News!

Well we have some big news….

No, we aren’t having a baby.

We are moving the middle of next month –and no worries folks, just to a different DC suburb, not moving away. It’s a few more metro stops out – in a nice little safe suburban area, but definitely not full of nightlife, restaurants and shopping like we are used to. (Although in less than 5 minutes, we can walk to a Trader Joes, Whole Foods, a few casual restaurants and 2 coffee places so I assume I will survive suburbia). Most days,  I’m a bit torn on how I feel about the move. Many days  I am not thrilled about it – because I love our little area of the metro DC area which is technically a suburb, but just as urban as DC.  We can get to many places in DC quicker than some people in DC can get there. I love urban living – walking to the Georgetown waterfront for Saturday morning coffee, evening strolls by monuments, being close to the movie theater, restaurants, bars and shops. Our first apartment seemed the perfect compromise for our first year of marriage – splitting our commute (Dave works in suburbs) and living in a safe yet urban area. Plus it was our first married home – full of happy memories, laughter, a few fights, maybe a few burned dinners, celebrations with friends, but mostly just the ordinary blessings of finally living together, day in and day out.  I love(d) our first little corner of the Capitol and it will indeed be sad to leave.

But, what we don’t like about our first place: less than 650 square feet – which might be doable except we have no closet space in our older building. Dave and I really like each other but living somewhere where you both can’t fit comfortably into the kitchen at the same time and you don’t have any private space is difficult. It’s made even more difficult when guests come and we fit 4-5 people into a 1br >650 sq. ft. apt. We basically wake our guests up (who had to sleep on the couch) when we get ready for work in the morning . Also, we lack some basic amenities like a dishwasher and central heat and air (I have learned that many in DC do not consider these basic amenities. Growing up in Mississippi, I would not have survived with the tiny little wall AC unit we have currently!!)

So although I tear up about leaving our neighborhood pretty much 2-3 times a week, we are eager to gain amenities like central heat and air, a dishwasher, 2 bedrooms, almost 250 extra sq. ft, a patio, a pool, CLOSETS! It will be nice to have our families visit this fall and have a proper room to place them in! And like most urban people, we discovered that the only way to get more space for a price we could afford is to move further out. I’ve gotten a few snobby comments about moving further away from DC, but we have to do what is best for us. In all honesty, it’s not that far, just a short metro ride away. I love to host gatherings so I hope we can still do that on the weekends – cookout on our new patio anyone? Not to mention we have a couple friends in our new area....

Before we started packing, I took a few photos…basically I wanted to document and remember our first happy little home…..and to show you readers our first little love nest. I kept putting a "where we live" post until our place was perfect, but now I have no choice! We never finished framing and hanging all our pictures, buying new pillows, etc, painting furniture, but we did at least set up a home – imperfect and tight, but a home.  One of the promises Dave made is that if I moved, we would tackle a few projects a month until our apt is fully put together. Home improvement cost money (and time) so we have to spread our projects out, but I hope Dave is excited for a few months of furniture painting, frame shopping, Ikea hacks, etc.

So, here folks, is where life happened for us this first year….

You walk in our apartment and their is immediately a small hallway/entrance area that houses a little art, a bookcase, a coat closet and tiny linen closet and leads to the bathroom on the right, the bedroom straight ahead the living/dining/kitchen on the left.

the hallway...

The cross picture was a gift from my friend Kristen at Thimblepress (If 

you have read my blog long enough, you know I am huge Thimblepress 

fan - and a huge Kristen fan) I have several prints, scarfs and 

even my wedding invitations/programs/etc) 

cheap bookcase decorated with some MS and DC art!

the bathroom on the right...

Blues and Grays - tried to work with the colors!

the bedroom straight ahead....

We had "His and Her" dressers - mine used to be white "pre-move" as 

opposed to white with scratches all over it! I intend on painting it 

gray once we move to the new place...one of my many projects!

 I love our bedding but as far as night stands, we kind of just used what we had. 

The table on the right is really an end table for our living room but I 

didn't have room and the small dresser on the left will likely be painted to go in 

our new guestroom. I'll be bargain shopping for some new "his and her" nightstands-
and a lamp for my side so I can keep reading when Dave wants to go to bed!

basically the only wedding pics we've hung!

the living room/dining room/kitchen to the left....

**The Living room was my favorite room. First off, it had multiple authentic mid century pieces which I love! It also had blues and greens and geometric patterns.  It reflects us better than our any other room in our tiny apartment.  Finally, this room was the closest to being completely decorated - it had some art, the most color, the largest number of photos - and it's obviously where we spent most of our waking hours. We still have a a few pictures  to frame for the next apartment (and maybe a few pillows to buy) but I am glad we have most of the furniture/decor for this room so that at least one room in our new place can go ahead and start feeling like home! (My mom, lifetime mover, taught me that trick -  get one room unpacked and mostly set up first, so that when the rest of your house seems chaotic with picture frames lying against the walls and boxes unpacked and packing peanuts everywhere, you can walk into the unpacked tidy decorated room and calm down!

Don't you just love that rug?

The green ottomans in the corner serve as extra seating for 

parties - and one houses my nephew's toy box! (notice how our closet on the left 

doesn't even go all the way the ceiling-- as I said, crammed for storage!)

I call this wall our "Mississippi" wall -- all Mississippi prints and 

3 Mississippi artists (including my brother in law)

Our little "bar" -- I thought we had a better picture than this. Sadly you can't see 

the "I love you more than biscuits and gravy" sign on the left wall---it's a special 

sign because it was the breakfast bar at our wedding!

Our wedding invitation - notice the crack in the glass -- yep, put that

 on my project list for the next place!

and the dining room/kitchen...

So, I never took pictures of this room before I began taking pictures down and packing up (oops). Currently, the dining room serves as packing station as you can see in the picture below.  So, to give you a small idea, I am including pictures from thanksgiving -- we had a packed house and a fold out table, but you will get the idea...we also used this room as a workspace (you can see our desk and bulletin board in the left corner!)  I did not get any pictures of the kitchen, but no worries, the kitchen is just a kitchen. I never decorated it - because how do you really decorate an apartment kitchen without changing fixtures, etc. Our kitchen was separated from the dining room and living area by a partial wall (which as you can see, we stacked appliances on...hey, what did I say? NO STORAGE SPACE)

Packing Central

Living Room, Dining Room and a the kitchen entrance... (The metal tub 

on the floor was just temporarily there, it held cokes and beers)

Two tables set up for Thanksgiving - plus a desk that served as a buffet, ha!

It sure is tiny, but it's been a happy home. And, after several apartments falling through, we were so blessed to have this place work out.  Lots of wonderful memories here!