This past summer, after almost 10 years living in the city of Chicago, Joe and I decided it was time to move to the burbs. I grew up in the suburbs in Michigan and it shocks me still that I lived so long in a big city. I thrive in the suburbs. I love the subdivisions, strip malls and parks! So with Liam on the way, it was time to sell our condo and buy a house.
We sold our condo within two days of listing it back in September, so we were under the gun looking for a place to move. Being 7 months pregnant at the time, it was a race to find something before Liam arrived. Some people might think because I have my real estate license, finding a new home wouldn't be too difficult. But since we were looking during the height of the market, in a popular neighborhood, at the price we were, homes were few and far between.
But somehow we found our home! It's funny, we overlooked it online may times because it needed work and the pictures were terrible. They didn't have any photos of the bathrooms online, which freaked us out. The place had white (stained) carpets, a dated kitchen, and really bad landscaping. While it still needs some work over time, we were able to do do a lot before Liam was born. We moved in in November and couldn't be more thankful to have a warm, safe, and cozy home to raise Liam in.
I've been sharing some design inspo on Instagram, so check out the "new house" highlight to see some rooms I am working on. It takes time and our projects will be spread out, but we've already redone all the floors, added new window treatments, painted the entire interior of the house and replaced all the light fixtures. These changes have made a HUGE improvement in this 1960's home. We bought the home from an elderly women who could not have been sweeter, but hadn't updated the house in a few decades. She had been here for 50 years and it was so special to buy from someone who loved their home as much as she did. I think she'd be SHOCKED to see what we've done with the place!
As new homeowners, I feel like the first few months we were filled with constantly ordering things we needed for random rooms. Below are the few things I purchased that made our house feel a little bit more like a home!