Just a little disclaimer before I get going on Day 2: I am not writing about our house because I think it’s oh so cool and worth talking about….and I am not writing about it because it’s done! It is all a work in progress (ie paper blinds, random nails from constantly moving pictures, uncovered vents and plugs…) but it is simply a blessing to us. Not perfect, not brag-worthy, but a blessing.  And it for sure feels vulnerable to let the world into our space, so please go easy on us! The gals around the globe who have agreed to share their spaces are coming from a variety of backgrounds and incomes so you will get the treat of seeing how people have used their spaces both big and small, with zero budget and with abundance.  It’s going to be so neat to see how homes grow into beautiful spaces!

Oh yea, and disclaimer part 2: I went to bed a bit petrified that I thought it was a good idea to challenge myself for 31 days. This will be a growing experience for sure!  I will try to post daily before noon my time so that you ladies across the pond can get in a read before bed.

So, here we go!

I think it makes sense to start our little tour with the kitchen.  The kitchen is for sure the heart of our home. Both literally and figuratively. When you walk into our split foyer house you can go up or down. Most people walk up. And when you walk up you walk right into the entrance into the kitchen.  Today I will share a few pictures that will show you why I love this space. This is the place we all gather. This is where I feel like I do my most “providing” for my family. It’s where I can be creative in a very necessary job of feeding my family.  This is where we talk, laugh, cry, tantrum, slip, fall, get up, burn cookies, smell delightful smells, light a candle that spread a sweet scent throughout the house, open the window to hear the voices of brothers playing, greet daddy after work, store the amazing childhood temptations like scissors, scotch tape and medicines, create things to serve friends and family, make peace offerings and bake celebration treats. See why it’s the heart of the house?!

come on up!

see, work in progress…can you spot the missing drawer?

my husband can attest to the kitchen never being this clean! the counters are sparkly for you, friends!

aprons are always out…they aren’t clutter in this space, for me they add a pop color and they are a sign that we are still cookin’!

I was tempted to keep the new fridge shiny and cleared of papers and such…but this space is about our family and I just couldn’t get used to the blank shiny…this is more us!  I do try to keep the front tidy-ish but the side is covered with pictures of friends and family and magnets from our travels. and those little hand prints…they are just signs of life, right?!

this little corner houses a very important part of the kitchen…this tiny stool. throughout the day little hands lift it and drag it not so gracefully to sneak a peak at what’s cooking, to reach the tall faucet to wash wormy hands, or to attempt to open the fridge. My goal for our kitchen is for it to be a place where the kids can learn to love cooking and to understand more about nutrition….no lies here, this is a challenge. Baking with 2 balancing on this little stool gets interesting. and adding another stool isn’t the issue!

Tomorrow I will share the before pictures and tell you a little of how and why we chose what we did.

So I mentioned a while back that I was going to try to challenge myself to jump in and link up with The Nester for her 31 day series challenge…along with hundreds of other bloggers. I have been humming and hawing, dragging my feet, talking myself in and out of it and finally decided it is worth a try. In the midst of my mommy bubble I am excited to be more disciplined about writing. And the topic will be “31 Days of Savoring Home”.

For those of you that don’t know our story….basically we bought a house while overseas, returned to fix it up and now call it home! The process has been interesting and challenging in many ways. A growing experience for sure! Our desire is that our house be a haven for our family and a place of warm welcome for family and friends!  So, this month I will slowly write and photograph my way through how we have been trying to make our house into a home. The good, the bad, and the ugly.  And also sharing some ways to make a space “home” even when it isn’t your forever home.

But have no fear, I won’t spend 31 days just talking about our home sweet home. I have friends around the country and globe who have agreed to share their favorite spaces in their nests with you.  Their homes are so lovely and I am so excited to introduce you to these gals!

Check back here tomorrow as we take a kitchen tour! You can check below for the addition of the daily posts!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 1  Our Kitchen, the heart of our home!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 2 Kitchen Before

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 3 Leigh’s House!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 4 Smells like home!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 5 Dining room

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 6 Power Washing!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 7 Personalities

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 8 Jenny’s home!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 9 Overgrown!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 10 Daniela’s flat

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 11 Leaving Home! 

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 12 Little Boy Rooms

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 13 Fill the cookie jar!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 14 Sharing!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 15 A home in Maine!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 16 Finding Quiet

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 17 Pretties! 

