Less House, More Home
Today is the one year anniversary that my husband and I arrived in Long Island. It was such an emotional time leading up to the actual move, that once we arrived we immediately felt relief. But then came the process of readjusting to renting, working from home and meeting new people. It was overwhelming and there were a lot of tears, but I can honestly say this experience has been such a blessing.
In February my husband and I broke our lease to buy this cute little house on the bay that is a quick two minute drive to the ocean. We weren't even going to look at this property because we thought the house was too small, but once we walked through, we were sold. My husband ran numbers (a lot!) and we thought long and hard on it, but we decided that this house would be perfect for us for this stage in our lives.
Before we closed on the property, we both kind of got cold feet. We questioned if we made a mistake and wondered if the house was too small. After closing and moving all our stuff in (thank you to to Evan's friends from work!) we knew we made the right decision. This was our home.
The only downfall to this house is that there is no basement (we live on the coast, so most homes don't have basements because of flooding) and there's no garage. That's been a tough one for my hubs who has a boat, jeep & tons of recreational sport stuff. He ended up building a shed this summer and it's helped a lot with storage and it's also forced us to purge things that we don't want or need anymore.
The house obviously still needs some decor on the walls, but we're in the process of finding the right pieces. Since it's open concept we've been sticking to neutral and minimal. One thing we're super excited about and need to get our hands on is a vintage surfboard to put over the door. It's the perfect spot for it!
Also, down the hallway are 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Good size rooms, not huge but also not teeny tiny. One is our bedroom, the other is a guest bedroom and the 3rd is my office. To save on space we bought storage beds from Ikea. They are perfect because it allows us to eliminate dressers.
This home has made a world of difference in the way we feel about living here. There are days when we get homesick, but then we are reminded that we have a beautiful house and that we get to live by the ocean. Who knows what our future holds, we're just taking it day by day and we're excited to see where life takes us.
I hope you enjoyed this little home tour, if you want to take a peak at what our life has been like this past year, watch the video below.
xoxo
Kristen