Settling In

The house is coming along. We moved in for June 1st and now it's mid September. In my dreams, our house would be ready by now. In my plans, our house was going to be ready by now. But it's not finished. It's definitely not finished. That being said, it's still very usable and ready enough for now. My mom has spent my life telling me that hospitality has nothing to do with perfection - that hosting and loving people is about how they feel, not about how perfect the house is. So I keep trucking along, hosting and unpacking, as I can.

Our coffee station was originally something I thought I wouldn't be able to fit into this space and I'm so so so glad it does. I love it. We use it all the time. We had been given a Keurig Machine and bought a Soda Stream, and are so glad we can fit them all together here. My sister gave us the new wood piece on the right. My mugs all fit (regular mugs in the back, starbucks mugs in the front, white mugs on the top).

I created some tags to label all the areas. In the last house I realized that people had no idea where stuff went, and then it seemed even worse when I added four more baskets. So labels seemed helpful. I found these tags in the Target dollar aisle - they were wood with gold sparkle. I added the stripe and chalkboard label and voila!

I am so pleased with how well it works now that it's labelled.

Our room was one of the first rooms that was completed - our room had recently been madeover before we moved, so it was simply a case of moving it all over and figuring out the arrangements in a new space, with a few more pieces added. I finally got to add some chairs and a pouf to the space, so I have my long awaited seating space. We found this great grey and white patterned rug at Home Sense - I love it. We also got a great bench for the foot of the bed. I love seeing the room come together so quickly.

The space above my desk had annoying intercoms and alarm panels which don't work but took up lots of space. So we grabbed this piece from Ikea to cover them up and I love it! I put it together with my Mother in law (it was a real bonding experience, the instructions are not so clear) and it JUST fit. Thankfully. JUST. And every time someone comes in they comment on it. I also bought this chair, added a light grey fuzzy throw, and I love it. Comfortable and looks good. My desk has evolved a lot since these shots but it's not complete yet, so here is it is in the beginning stages.

And the living room - I love how big and open it feels. Ironically, when we came into the empty space for the viewing it felt smaller and darker, but with our furniture it feels open and bright. I love how easily I can move the furniture if needed...making the dining space or living room space larger or smaller.

We put my family piece into the entry way, which I like. It feels like it matches the grandiose feel of the entryway. But I wanted to add a fun carpet to make it feel more like me. I'm not that formal.

We also added a bench from Wayfair, with some baskets from Micheals and a row of hooks from HomeSense. It's very convenient. The space still feels like it has a long way to go but I like that at least for now, it's all very practical and useful.

There's lots more to do in our home but in the meantime we love living in it - we love the flow of the spaces and the longer we do life here, the more I can see what I want to build it in to, and what I want to tweak, and what should stay exactly as is. It's fun process - when I chose not to be overwhelmed by it!