I'm Back (And We Bought Another Fixer-Upper), Here's the Story

It's been a minute. Longer than a minute, 4 years. Life got full, the blog got quiet, and somewhere in there we also bought and sold multiple houses, with the latest being a fixer uppper. So really, what better reason to dust off this little corner of the internet than to tell you about it?

Welcome to Golfview.

If you've been following along on Instagram, you've already seen the siding come off and the tile samples pile up. But I wanted a place to slow down and tell the fuller story, the way only a blog post lets you.

The house

Golfview was built in 1976, and it's only ever had one family in it before us. In fifty-some years, one family loved this place, raised their kids in it, and left their fingerprints on every wall and cabinet. The switch plates are bronzed and will remain once we finish. There's something about stepping into a house with that kind of history. You can feel it, and we're excited to be the next chapter.

The neighborhood

Honestly, the neighborhood is half the reason we fell for this place. Every home on the street has that unmistakable 70s/80s character: the rooflines, the brick, the little quirks builders don't do anymore. Nothing is cookie-cutter here, and after years of new construction sameness, that uniqueness is exactly what we didn't know we were craving. We love it.

My 3 favorite things about the new build

Every house we've lived in has taught us something about how we actually live as a family of 5 with periodic house guests, and these are the lessons Golfview finally gets to put into practice.

1. Two offices, facing opposite directions

After sharing one office for many years, we finally get two. My husband's faces the street, because he likes knowing what's going on out there. Mine faces the back of the house, right toward what will eventually be my garden.

2. Single level, with a walkout

Our first house together was a walkout, and it had the best back porch. We hosted parties out there, the kids rode their scooters on it, and we ate outside more nights than not. I have missed that porch for years, so getting a single-level home with a walkout again feels like getting a piece of that back. I cannot wait for porch dinners to be a regular thing again.

3. A big kitchen up front, and two separate living spaces

The kitchen will now sit at the front of the house with windows galore. But what I'm most excited about is that it doesn't open into one big shared room. We'll have two separate living spaces off the kitchen instead. Open concept is lovely, but it also gets loud fast with three kids around. Having spaces that actually contain the noise feels like a small luxury we didn't know we needed until we lived without it.

Follow along

So here we are, back to blogging, tile samples and paint swatches in hand. I'll be sharing the process here and on Instagram as it happens, the pretty parts and the plywood-subfloor parts alike.

Thanks for sticking around. It's good to be back.