Friday Favorites
Well, it’s official. Our house is for sale and things are feeling strange! Hopefully you’ve been following along on Instagram stories because this past week has been a doozy. We’ve been scrambling to cross approximately 8 million projects off of our to-do list, plus get our house clean and show-ready, and we managed to make it happen in the nick of time. We’re crossing our fingers that things happen quickly for us, but also staying realistic – sometimes these things take time!
A more difficult life update to share is that last weekend we had to say goodbye to Cullen, our sweet, incredible dog of 11 years. I cannot even begin to tell you how heartbroken we are over his loss. Everything happened so quickly – one day he was bouncing all over the house, and the next, something was clearly very wrong. It was scary and horrible and devastating and our lives won’t ever be the same. Jackson phrased it best when we first told him what was going on and he said, “I can’t live the rest of my life without Cullen – how can I be happy when I wake up in the mornings and he’s not here?”
We’re still learning how to adjust to our new life without him, and we have little moments throughout every day that break our hearts all over again. I get choked up every time I drop a piece of food on the floor and he’s not right there to grab it before I can. I had to touch up his scratches in the paint on the back door before listing photos, and it was nearly impossible to get through. Every time I climb into bed and don’t feel his weight on my feet, it hurts. But, every day has been a little easier, and we know that he had a wonderful, long, happy life with us. He was an incredible friend for over a decade and we were so blessed to have had him in our family.
ICYMI On the blog this week:
- I (finally) shared the full reveal of our house exterior. I can’t believe how simple it was to paint it myself, and how much of a difference it made.
- I also talked about the two super simple tools we’re using to help monitor things in our house as we gear up for the (often terrifying) inspection process. I think every homeowner should have these two tools.
- Grant turns one next week, so I got nostalgic and re-read this post about Jackson’s first birthday. HOW did he start kindergarten already?!
elsewhere on the internet…
- We got tons of questions about our steam mop when I shared some time lapse videos of cleaning our house. This is the one I have and I love it – the pads are machine washable, it does a great job cleaning the floor, and it’s quick to heat up.
- We are honored to be nominated for an Amara Interior Blog Award. You can vote right here – I can’t tell you how much I’d appreciate it!
- This home is absolutely incredible.
- Can’t stop thinking about this $1,000, one-week kitchen makeover. The before and after is just breathtaking.
- My friend Sam just wrapped up this incredible project, and I’m blown away. She is such a rock star!
- This patio renovation is mind-boggling. What a stunning outdoor space!
- Everything about this nursery makes me smile – the wallpaper, the soothing color palette. It’s all so good.
I would love to hear more about downsizing! (and subsequent upsizing) I’ve read all of your posts on downsizing and now planning to move again.
We are considering going from 4800 sq ft to 1800 sq ft, and then adding an 800 sq ft detached guest house/2 offices. In the greater scheme of things, this is not downsizing as drastically as many people do. What is going to be hardest about it? (less stuff? more noise in the house? fewer bathrooms?)
I’ll definitely do an update on everything after we move and are settled a bit, but for us the hardest part of downsizing was just feeling like we’re all on top of each other a little more. We went from 1700 to 1100, so we’re in a very small space, but it suddenly felt a little like we couldn’t get away from each other for some peace and quiet! That was our biggest adjustment, and then obviously storage space was tricky too – but we purged quite a bit and came up with creative storage solutions, so it ended up being just fine in the end!