New Home

On most blogs and articles about buying a home, one of the 'pros' always listed under 'why it's a good idea to buy a house' is pride of ownership. Prior to our recent home purchase, I always thought that was a really weak point. Like, are there so few pros to home-owning that a deeply existential and philosophical point must be included to round out the list? Sure, getting to make something my own was very important. To build equity. To not worry about rent increases or when my landlord would decide it was time to sell and I was on the clock to find a new place. But how I'd feel about my home, deep on the inside? I never counted that among reasons to buy.

But now, sitting in our small living room that we actually own, I am moving pride of ownership to the very top of that 'pros' list. 

I'm looking forward to posting some before and afters. The process has been incredibly fun (and exhausting, and expensive), but I am proud (there's that word again) of the work we are doing together. Here is the first look at the kitchen before we moved in, and after. 

Before: The layout was nice but we didn't care for the backsplash, the outlet and recess light covers, or the hanging lights. We especially did not care for the stair runner, complete with a housewarming gift (read: cat hair).

After: We were thrilled to give the kitchen a little bit more of our personality. We found gorgeous mosaic tiles for the backsplash that we absolutely loved. Murat worked his usual YouTube magic and taught himself how to tile in a day, using a tile-cutter and all. I found lovely blue mosaic drawer pulls on Etsy to replace the silver knobs. We also hired an electrician to update the switches from toggles to flat switches, and to replace all of of the electric outlets with new clean ones, then put white covers over the top. We also purchased new hanging lights. I loved these because I thought they paid a nice homage to a lighthouse, and being in Newburyport, if felt particularly perfect. The cabinets and walls were painted bright white for a fresh start, and it was fun deciding which of our items we could display on the shelves above.