The month before Nathan and I got married we started our house hunt, which involved almost 34 houses, several different towns and cities, 2 different realtors, 4 emotional breakdowns (by me of course), and one final compromise.
My husband grew up in a small town west of Des Moines, IA. He loved his town and all the friends and memories that went along with living there. I on the other hand grew up in Des Moines, where we didn't ride 4-wheelers around, go fishing, shoot guns off of our decks or have the town cop know me by name.
I went to a large school, went to the mall, socialized at party's, skipped school and living there was just easier.
Well finding a house in our price range, that we both loved was nearly impossible. So I reluctantly widened our search to include his small town. Right away I found the house that I could see decorated during the holidays, our children playing in the backyard, working on it together and making it ours.
I told him "If you want to move back here, you need to buy me this house." I'm sure that sounds a little snotty, however we had been into our search for months an I was finally happy with something, even if it meant moving a small 20 minutes away from the city.
Needless to say Mr.Stanley called the realtor immediately after we left.
48 hours later we owned our first home.
It's small and full of potential.
Of course when we first moved in we were 21 and just out of years of being in apartments and I immediately painted every room and I didn't even know what I wanted.
Now at 25 I understand my style more and what I want to get out of our home's style and function.
I'm sure it seems weird to have me posting about our home on a blog about my family and trying to expand it but that can get a little mundane sometimes and this is one of my favorite things to do and a huge stress reliever for me. Working on our home is like therapy so I thought why not share that as well.
One of the best features is the fenced in backyard. It's such a bonus and it's so nice to relax and not worry about C running out into the street.
Speaking of which is beautiful during any season. Our neighborhood is full of children and wonderful families. Just on our block alone we have almost 19 children and 6 houses. Not to mention our dear friends live less then 5 blocks away and another dear friend lives only 2 blocks away. Even though we aren't 5 minutes from a Target, we are less then that from our friends.
This is one of my favorite corners in our home. This is our dining room, that when we first moved in I foolishly painted bright red and then did nothing else with it. Now, it's a vintage grey blue color, with less clutter and more meaning to things that are placed on this hutch.
Right now I'm almost done with our mudroom remodel and can't wait to post before and after pictures.
Stay tuned.
