enJOY it

our oxnard townhouse photo book.

March 7, 2013

One thing that I have decided to do to remember each space that we live in as a family is create a small photo book. You can see the one I created for our first time in San Diego here.

These books are the easiest. I just go through all my photos from the time that we lived in the current place, upload them to Blurb.com and stick them in a somewhat chronological order and print a 7×7 inch book. Other than the title page, I don't add any words so the books are really a photo journal of different things that made our house a home.

Below is a sampling of the photos I included for our 15 months in Oxnard, California.

Super simple, but such a fun way to remember each place.
our home buying story.

March 6, 2013

This story really begins in May 2010.

We got married in April. Then we honeymooned, Paul graduated med school and after what felt like forever, we found a condo to rent in Little Italy near downtown San Diego. And then, quickly, we fell in love. Not with each other (that occurred before we said "I do"), but with this city. San Diego had been the dream for us for a really long time and now that we were here we realized it was exceeding our expectations.

May 2010 is also when I closed my bank accounts and we pooled our money into one checking and one savings account. We combined our nest eggs with no real plan for them other than it felt like a good idea to have savings. We were incredibly blessed to have no debt from undergradate education and because Paul completed his med school through the Navy, he did not owe financially for his schooling (nothing is free – he obviously owes years and years of his time to the Navy now) and so we were able to really save in the years since we graduated college.

But I say our story begins here because 33 months ago is when the theory that we might actually buy a house in San Diego was planted.

We loved the area. LOVED. This was going to be our forever town. When Paul's military commitment was over and we finally had a chance to spin a globe and make our own decisions about where to live, we were going to choose San Diego. Of course, in the middle, we'd bounce around, but now we felt like we had a home base and a place to return to. (And our savings account and being careful with money would help make that happen.)

Fast-forward to July 2011, Paul started his two year GMO (General Medical Officer) tour and while he was deployed, I moved us to Oxnard in December 2011.

Fast-forward to September 2012. We drove down to San Diego for Paul to interview for his four year residency. The interview went well. Our seed of hope that we'd get to come home sprouted a few leaves and this idea really started to take shape.

Fast-forward to late October 2012. We found out I was pregnant! Hooray! A baby was on the way! We already planned on getting a three bedroom place, but now it felt more important if possible.

Fast-forward to mid December 2012. Paul got the call that he had been accepted to the residency program in San Diego. Like magic (except not really because it took years and insanely hard work) we were going to be moving home. I called a realtor that very day and the next night got an email with listings of three bedroom houses for sale in the area we were looking in (which at the time was very close to Balboa Park).

I feel like this is the point where people might wonder why we decided to buy a house and not just rent something. After-all, we only know for sure that we are going to be here through when Paul finishes his residency in summer 2017 (though there is a chance we'll get to stay another three years after that).

The answer is much more complex and private than I am willing to share here. But basically, we knew how much money we had saved for a down-payment. We knew how much money we could expect to bring in over the next four years. We knew how much we were comfortable paying a month. Everyone knows how low the interest rates currently are. And anyone can look up how much it costs to rent a nice three bedroom condo or house in San Diego (much, much more than our monthly mortgage + insurance + property taxes).

So based on all that, we were pretty excited & comfortable with at least looking for houses to purchase. We set a wide range of prices we were comfortable with (and ended up buying at the exact middle of that range) and made the decision that if it didn't feel right, we'd table it.

In mid-January, we drove down to San Diego and toured 14 houses with our realtor. These were places that based on our online listing results were the right size and price that we were looking for. We came back from that trip more defeated than inspired I would say. So many of the houses were just okay. So many needed a decent amount of work to make them fit our style. There was a house that was rad and we put a low offer on it, but it was countered higher than we wanted to pay and further research proved the area was completely lacking.

I had a mild panic attack one night that week. Suddenly, the whole process seemed completely ridiculous. In the past, when we had rented, we had always had a gut feeling about the places and went with that. With these houses, I had no good feelings. In fact, my gut felt like it would be easier to just stay in Oxnard where at least we knew what we were dealing with and have Paul commute to San Diego.

So, we decided two things. First, that Paul would do more research on the areas and send specific zip codes to the realtor so we could see places that first were in the best area possible (further out from Balboa Park but close to the freeways and with great schools). And second, that the pressure was off completely. We gave ourselves permission to put the move on hold until Paul was home from deployment. Yes, the baby would be here. Yes, it would be CRAZY trying to buy a house with Paul already having started residency. Yes, we'd probably end up renting at least for a little while. But the plus side would be we knew we were not rushing into something too early.

