All In

Diving head first into planning some projects at our (soon to be!) new home

Happy Sunday! I hope this post finds you relaxing and enjoying your day. We are having a slow morning and I’m currently writing to you in my new favorite pajamas and robe on the sofa with Kelly while he is watching some morning cartoons.

Yesterday we started the day with soccer games and then popped up to Ann Arbor to meet our friends for a community Easter Egg Hunt. After that we hit the park and ended the day with a pizza outside at Boro (one of our favorite Ann Arbor spots!). It was so refreshing to spend basically the entire day outside (and we all have the rosy/ burnt cheeks to prove it!). We are ready for real spring weather and have been soaking in any sunshine we get. Kelly LOVES sports so we have been following his lead and signing him up for anything we can find for his age. My friends recently asked me how we feel about having sport commitments on the weekends. Initially, I thought I would resent them, but I have actually kind of appreciated having something dictate our weekend activities. Alex and I tend to have different preferences on how we want to spend time on the weekends and so its kind of nice to have something that we have to do that we are equally excited for. There is nothing we love more than watching Kelly have the best time while playing his various sports. We are also so lucky to live near our family so we often have a whole crew show up. It’s actually become one of my favorite ways to spend time on the weekend.

I mentioned recently that we are under contract on a new (old) home. We won’t close until late June and take possession in early August. This schedule has given me the beautiful gift of time to plan everything that we want to do to the house before we move in. I am letting myself be completely consumed by this process. I don’t know how many more home renovation projects I’ll get to do and nothing lights me up more. I feel happiest when I am thinking, planning and designing. I have decided follow this energy and passion and go all out designing every single detail. In my mind I am pretending that I am a top designer designing a multi-million dollar project (couldn’t be farther from reality LOL), but WHY NOT?! I had this epiphany recently that I don’t want to be an old lady one day looking back on my life and feel like I just played it safe the whole time. I want to feel fulfilled and proud of my life and everything I created. I want to feel that I let myself go “all in” and didn’t hold back. So that’s the mentality with which I’m approaching this project. For the first time I’m designing for US and not for resale value. It’s going to be FUN and I’ll be sharing every little detail here. If there is something in life that you’re curious about or that you love, I encourage you to go all in! It’s really refreshing and fun!

This week I ordered wallpaper samples from Les Indiennes and can’t wait to see them in person. I have admired their papers for years and would love to use them in a room or two! I also ordered samples of both the large and small scale of this wallpaper to potentially use in the smallest bedroom. It feels kind of like an attic room with angled walls and two little dormer windows. I love the idea of this paper all over the walls + ceiling. Could be fun! We shall see..

Of course I’ve been saving inspiration left and right and everything has been pretty conceptual so far. This week I am going to get to work planning some more specific details for the larger projects (we will be building a detached garage right away!). Some loose ideas of the conceptual design:

I want our home to feel warm, layered and happy. It has a fabulous deck right off of the kitchen and I think we will eat every meal outside in the summertime. Oh, and speaking of kitchen I want to basically copy/paste Kristin Ellen Hockman’s kitchen because she really nailed it. I think we will do wall to wall carpet up stairs (a sisal looking wool) and I want wallpaper in every bedroom (I think… it will be interesting to hear what Alex thinks once he reads this lol). Oh! and the garage! Currently there is no garage at all so we will be building this from scratch. I want to build something that looks like it’s old and has always been there. We will also have to have it approved from the Historical Commission since this home is in the historical district, but that’s a challenge that I’m strangely looking forward to. I think we will do a second story “rec” room in the garage to use as a little workout space and for a playroom/ gym for Kelly. I’m picturing a little climbing wall, basketball hoop, hockey net, etc. We won’t have a dedicated playroom in this house so I really want to use that space for lots of his sports stuff. The vision I have in my mind for that space is that the ceiling is vaulted to show the rafters and it’s a clean, white space filled with balls, toys, etc. Nothing but FUN up there!

That’s what I’m dreaming up so far! Can’t wait to share more as I start to iron out the details…

XX Em