A T T H E P A R K ' S

Family, friends, coworkers, and patients have asked me how I live in a small 450 square foot apartment with my husband and golden retriever, so today I thought I'd answer that question. But first, I'd like to share some of the pros and cons of life in 450sqft. It is a little different than I thought it would be, but maybe even better! PROS Our apartment is on the first floor so when we need to take the dog out, it's super quick and easy! It was great after a seizure Hannah had in the apt (the only one so far), after she was stable enough to walk we rushed her outside to go potty. If we had been on the second or third floor, it would have been much more difficult for her and she probably would have had an accident walking down the stairs. We love that we are in a great location and are super grateful to be near everything we need. I do drive across town for work and JP drives across town for school, but grocery shopping and leisure shoppi...

Well, last Monday was the day our home closed and the new buyers took ownership. Escrow was fairly short at about forty-five days so that gave us plenty of time to try and wrap our brains around the fact that the house would no longer be our home. The house was on the market for two weeks before we received the first offer. We had accepted that offer and then the buyers decided to back out due to finances. It was a blessing in disguise because once we put the house back on the market we had two offers the first weekend (one was even above asking price!) during our open house. We accepted the first offer and the rest is history. Our real estate agent was actually one of our long time friends so the entire process went pretty seamlessly. She went above and beyond for us and was not only super knowledgable but so generous with her time and efforts. We are so grateful for all of her hard work during this entire process and we would highly recommend her to anyone wanting to sell their ho...

Ok. I cannot hold it in any longer. OUR HOUSE IS ON THE MARKET!! Once the house closes and we move, I'll post all of the photos that our wonderful photographer captured a few days ago. He made our house look amazing!!! Specifically, I love the evening shots where the house almost glows, and the drone shots. A few years ago I wrote about our home list which included all the lofty projects we wanted to complete in order to make the house our dream home. Well, plans changed and we decided to do just a few upgrades and leave the rest as is. We are so happy with the results and are so thrilled with how the photos turned out. This week we had a large group of realtors come in and tour the home before the house went "live" and then this weekend (today and Sunday) we have our open house! We already have a number of showings scheduled so we'll see what happens. We've been officially on the market for a couple of days and have had a ton of interest so far. O...

For the last year or so JP and I have been praying more intentionally about our future. We've been keeping an open mind about possible schooling opportunities, living situations, and growing our family. In preparation for the unknown we've been downsizing quite a bit lately. I would even venture to say we've started a journey towards minimalism. The term minimalism has various definitions and misconceptions, but one key idea of minimalism for me is simply to remove what isn't adding value to your life to make room for stuff that is. For us, that means less clutter and more time and energy focused on what really matters to us. We want to design our lives with intention. source The kickstarter of this decluttering process for us has been all of my medical issues. My infertility (I'll share more about that in another post) has made me aware of everything I put on my body and in my body. I've been living a gluten/dairy/egg free diet for a few years now but ...

This year we decided to keep things minimal with our Christmas decorations and that included not getting a tree. In the past, we've driven out into the woods and we've cut down our own trees but this go around we just really wanted a simple, hassle-free holiday. In fact, we started the simplicity last year when I downsized our decorations from six bins to two bins! This year we downsized again from two to one bin! Now don't get me wrong, I love having a Christmas tree. Gazing at the tree in the dark is so relaxing and I love seeing the ornaments displayed and reminiscing about the past holidays and family traditions. We haven't shared much on the blog about our future plans and for now are keeping things a bit under wraps until we make some more final decisions. BUT, we will be downsizing even more in the next few months when we put our house on the market, so we just felt like keeping things simple this year was the best decision for us. Hope you enjoy the tour and we...

Let me start by first apologizing for my lack of posts these last six months. Life has been clamorous to say the least.  We've said yes to some things and unfortunately the blog has been put on the back burner...but I'm hoping to change that in the new year!  There is much to share so keep an eye out for a follow up "catch up" post. In the meantime, we updated our kitchen appliances!  It might not sound exciting to you, but we've wanted to update ever since we purchased our home in 2009. If you click the "Home Tour" link on the right sidebar, you'll see what our kitchen looked like when we purchased and then after we painted.  Here are the photos pre our recent update. When we first purchased our home, a refrigerator was not included. Once we purchased and installed our stainless steel fridge, the rest of the appliances were mismatched. And let's be honest, it drove me a little crazy. So this August, we upgraded and I'm so g...

This year it was my goal to simplify.  About half of our decor never left the storage bins and I only used the red ornaments on the tree.  After Christmas this year, I ended up reducing our holiday decor from six bins to two since we'll likely be selling our home and moving before next Christmas.  Hope you enjoy our more simplified home during the holidays. Check out home tours from previous years, 2013 , 2012 , 2011 .

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Jesse and I ventured out into the cold and cut down our Christmas tree.  Since then, we haven't really had a chance to do much home decorating until now!  And I'm excited to continue the annual Christmas Home Tour this year!  This is one of our favorite times of the year and we are so thankful to be able to share it with the ones we love.  We actually decided to keep it much simpler this year as we had gotten rid of a lot of decorations after Christmas last year and decided to keep the decorations on the main floor this go around (Family Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, and Powder Room).  Less is more.  Make yourself a cup of hot cocoa, turn on the Christmas music, have a seat and enjoy this little home tour! Update:  So, I started this post in December, but here we are February and I am just now uploading the photos.  Better late than never right!?!  Enjoy! And a little bathroom decor. Let's...