About a week and half later, we sat down at the computer to look through the 90 or so listings that had now popped up with our new zip codes. It was a Thursday night and we were more interested in passing time than actually finding a dream home. And then, the first house on the list was this house (the one I am sitting in now typing this story). It had just gone on the market about an hour earlier. It wasn't even listed on zillow as for sale yet. But the photos were insane. The area was good. The schools were fantastic. There was a park and small shopping center in walking distance.

And we wanted it. OH MAN, did we want it.

We played pretend and looked through almost all the other 90 houses and added some to our maybe list. But the whole time we kept going back to this house. We'd see photos of another great house and then compare again to make sure this house stood up. It always did. Nothing could compare.

I sent an email to our realtor that night and told her we wanted to put in an offer right away. I got a call at 9am the next morning that they wouldn't take an offer until they'd had an open house. So Saturday morning, our realtor went and took a video for us. We watched a ten minute tour on youtube and immediately signed offer paperwork for a bit below their asking price and crossed our fingers.

For 36 hours we waited. We knew there were multiple offers. We knew there would be a counter. We talked hypothetically about how high we'd go and what we'd do for the house. And then Monday, the counter came back at the asking price, but because it was a flip and the seller was anxious to sell quickly, there were all sorts of stipulations about timing, how much we had to put down and the lender we could use. We quickly talked it over, signed the counter and then I started the hoop jumping process to get everything in order as quickly as possible.

Then, on that Tuesday with the magic sky, we got two pieces of great news. Most importantly, after a Level II ultrasound, we learned that our baby girl was okay and we got a call that the house was going to be ours.

So if you're keeping track : I was about 20 weeks pregnant, Paul was about to deploy, we'd just bought a house we hadn't seen in real life and we had a super quick timeline to close Escrow and get into it. I know. That's crazy. But we are crazy. The whole time we were going through this I kept saying to Paul, "Babe, this mess is so us." Our "normal" is abnormal and I love it that way. We dive in whole-heartedly when it feels right.

Paul got a special Power of Attorney written up so I could buy the property in both of our names and I wired our opening payment into Escrow on Wednesday. Then on Sunday, I kissed Paul good-bye for four and a half months and Monday morning I drove to San Diego and picked up my dad at the airport to go meet the inspector and see the place. I (obviously) drove up with butterflies in my stomach.

And it was amazing. Better than the photos. Better than the video. This was our house. This was exactly where we were meant to be. I walked around a bit in a stupor while the inspector did his thing and my dad (who works in property insurance) did his too. From that day on, I never had a sense of panic about the decision we had made. Even the day I wired a very decent chunk of our nest egg into Escrow, I felt great. This was meant to be. This was the feeling I had been searching for.

I dropped my dad off at LAX and then drove the rest of the way home to Oxnard where I sat at my computer and wrote Paul the longest email on record about the biggest purchase we had ever made and how I wanted it to be our forever home. (And yes, I talked about the not great stuff too about how we needed a pipe inspection, the backyard needed better drainage and how some of the outlets needed to be grounded.)

And then, now that we'd seen it and were fully committed (you have a chance to get out of Escrow for any reason for a set number of days), I began the process of getting out of our current place and securing our loan for the new place. My desk was paperwork central for about four weeks.

The closing process was made much more complicated with Paul being overseas, but I did it. It worked. I lost my patience about 100 times, but deep breaths and staying focused on the Big Picture (we were all healthy & baby girl was still kicking) helped keep me stable.

February was insane. By far the craziest 28 days of my life, but also the most worth it. We're here. Well, I am here. Baby girl is half here. Paul will be here.

Our adventure is just beginning and our story continues.

p.s. I went back through the May and June blog archives to find some photos for this post and OMG – we were babies. I cannot get over how much we've grown up in the past almost three years. I guess deployments, marriage, moves, new careers & becoming a family really do change you in BIG, BIG ways. 😉
one little word album update / february.

March 5, 2013

Today I have progress on my One Little Word album to share.

Remember, I am taking Ali's One Little Word class and will be creating this sort of photo diary throughout the year. My plan so far has been to loosely follow the prompts and fit them into an 8.5×11 album.

Part of how I am using my word in 2013 is to set monthly "bold intentions." I am going back to the January section and adding to the cards exactly what those intentions are so I can remember them. You can see in the photo above that I just wrote them onto the monthly card.

