New Home Details – Small California Cottage 1920’s bungalow.

We moved during the pandemic, while I was pregnant. It was crazy…our previous house which we loved and had a fabulous yard with many plants (my roses!) curated by myself over about 8 years, and owned by my partner for 15 years, was due for so much work and maintenance that we felt leaving that home and moving to a better school district and more walkable, safe neighborhood was the best for our family. I know, sounds so yuppie, but that’s where we are at this time in our lives, kids come first and being able to walk places has been amazing.

Anyway, new home has no entry way closet, a cute built in cabinet in the dining room, 2 original bedrooms, and our additional main suite which was added on in a remodel. The kitchen has great lights and skylights, great cabinetry which makes it much more efficient as it is about as big as a galley kitchen, skylights also located in one of the 2 original bedrooms and our ‘main’ bath. Off of one of the orginial bedrooms is one of those huge closets that has a window in it, so we store a whole lot in there, and just use a coat rack for now in our entranceway.

Whole house is only about 1250 sq ft but it’s efficiently laid out and has everything we need-including 2 bathrooms; thank goodness we live in a warm climate and get outside most days and afternoons, because it’s SMALL.

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

I hope to add a new lighting fixture/chandelier to our dining room, wallpaper the entranceway and remove and plant a new rose bush in our side yard this year, 2023. When we moved in we had grand plans for the upgrades we would make but more on that later. We had insane property tax bills years 1-2 and did I mention that baby I was pregnant with came into the world safely and happily ….yeah, $$$$$, so we are taking our upgrades slowly.

Big Updates!

Moving –

We sold our home during the pandemic to capitalize on the great ‘sellers market’, and moved to a more desirable school district and neighborhood that’s way more walkable. It was CRAZY because we had a lot of pressure on ourselves and our timeline- for one thing I was pregnant. This market was no joke and we struggled with finding a suitable option for our budget- aligning the financial reality of what loan we qualified for and desired lifestyle was TOUGH.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com

Baby –

I had another baby this August! We had a little girl and I will post about being a working mom at some point soon…..when I start working again or maybe before as I contemplate what this next phase holds. This is *top* of mind as I go back to work in late November. Having a second baby was MUCH harder than I expected for the first 6-8 weeks, particularly for my son and by extension ME. Now that she is 13 weeks, we are seeing my son and daughter become much more harmonious and my husband and I sorting things out as we all get more sleep, get settled into our new home, etc. There are so many factors here.