If I had to describe my ideals for a home in three words (or phrases) I would say cozy, eclectic, and tells a story. Home should be a safe-haven, the one place in the world where you can be you fully. I love that our new home is just that. It tells our story: the silk painting from China that we bought at the Great Wall, the water-color maps from Paris, New York, and Oxford, dozens and dozens of political philosophy or theology books from college, the red Persian rug that was in my family's living room in Kenya, seashells from our favorite beaches. I also love that in this home we don't have a coffee table in the living room; instead we just have a large open space with a sheepskin rug, perfect for plopping down at the end of the day for a few cartoons and chocolate chips.
Most of our stuff is hand-me-down or antique, and what isn't Chris and I saved up all last year to buy when we made the move down to North Carolina. We bought our couch and the orange chairs on Craigslist and they were GREAT deals. In fact, we even found our house on Craigslist. Sure, there is a lot of sketchy stuff, but if you do your research and keep an eye on the market you can uncover some amazing gems. Okay, so the stunning desk and credenza (which, I should add, isn't finished yet. It needs to be painted and have the doors attached). Those were handmade by my niffy, talented hubby. He is such a great artist and builder! I really wanted a slim, simple writing desk to put in front of the window to take advantage of all our gorgeous afternoon light. He took my idea and ran with it, desinging the entire piece from scratch. The hairpin legs and leather drawer pulls were even his idea. The sheepskin rug and the leather poof were bought from a wholesale auction. Lamps are all from Target or Homegoods for less than $30 each. The wooden stumps were also made by Chris, and were from a tree in his aunt's yard. We bought our vintage bird and vegetable posters for $5 each at the Natural History Museum in New York, and then made simple hangers for them with thin pieces of wood from Lowes. Curtains: West Elm Bookcases: Ikea Leaning ladder shelf: Ethan Allen: this model is from years ago, so I doubt it's on the website. We snagged this piece when my college neighbor was moving out of the building. $80 for this shelf, a side table, and a large dresser! Dining room table: Ikea: We bought a slab of wood from the as-is clearance section and then got the legs separately. Best of both worlds: customized and cheap! Dining room chairs: Overstock,com White side table: Ikea: we have three of these and love them! Desk chair: second hand from Restore So without further ado, here's the living room! Other rooms are still works in progress, to come to Honeybutter and Blue at some point in the future. :)
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So much has happened in the past month that the actual move seems light years in the past. Between then and now we have:
And that’s just scratching the surface. Depending on the day all this transition is either really fun and exciting or really overwhelming and not fun at all. On the not-fun days I find myself missing New York and New Jersey. Missing not exactly our circumstances from this period of life but the concept of comfortable. The past week had me in a particular funk: disgruntled, easily annoyed, irritable, and despondent. Flipping through my phone (the worst possible solution to these problems, I might add), I realized that I hadn’t looked at a single picture I had taken from the moving weekend. I had been avoiding looking back on those high-stress, crazy-out-of-the normal few days, full of so much hard work and change that you collapse in an exhausted puddle of dusty clothes in the middle of the barren, finally cleaned out kitchen and simply refuse to go on. The thing is: moving is just so hard. It doesn’t matter if you have the absolute best friends and family helping (like we did!), plenty of time to get everything done (like we did!), money to be able to afford the necessary vans and boxes and food for crowds, etc. (like we did!)—it’s just a difficult thing to do. Now, I held it together really well. We had fun. Music was blaring. Pizza was consumed. All boxes ended up fitting into the UHUAL. Holes in the wall were spackled and tubs were cleaned. Cats were not lost. It all got done. But it only got done because of our amazing families. I kid you not, Chris and I regularly stop in the middle of cooking dinner or driving to church to remark that we have such cool families. Both sides so selflessly served us this month, as they always do, and we think they are just the best. The week before the move was mainly full of me packing boxes, the turtle in the race to the finish line. One. Box. At. A. Time. Later in the week my mother-in-law and the youngest Svendsen siblings came to the house to help deep clean. I remember this being one of the token panic days, so close to the end (we move in two days!) and yet not looking anywhere near to being done, junk oozing from every nook and cranny. Thankfully, Bethany and Aiden’s cool composure under pressure helped calm my nerves (below: keeping calm and carrying on). The last few days before the move also included a run to Ikea for our new kitchen island and a few bookshelves as well as a very relaxing, fancy dinner with the in-laws at an amazing steak house (where I promptly forgot to take a single picture). Day 1 Chris and I take the Intentionally Relaxed Approach when it comes to moving day. Morning of, we walked to our favorite diner for one last Nutella and strawberry waffle and then visited the local florist on our way home to get flowers for our landlady who lives downstairs. After this slow start our helpers began to trickle in, and long story short, our whole life was crammed into the UHUAL and trailer by 10pm that night. Day 2 North Carolina and New Jersey being so far apart, there was simply no way we could load the truck, drive south, and unload all in one day. So, we spent the night at Chris’s parents’ house after everything was loaded and again decided to take the next morning slow, sleeping in and enjoying a yummy breakfast before honking our way down the road. The morning was filled with coffee and tears. Highlights of our driving day include Eloise being a boss navigator, Chick-fil-a for lunch, only being able to travel 60 miles an hour the entire trip because of UHUAL limitations, the never-ending drive because of said speed restrictions, singing along to the full Hamilton soundtrack a total of three times, and a late night Mickey Dees stop for breakfast sandwiches and yogurt parfaits in the middle of no-where North Carolina. Arriving at the new home at around 11 p.m., we grabbed the keys and then headed to a nearby hotel to partake in such simple luxuries as mattresses and running air conditioning. Day 3 LAST DAY OF THE ORDEAL. By this point we were exhausted but also ready to be done with the whole thing. The need to be done outweighed being tiered, and we dutifully rose for the 7:30 alarm, meeting my excited and more-refreshed family who had driven from Virginia the night before to meet us. While the boys and some new friends from church unloaded the truck, my mom and me grabbed biscuits from a local favorite—Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen—and coffee from Starbucks for everyone. Coming home an hour later, piping hot beverages in hand, we were shocked that most of the truck was already unloaded. The process is so much quicker on the unloading side of the equation! Amy and Kate went to fish in the pond behind our house while the adults put together furniture, cleaned the kitchen, and unpacked boxes. We took lots of breaks and even went to a second hand sporting goods store in the afternoon. This kind of casual is good for me. There is no way I could ever get close to being done—catching up to “perfect”—on a day like this. Best to just let go and enjoy being with the people you love. We ended the day with a Mexican dinner at a festive restaurant and an early to bed—the first night in our new home! As I said above, moving is totally exhausting. It drains your physical, mental, and emotional strength. It makes the normally little things—like missing an exit or not getting quite enough sleep—seem like life-shattering events. I woke up Sunday morning, the day after we had officially unloaded in North Carolina, having a complete meltdown. I kept saying over and over, “I just can’t find the thing. I just can’t find it.” “It” being literally anything I could think of. Brush, a pot, tissues, my jeans—everything was haphazard and I had absolutely no clue where anything was. Moping around in sweatpants, I dragged myself from room to room, sprawling out on the floor and crying if I was unable to locate something immediately. It sounds really funny to me now. I’m more rested and things are in order again. But for these couple of weeks they weren’t, and that’s okay. I put on my big girl panties and just kept swimmin through the boxes. And I’m thankful to report that I now know where all my pots, tissues, jeans, and brushes are. ~SNEAK PEEK OF HOME!~ |
Authorwife to a med student and mama to three under three, seeking the joyful and learning to live by faith. Find me on Instagram and Pinterest or shoot me an email. I'd love to hear from you!
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