The prompt from the workshop this month was to create a collage. I decided to simply the process and just use found paper pieces and magazine clippings right in my album. I went through a few magazines and cropped interesting pieces down to 2.75×3.75.

Super simple and graphic. The images and text don't exactly relate to my word, but I loved the look of them together.

I included a 5×7 insert between the pages this month with the text from this blog post. I like the idea of getting some "brave" journaling worked into the album when I have it, but I have no plans to do a full write up each month.

What I do plan to continue each month, though, is a collage of iPhone photos. In January these were all photos I took of my daily yoga practice. In February, I took daily photos on my walk. Love the look of them all collected together. I only have space for 18 photos a month so it really isn't a "daily" project, but that actually helps me keep the pressure off when I miss a photo or day. This month, I had some blank spaces, so I added Studio Calico stickers in the pockets. I like the look of them floating there.

And that's it for this month. Loving this album so far.

See the start of this album here. See January here.

Supplies used : We R Memory Keepers 8.5×11 album, We R Memory Keepers 9 pocket page, Project Life 5×7 photo pocket page, Studio Calico butterfly and camera stickers, Amy Tangerine LOVE patterned paper.
around here / new home edition.

March 4, 2013

Sooooo…whew.

I've made it to the good part. FOR SURE. My list of addresses to change and utilities to cancel and PO boxes to buy and doctors appointments to make and Internet connections to set up and packages to ship out and papers to sign is down to… zero. I have all the annoying stuff crossed out.

What a huge relief. And I must admit, I get down-right giddy when I realize I don't have to go through the new-house-shuffle for another 4.5 years. Next time we move I might find a way to deploy to a spa for six weeks and make Paul do this all himself. Except not really, because we function much better as a team (and without me this train would careen right off of the tracks) ;).

My mom was kind enough to fly down this weekend and, together, we dominated this house. My mom was able to do all the heavy lifting (awesome!) and now all the rooms are unpacked (except the baby's room which is really just a pile of TV & electronic cords and a super rad mid-century wooden dresser I found for her at a vintage store called Stuff). Obviously "unpacked" is much different than "set-up." It will be a good month or two before I'll be completely "set-up" and even then there is still so much that's possible. But it's wonderful to have the boxes out the door.

Little corners and spaces are slowly starting to come together. I always have to just start on a space so I know what I need (to find, to buy, to make) and then I can head in the right direction. So far, it's a good bit of green. A decent amount of black and white. A lot of plants (hooray!!). A lot of gorgeous neutrals. A lot of real wood. A lot of magic.

My creative project list is growing as my lame "must-do" list is dwindling and that's an amazing feeling.

Yes, yes, this is the good part.

p.s. I am conducting some fun succulent experiments that I will be sure to share more about & that stamp is a peek at what will be released when the shop re-opens next week.
no project life update today…

March 3, 2013

…I am sure I'll be playing catch-up soon.

In the meantime I thought I would share some of my favorite photos from February. I am loving neutrals. Craving them actually. This (and this Pinterest board) is my inspiration for decorating the new house. And speaking of the new house, check back tomorrow morning for a few peeks of the place with actual stuff in it.
march bold intentions.

March 1, 2013
February was a blur. A giant, messy, beautiful blur. I cried more tears of frustration in the past month than in the past eleven months put together. Paul leaving was hard. Buying a house by myself was hard. Getting a move organized alone was hard. Sitting on the phone with insurance to get a new doctor was … well not hard, but super annoying. But the plus side is the time flew. Flew.

We are on to March. And this the downhill part. (I hope.) There will be challenges to getting the home set up, but at least the uphill battle of getting into this place and out of the last one is over.

Setting some simple but important bold intentions for this month.
1. figure out where I want to deliver baby girl and arrange OB care for the remainder of this pregnancy.
2. plant the vegetable garden!!!!!!
3. schedule downtime. Breaks are going to be the name of the game this spring. I can't tasmanian devil my way through the unpack period and house set up. I need to remember that daily.
March, you're already my favorite. Let's blur it up.

And a warm welcome to some new and returning sponsors this month. Please take a second to visit their shops on the right sidebar. Thank you for supporting this space.
ready for an empty house home tour?

February 28, 2013

It's going to be awhile before I get things organized and the right furniture to properly fill the space. The plus side of being almost six months pregnant and having four years to live in one place is I get to slow down a notch. Not exactly my normal style, but very important this time around.

