Kitchen Precedents

Our first project is going to be our kitchen. We have some planning to do in regards to the layout, but we wanted to start gathering some ideas for the palette. So far, we have two concepts, the first being a very white kitchen and the second still being white and bright but with darker base cabinets.

Decorate first, move later

So we have been in the house for two weeks and have moved out of our apartment completely. We finished moving Sunday morning and finally had our friends over to check out the new place. Their first reaction was how our living room already looked more put together and decorated than theirs and they have been in their house for well over a year. The first thing I wanted to move were the rugs. No furniture, but for some reason the rugs really made the space feel warm. Other than that, we have a few pieces of artwork and a lot of plants that instantly make the place feel like we have been living there for months. The apartment at this point is a distant memory and our living room already feels like home.

Welcome home!

Our search for a place to call home started three years ago in a different city. My husband Andrew and I were newly married, and just moved to Chicago from Santa Fe, NM where Andrew is from. I got a job offer in Chicago and always wanted to live in a big city, so we took the opportunity. I'm from Michigan, so it was driving distance to my family and we thought it would be great. Well, a few months of the coldest winters where the Polar Vortex decided to spend some time, we quickly decided Chicago wasn't going to be our long term home.

We had been exploring the country to pick a city we both could connect with and decided Portland, OR was where we wanted to land. This city has so much to offer from the beautiful scenery, delicious food and unique spirit. So the house hint began, but little did we know we were entering one of the hottest markets in the country. Houses were often listed on a Thursday, had an open house on the weekend and had multiple offers by Sunday night, many cash. It was hard to compete in this kind of market and we had three failed offers to show for it.

I was consistent with checking the latest listings and found a house that didn't have much marketing about its sale. No open house was scheduled, so we visited with our realtor and put in an offer we felt might be a winner. At this point, we were a little desensitized to the process, so we weren't unreasonably nervous waiting for the results, but this time we had the winning offer!

Welcome to our house!