireplace? Of course!

The floors are AMAZING. They are maybe my favourite part of the whole house. The planks are about nine inches wide and have the square nails…ahhh….beautiful!

Both fireplaces have this awesome brick laid in front of them:

Everyone knows I love old steam locomotives, right? Well I found this incredible brass etching at an antique store this summer & Adam bought it for me (he’s the bomb!). It’s now hanging in my office, to the left of my FIREPLACE

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This is the consultation side of my office.

See what I mean about my business cards matching my house? SO COOL.

 

Adam’s Uncle (now my uncle too, right?!) MADE us these wooden Irish wedding cups. Aren’t they beautiful??!

Did I mention the master bathroom is the size of a bedroom and has a big, ‘ol, RED tub?

We bought this mirror at SouthEastern Salvage too. It’s giant & so heavy, and we LOVE it! We went back to look at it about three or four times over the course of a few months to see if we really wanted it. & we did!

Henry loves it too.

The only door knobs in the house are on doors leading to the outside. All the interiour handles are these colonial style ones. I love them!

Then, Adam built us (with his very own hands & tools) these awesome nightstands. Notice the brass L’s on the edges. I love them! We have a great partnership: I have ideas and then he actually does the math to make them happen. Then, I stain & shellac everything. 

 

When cleaning the other day, I found this letter Adam wrote me. It was right before we started dating and it was LESS than a year ago! And now we’re married & have a house! CRAZY! AWESOME!

Henry and I hang out ALL DAY. He’s the best. And isn’t he so handsome?

Last week Adam & I bought an old fireplace mantle and Adam spent hours reinforcing it, taking it apart and making it better, etc. I then came in and stained & shellacked the wood. Then, I sandpapered it all off and re-did with another colour stain. The mantle is now at the foot of our bed, and we are building a little fake fireplace for the bottom of it and we’ll put a bunch of candle at staggering heights. Ah! I can’t wait! Photos will be posted of that when it’s all complete.