I plan to have things mostly set up (functional & decently decorated) by the end of May. Baby girl is expected June 16th.

Before we start the tour…I want to just say thanks for sharing in my excitement. This house is our dream home. The absolute best place I could have imagined. I will have much more to share about how we nabbed it when I get the home buying story written, but for now I'll say it's a dream. And such a delightful blank slate.

It's one story and was built in 1961. It was recently flipped so the bathrooms, kitchen, appliances, windows & carpet are new. Walls were taken down which really helped bring in more light The flippers nailed it. Like seriously. Nailed it. I saw some before photos (in similar home that just sold on our new street) and I cannot believe the magic that was worked on this place before it became ours. There are little things that over the years we will change and a big part of the backyard is in need of a complete overhaul, but it's a move-in-ready gem, for sure.

So without further ado…

Welcome! On the left is the garage entrance. On the right is an entry closet and the hall to the bedrooms.

When you come a bit further in, you're in a big space. Obviously the fireplace is out in front and kitchen is to the left.

You can enter left into the kitchen.

The cabinets and the subway tile are no joke things I dream about.

The kitchen opens up into that big room again. We love that there is a built in wine fridge and so much counter top space. On the right is a peek pantry with sliding doors.

This photo is from the back corner of the big room, right where those big windows are. You can see the pantry better in this shot. I asked and the seller was kind enough to leave the stools for us. I love them. We will be replacing that light fixture as soon as my dad can get down to hang the West Elm pendant lamp I am obsessed with (we went with the huge 24 inch round one).

Here is a peek out the back windows. You can see the "finished" part of the yard and then the unfinished part. Everything behind that chain link fence is ours. It goes on and on and it's filled with dead plants & junk but TONS of succulents too. The backyard and our plans for it will need it's own post(s).

This is looking at another side of the fireplace from the "dining area" wall. Windows are to the left. We'll most likely put the TV against that inside wall (on the right) and make a little sitting area to the left side.

And then this is from in front of the fireplace looking back at the dining area. At first I thought there was enough space there to have a kitchen table and extra space for a small couch/sitting area. I was super wrong. Because of the remodel, the bar and stools now stick out a little too far into the room. See how smooshed against them the table would have to be to sit under that lamp? So we are going to hang the lamp from the center of that middle ceiling portion and get a large dining table (that seats 6 comfortably) to properly fill the space. I am so excited to table shop! I know exactly what I want, but no idea where to buy it. We will eat at the big table at all times. When it's just the three of us, we'll take up just one side.

So this is from the other fireplace wall looking toward the front door. I have another little area to the right there that I have to figure out what to do with. For orientation – kitchen is to the right, hall is to the left.

This side of the house is the bathrooms and bedrooms. That room right in front is the baby's room and our bedroom is down the hall to the left.

Here's baby girl's room. It's a rectangle, and decent size. The ceilings are the same in every room.

Here's the main bathroom. Right next to the baby's room. Sometime down the line, I would love to re-tile the shower with a color. We'll see…

I'll be using the front bedroom for my office. It's about the same size as the baby's room. Eventually we'll switch the carpet out for wood floor. Outside the window you can see a half wall that was added to the front for decor and privacy. Sounds odd, but when I eventually share a photo of the front of the house, it will make sense.

And then – sorry it's dark – this is the hall to the master bedroom. There is a linen closet on the right side.

And here's the master bedroom! It's almost a perfect square.

This is from the window wall looking at the closets.

And this is a peek at the teeny tiny master bathroom!

And here is a peek at inside. It's small but mighty. We'll eventually change out the tile in the shower here too just to bring in something brighter. I could also see us going back to one sink – two is fun but SO cramped.

It's crazy to end on a photo of the bathroom, so here's another of the kitchen. Remember – that lamp will be the first thing to go. Oh, and that metal box on the wall is part of the old intercom system in the house from the 60s. So oddly futuristic. It doesn't work well, but maybe someday we'll fix it.

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Can't wait to share snippets as it all comes together.
moving home.

February 27, 2013

I am so inspired to be moving into a new house today.

This will be our third move in less than three years, but it will be the last one for at least 4.5 years. I don't even know what to do with that much time. It feels like forever and ever compared to what we have dealt with in the past.

I have never thought about setting up a place for longer than a year and the possibilities are so exciting.