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 18 Safe Haven and Spring Board

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 19 Treasures

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 20 Done with this mess! 

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 21 Hanging on to Fall! 

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 22 Emerald Hill Farm

31 Days of Savoring Home:  Day 23 Lego-free zone!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 24 A little (LOT of) help

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 25 Dwelling Place

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 26 Sprucing up!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 27 Cheery Space!

31 Days of Savoring Home: Day 28 storms

As you all know by now and are probably SO tired of hearing about, we have bought a home and it needs a lot of love! So buckle up for lots of “before and after” pics and lots of troubleshooting on decorating as we move towards making it home. As Seth says I have probably had too many years to think of ideas for our one day home. Now I have to pare them down for our space and really think about how I want to use what we have to have it be a beautiful welcoming place!

I am in the process now of picking some paint colors for the house. A week from today we will meet with our contractor to finalize the kitchen details (a lot of prep work is underway!), pick all of the paint for Seth and his dad to get started on and we will meet with the guy who is currently refinishing our wood floors to pick the stain. It is going to be interesting to do this with jetlag BUT my sister in law has graciously offered to help us with the boys so while we might be groggy and make terrible choices on colors our children will be not be disowned in the process!

My goal will for sure be to spend as little as possible and to use as much as I can of what we already have. We have been diligently saving for this time but we want to make every penny go as far as it can!  There are sure to be lots of stories to share as we power wash, paint, scrub, demo, recontruct and decorate our way to a cozy place.  There will be good days and bad! You might just have to hear about both sides of the story.

This blog might just get a wee bit boring for you globe trotters out there that just don’t see a need for roots but I hope that as I share our journey of making some roots we will encourage you along the way! Because someday in the midst of the travel and transition you might find yourselves like us, looking for a nest to call home. Our time overseas is not likely done but this time in DC will certainly be a sort of hiatus and time to really process what we have learned thus far.

Back to the online paint chips (and packing for the final shipment tomorrow, baking a cake for Jackson’s class farewell, moving to temp housing and packing 8 suitcases)!! Wish me luck!

You probably think this is going to be a deep post on thankfulness for neighbors. Sorry to disappoint! It is actually about the freebies we have gotten from our neighbors. It is common in the Spring for people to get rid of things and to put them out on the curb. They don’t really do garage sales as we all learned and most don’t have big cars to drive stuff away to donation locations so they often put things out for people to take.

Last year we scored this guy below. It is an old free standing kitchen cabinet with a counter top.  At the time I was in need of a higher changing table for Owen. We were using a dresser and not only was it getting scratched but it was breaking our backs. So I painted it a cheerful blue and made it nice and distressed and we have been using it ever since.   It is perfect because the counter top can just be wiped off and sanitized unlike the dresser.  I am thinking it may go in the laundry room of the new house or I may be on the hunt for a butcher block to replace the top and some fresh paint so I can use it in the kitchen as an island (shhh, Seth doesn’t need to hear all of my ideas just yet).

A couple of months ago I spotted this armoire up the hill on our neighbors sidewalk with a big old “gratis” sign. Seth wasn’t too thrilled because it is huge and required help but I think he is learning that my freebies are often worth it!

I actually didn’t mind the green but it needed to be freshened up. I couldn’t decide where to use it but then decided with the boys sharing a room that they could use some storage space for books, toys, etc.  So, we, I mean Seth, sanded it, removed the doors and the hanging rod and added shelves to maximize the storage. We painted it a bright barn red on the outside and refreshed the cream on the inside. I cut up maps of the places we have lived and pressed them into the back boards with mod podge. We love how it turned out! Here is a picture of it without the shelving.

(the map panels are of Bogota, Virginia, Texas and Bern. I think this piece will be a fun memory  with the maps as well as really practical!  It will house the boys toys in their *maybe* share room)

We also scored a coffee table but I forgot to snag a picture before it got packed!

In a place where things cost WAY TOO MUCH we have been so thankful to score some things for free! Thanks, neighbors!   And thanks Seth for humoring me with my freebie projects!

But for a real neighbor thank you, thank you to the neighbor that planted the poppies down the road, we have been enjoying them so much! I had to include this picture for my sister-in-law Claire! I know she loves poppies!