A House That Suits You

Brandon and I have owned two homes and lived in 6 different spaces together. I loved our time jumping around because during those years we prioritized what we couldn’t live without. We’ve had bathrooms that our friends called Narnia due to their large size and bathrooms that you could hardly turn around in. We grew accustomed to all sorts of different kitchens, washers & dryers, fridges, neighborhoods and storage spaces.

During our house hunt in 2018 Brandon wrote up a list of our priorities in a home. A spreadsheet actually. It was a straight up spreadsheet that we rated immediately after viewing a home. If you’re looking at multiple homes this can be really helpful to keep things fresh in your memory. At the top of our list were things like neighborhood, fireplace, yard space for Bingley, decent parking and close to shopping centers/activities. Toward the bottom we listed things that were less important to us. Things like master bedroom size, building materials and bathrooms. We figured these were things that we could update or remodel later. Our top priorities were the things that we couldn’t change. A flat drive way to teach Felicity how to ride a bike and as they say, location location location.

We were not only certain of what we wanted, but we were also certain of what we could manage. In one apartment we previously lived in I strode through the galley kitchen and spoke over the counter to Brandon. “You know I don’t mind the galley.” I said. Brandon said it was supposed to be a better use of space, nixing corner cabinets altogether. I liked not having deep corners to reach into and having everything easily accessible as I only had to turn around to grab my espresso in the middle of flipping pancakes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the look of a big kitchen island, but the older I get the more I challenge the quote, “That’s the dream.” Recently I’ve been asking myself, 

“But, is that my dream?”

I admit that I don’t think a galley is for everyone, but it suits our needs well for now. We’ve made our cute little kitchen our own. Every now and then we host a large gathering, but more often we have smaller intimate get togethers with a couple, or two. A large open kitchen never seemed to be something we should make a priority. A dining space and cozy living space has always been more our speed. I’m also not a huge cook, I’d much rather serve you our favorite  Neapolitana pizza, sushi or rotisserie chicken that I can present straight to the table, skipping the kitchen all together.

There’s a reason why my craft/writing space, Brandon’s office and Felicity’s playroom are all bigger than our kitchen. Those are the places where we spend the majority of our time as a family.

We saw a home during our house hunt that was about 40% kitchen with more cabinets than you could count! It seemed lovely! But it didn’t seem like us and I don’t think I’d have been happy there because though we rated the kitchen 5 stars, all of our other priorities were extremely lacking. The rating system helped us to not get blinded by a one off fancy room and reminded us of what we were really looking for. 

Another high priority on our house list was a fireplace, having had one in a previous apartment that we used often. Other things on our list of house wants, a large yard for Bingley to finally roam in after 3 years as a city dog. A garage to park our car in to protect it from the elements. A pretty neighborhood with ample parking. Close to activities and most importantly somewhere we could ruffle our feathers and grow into. Projects around the house were never a concern with Brandon’s handiness. In the end we bought something of a project house to tweak the things lower on our list over the years. Sometimes we question that decision as the project list grows but overall we’re happy with the home we’ve chosen.

People have described our home as warm, cozy, welcoming, peaceful, all words I’ve cherished. We’re no Chip and Joanna Gaines (are they still the it couple when it comes to home design?) but we’ve learned to fill our space with things that scream cozy. We’ve filled it with our own creations, artwork we love. We’re constantly finding solutions to our problem spaces. That’s what makes our home so uniquely ours. Create a space that suits your family’s lifestyle and you should be proud of it if it does!