We'll have enough time to make some real changes if we want them. We'll have time to rearrange furniture and shift things that are not working. We'll have time to replace the carpet in the office with hardwood. We'll have time to re-tile our master bathroom shower like this. We'll have time to figure out exactly how the fireplace works and then actually use it.

We'll have time to landscape the big overgrown part of our backyard. We'll have time to learn from our my gardening mistakes and grow bigger and better tomatoes. We'll have time to plant succulents in the front yard. We'll have time to change paint colors (though right now, I cannot imagine not keeping the gorgeous cream). We'll have time to add a fire pit in the backyard for roasting marshmallows and drinking wine around in the evenings.

This is going to be our home everyday for years. We'll host Thanksgivings and celebrate multiple Christmases here. We'll see baby girl learn to walk here, talk here and form her own opinions here. If we're lucky, we'll have the pleasure of bringing another baby home here.

We'll work on our marriage here. We'll battle over silly stuff here. We'll call the plumber when a pipe breaks and get frustrated over slow internet here. We'll make big mistakes here. We'll have days where we'll wonder what the hell we were thinking when we bought a house here.

We'll cook dinners and eat breakfast here. We'll watch TV and open up another bottle of wine here. We'll become parents here. We'll laugh until we cry here. We'll learn so much about love here. We'll have days where we cannot believe our good fortune to have bought this house here.

I am so grateful to be taking this giant step today.

And to Paul, who is reading the blog again now that we're a world apart, I love you. I love you for taking me on this journey with you. I love you for picking me as a partner and for dreaming big with me everyday. You asked me long ago to look at our life in the military as an adventure and back then, I could not see anything but the hard bits. Today I see the hard bits, but they pale in comparison to the possibilities. Thank you for sharing this one life with me.
leaving sunset lane.

February 26, 2013

I drove up alone with a car-full of stuff and I’ll leave alone (in a different car & with more stuff). I told Paul on FaceTime this morning that after two solo moves, it will be strange when we are able to move together! I can’t imagine what that will be like (though at least one of us will be needed to wrangle the kiddo(s!?) while the other one does exciting things like wait on hold with the water company).

I loved living here in this little townhouse on this little beach street. It was a fun adventure and a great challenge to decorate. I can’t say that leaving is bittersweet though. These past 15 months have been sweet, but the real sweetness is yet to come.

So good-bye Sunset Lane! You were gorgeous and so wonderful to our little family.
thoughts on the 27 materials project.

February 26, 2013

You might have noticed I am no where near finishing a project using all 27 materials. My intention was to create 27 projects using 27 different things before my 28th birthday … which has now passed. (You can see what I did complete here.)

You might be bummed that I didn't finish.

Or, you might be like me, and be glad I let this project go. 😉

At the beginning of January I looked at my list of what was left (glitter, metal, stone, cork, tile, feathers, beads, dye, glue) and sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was throw myself at nine items that at the moment didn't interest me in the slightest. Instead, I wanted to recover the rocking chair for the baby. I wanted to knit a blanket as soon as we knew if we were going to be having a boy or a girl. I wanted to get started on his or her quilt. I wanted to enjoy my time with Paul. I wanted to start thinking about a new house! (And then decorations for that new house!)

So I made the executive decision to throw the list of stuff I didn't want to do out the window and focus instead on all the projects that I was looking forward to tackling.

This was a great plan and as it turns out, I still ended up trying new things (like the wall hangings and the flamingo painting) which is rad.

Twenty-seven was by far one of my best years for creative projects. There were work projects of course, but there were also oodles of just for fun projects that I made to brighten up my house (and the houses of others in the form of gifted quilts).

So I am not bummed that I didn't complete a project using all 27 materials. I am a bit bummed that I set a challenge and didn't reach it, but I can say for sure that if the overall goal was to simply make stuff at age 27 then I can go ahead and cross that off the list.

I have not yet decided if I am going to set a birthday challenge for 28. Right now, I feel like I have enough challenges : Set up a new house. Landscape the front yard. Grow another garden. HAVE A BABY. Get through Paul's deployment and then the start of his residency. Figure out what my job (and my marriage!) is going to look like with a baby thrown into the mix.

It's a little overwhleming to add something else to the pile, so for awhile, I am just going to ride this wave of adventures. Maybe on my half birthday (8/22) when the dust has started to settle, I'll come up with half of an idea and try that. In the meantime, I will be crafting up a storm as I decorate the new house. Can't wait to share those projects and rooms here.