We promised we wouldn’t work on the backyard at this point but it was sunny for half an hour this week and we needed some fresh air okay!

It’s been three weeks since we moved into our new home and if you’ve been watching on social media you’ve probably seen us gently destroy various parts of it, peeling back the layers of cheap wood, laminate, and tile that hid some sweet historic 19th century gems.

It’s been quite an adventure, filled with so many trips to the hardware store, Google searches for things like “what to do if antique fireplace smells like death,” and making gut decisions about which of the vines overtaking the backyard might be poisonous. Considering we’re both still fully intact, you could say we’re doing an all right job.

One sorta unexpected part of this whole process has been learning about how folks lived back when this house was built and throughout its 120-something years. As we’ve uncovered different elements of the home we’ve found ourselves researching each and every thing, and I’ve learned so much! Everything from the most basic info, like when I asked Matt if electricity was discovered before this home was built (it was, but wasn’t a common home utility for another 40 years, and yikes I should’ve paid attention in history class) to more obscure details like the kinds of coal burned in 19th century fireplaces. We’ve even been able to reverse-search the address to find the names of previous owners and tenants using old census data. Cool, right?!

As we’ve gotten closer looks at all of the previous modifications and additions—and now have our own work and plans in mind—the house has begun to feel like a kind of roadmap through the past. It’s made me see our own desires for this home as part of a larger and ongoing timeline of home lifestyle decisions instead of just being the “right” way to do things. That being said, some of the things that have been done to this house were the “wrong” way. Like the excessive use of plywood and caulking to fix any and all problems, and someone’s affinity for hook and eye latches. They’re everywhere.

Anyhow, we’ve gotten a lot of the easy pseudo-demo work out of the way and have started to more fully flesh out the specifics of our design ideas. We can’t responsibly afford to do all of the renovations we have planned at once, and also don’t really want to do that since we’re living in this house while we do them. So, the first big renovation will be the main bedroom suite. We chose to start with the bedroom suite because we figure that once that’s all done, we’ll have a nice relaxing sanctuary while the rest of the house gets torn up bit by bit!

We start work with our contractor this week to discuss our plans and figure out how we’re going to dive in. While we’re going to do the renovations ourselves as much we possibly can, we’re bringing in professionals for some of the bigger and more skilled stuff like moving electrical, plumbing, and gas lines. We’ve had a few changes to the plan we posted about most recently, but they’re all for the better and we’ve both been getting so excited about the space.

Thank you to all the sweet comments and support for this project. We’re so excited, and it seems like so many other people are excited for us, which is, well, exciting. Thank you thank you.

Photo dump from the last few weeks below :)