a house to call my own

in April i announced my ambition to buy a house this year, the hunt stared in March.
And nearly seven months later, guess what?! (i already spilled the beans on instagram.... but!)
a fixer-upper, but MY fixer-upper! built in 1921, this 930ish sq ft craftsman has good bones. while on a first-time-home-buyer-budget, i had been searching for an older home that had at least a little bit of original charm. it was proving to be difficult thanks to flippers (who buy cheap houses, gut them, and send them back out into the world for a 50% profit). there was also that much needed realization that my first home would indeed NOT be my dream home. a harsh reality, but honest.

Destiny. I was driving down a street I typically had no business on and noticed a sale sign. I couldn't find anything about the house online, so I called the realtors listed number. The realtor apologized and said the sign was put up far too early and the house wasn't ready to be listed yet… But he gave me the price (in budget!) and I passed the info to my awesome realtor team. I was allowed to view the property (inside!) the next day, and knew after my long hunt this house was the right fit . We talked the seller into accepting my full price offer and not even listing the house to the public. So there. Meant to be.

how backwards youth can be from our grandmother's days. for a gal to buy a house on her own while simultaneously shaping a career sans man. (well, to be fair, i have a very nice man, but not a legal binding). on a unrelated tangent, i've been listening to Aziz Ansari's book Modern Romance(hilarious and informative!). he discussed relationships with 80 y/o women whom all agreed, getting married was step one to becoming an adult, your ticket out of your parents house. so, oh how interesting and have times changed since their youth... independent lady power! anyhow - that book is a great listen!... now back to THE HOUSE!

i have carpet to remove, floors to refinish, walls to paint, ceilings to cover.... currently it is very grey. but we all know it's going to eventually be a bohemian palace. :)



yo, hello original fir floors! so good to see you under there!


it isn't my intention to turn this into a home improvement blog, but fair warning - i will surely share progress. let's face it, this is where all my $$$ are headed for a while.

Haddaway Hall Greenhouse

After some Sunday hiking plans fell through, i went off to another derelict green house to cure my photo-bug. I've seen this attraction many times in my life, only a few miles from where i grew up. But today i took the time to research it a bit.

This is part of the Weyerhaeuser Mansion, or Haddaway Hall. Most recently it had been a seminary for the better part of the past 30 years. Though it was originally constructed in 1923 for the timber baron John Weyerhaeuser and his wife. The main house is a 52-room, 15,600-square-foot mansion, one of the finest in the Pacific Northwest they say. It recently sold for over 5 million! The property's grounds were designed by the Olmsted Brothers - who are also responsible for landscaping New York City's Central Park! What a strange gem to stumble upon...

The online real-estate listings show off the the regal and well-maintained mansion, though as we see here in my photos, the servant’s quarters and a greenhouse have fallen behind over the years. what a contradiction between detailed gold leaf finishes and the side that faces this street. There's some history for the day.

Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice! I think spring thought is was summer all along, but now the season has caught up to the warm weather!

Sunday evening we hosted another fire and dinner to welcome the long days getting shorter. This time i laid out old tapestries (my go-to beach collection) around the fire-pit early in the afternoon for our dinner. And as the sun set and the heat settled we lit a nice fire! From the backdoor of the house looking out into the yard you could see a sea of strangers and friends sitting and talking quietly as guitars were passed around for some ambient jamming. I think the tapestries and blanket were perfect for a Sunday evening affair, sitting instead of standing made the event so peaceful compared to a few rowdy house parties in the past. Hey, they all have their moments, but this nice was lovely.

for our undocumented feast, Anthony smoked a roast, and we made beet burgers for the veggie crowed, beat-meat. I also made a cilantro lime coleslaw garnished with nasturtium blossoms from Anthony's garden. Happy bellies.

what it takes to buy a house

i don't even know how many times i've mentioned moving on this blog. something about the rental market, always dealing with broken pipes and ceiling leaks - and having no power to fix them. crappy bathroom hooks and towel bars, poor storage options, no yard... and expensive. what isn't there to love?! but in all seriousness, i've had a lot of defeating moments the past couple years with renting and what i can *afford* living on my own. so, this little idea of maybe buying a house has been growing.

my family (mother) have been pushing the perks of home ownership for years, while the market has been low. and of course, the endless resource of a boyfriend who bought his first home in october of 2013. a big thing for me has been wrapping my head around how to even start buying a home... mortgage broker? loans? i can't pay $130,000 for a starter house, oh wait, i don't have to pay that out of pocket right away... duh. well, all new stuff to me! and as my new realtor advises me, no questions are dumb questions! (i don't think they know how much they have to explain to me yet...). what i'm often surprised by is that i actually can buy a house. it seems so foreign and strange... and makes me sit up straiter. why yes, i am indeed an adult of home buying age.

so after announcing to friends in january that 2015 might be a home buying year, this past week in late march i have actually taken steps! no home in mind just yet... but i just got my pre-approval!

i'm going to try to write about this journey from time to time to document my progress in the only way i know how, scatter brained. because there are probably other young home buyers out there who are just as lost as i am. renting is great, it's less of a commitment, you can pack-up and start over quickly, you're not responsible when the house breaks.... but man is it a money pit! i lucked out with spacious & cheeeeeap apartment, but for $700 a month i could totally own something, pay a mortgage, and build my assets!

anyhoo, pinterest has been really inspiring me lately.. terrible way to start, i know, but gosh darn it i want to build my indoor plant collection, and spread out a little!



so far - so ana. i've looked into two houses... neither of which i can buy because they are cash out only or need special financing... but take a look at his sweet 1971 modern property, or this cute little 100 year old craftsman... paint and landscaping could do wonders for both!

2014 in review

Looking over at the side of this blog, 2015 is the 7th year I will be documenting! Seriously! I started this little thing when I first moved away from home and started design school in seattle. I was 19 and a spaze, er, well, still a spaze, but a 7 year wiser spaze. This year I celebrate year 25 and have some big plans on the horizon.

2014 started quickly, I was off to Nashville last January for an award nomination in the Special Events industry. It was a wild ride, both for the snow storms that covered much of the US, but also being perhaps one of the youngest nominees for design work. From Seattle we traveled to Detroit to get to Nashville, and Atlanta and Houston to get home! This was year of a lot of travel, 14 states with my road trip this past autumn!

There was lots of adventure in 2014, and i hope for more 2015!

2014 was also a year for growing friendships. I was around so many new and old friends, and despite my loner tendencies, it felt really nice. i've always appreciated a handful of closer friends to piles of acquaintances.

cooking was also a blast this year, it helps to have a partner to help (who will also take care of extensive leftovers for picky eaters like me...). Being a home chef is so fun and anthony has kept me inspired to try lots of new things. He even got me to eat way more vegetables and use a little less cheese ;) My favorite recipe of the year was a weird one, Braised Coconut Spinach & Chickpeas with Lemon - Served over a Roasted Sweet Potato. Holy grail of flavor! This sounds random with thai and italian influences, it is, but gosh was it was yummy! We used kale instead of spinach. make this!

In no particular order, here are some of my favorite photos from the year. Magic.