So, our new house is obviously pretty traditional in style. While it is not actually a historic home, I do like the character and how it looks like it could have been around for hundreds of year. In these traditional colonial homes windows with grids (also called muntins) are the norm. The style stems from the old times when glass was only available in small pieces and little window panes had to be pieced together to make one big window. 

Today those grids are purely decorative and meant to complement the traditional style. The front of the house would look completely different with plain windows and lose a lot of its charm.

One thing I would never do again, is to start renovating while moving. It just made so much sense to make over the laundry room while there were no machines in it, but we only had 4 days to move and throwing a renovation into that mix was just a little bit too much. 

Anyway, it had to be done. It was started at an inconvenient time, and then we finally finished the project two weeks ago. Our first full room make-over here. The laundry room came with a very old washer and dryer. Otherwise, the room was generally gross. There were old socks and piles of lint behind the old machines. This is what it looked like after we cleaned it:

Never say never, you don’t know what’s gonna happen – but whatever the future may bring, we are very very hopeful that this new crib of ours will be our forever home.

The plan had always been that our first house was a “starter home”, something to get us used to homeownership, that was low maintenance for while the kids were little, and that could build up some equity for our forever house. And it did all of that. After seven years the time had come to part with our first house. Thanks to the rising housing market and all the upgrades we installed, we were able to sell it quickly and at a good profit.

Soo … we did it. In the hopes of halting our high speed life for a good while and finally settling, we bought our first own house. It’s a townhouse (Reihenhaus) in a very lovely little community pretty close to where we used to live. After seeing about 20 houses, this one was clearly the best choice and we are very happy with it. What we were really looking for was a spacious place that we wouldn’t grow out of too soon, but is also manageable for our small family now. And we wanted good location. We learned pretty quickly that those are the two things that have to be right, because everything else about a house can be changed. Luckily, the house is in pretty good shape and does not need any immediate work, although in the long run we will definitely change some finishes.

The outdoor deck needs a new finish, the wallpaper in the basement has to be removed, the wood floors refinished, the carpet in the dining room has to go (stupid! whoever puts light colored carpet in a dining room must not have any children), replace the old brass light fixtures, and in the course of changing the kitchen sink we might as well get us some nice darker counter tops.

We moved in in February and have kind of arrived, even though a lot of details are still missing. It’s just a lot of space to fill and we are trying to get more pictures, curtains, and rugs piece by piece. Right now the living room is still pretty bare and empty (which makes for a great play room), but soon our highly anticipated sofa that we ordered two months ago will arrive. As you might imagine, the amateur interior designer within me is bursting of ideas and projects right now to make this plain canvas truly ours. It’s interesting how Lincoln’s and my role changed in this aspect. I used to be the one holding our budget together and keep spendings low. Now he has to hold me back not to go shopping for home goods every day. But hey, this is what I’ve been waiting for all my life. Confessions of a homemaker. Enjoy the tour!