Hello.

At risk of sounding like an Adele song, hello, it's me (for the record, I'm not an Adele fan, but you're welcome...that song is officially stuck in all of our heads now).

 

But HELLO! It's been awhile, right? I've missed this blog so. Our lives have gotten so busy these last 2 years (has it been that long?), it's been nearly impossible to sit down and take the time to write. If you don't know me or aren't following along on Instagram, here's a quick recap of what we've been up to since I last checked in.

 

 

We sold our house in the city and jumped ship (quite literally) to the 'burbs.

 

 

We had a baby!

 

Who looks a bit more like this these days...

 

Our sweet Caroline was born last May, and to say we are obsessed with her is a bit of an understatement.

 

We also sent a certain someone to pre-school this year (who subsequently turned three while we weren't looking)...

 

 

When time allows, we are working on house projects. We landed upon a completely renovated cape, which made moving in & living life easy (I'm trying to wrap my head around our original idea of buying a fixer upper, all the while managing our little circus?!). Fortunately--for me!--the style of this house was not our taste at all, so I'm getting to change rooms one by one, slowly but surely. Some days I look around and feel like we still live in their house. But then I take a step back to look at the bigger picture, and we've definitely put our mark on this place. I can't wait to start sharing pictures with you soon!

I'm also taking a leap of faith and working on a little side project which will allow me to help you (my dear friends) to spruce up your home, style it & organize your spaces. Because your home should make you happy, right? More info to come! And if you're feeling a little impatient...in the meantime, let's chat, shall we?

Speaking of restyling, this blog will soon be getting a new look. I love it, it's fun...but it's just not me anymore, you know? I've also toyed with the idea of ditching the City Dwellin' name, but at the end of the day that's how you've come to know and love me. And quite frankly, city love will always be in our hearts (also, we live literally 10 minutes from our old house). Between the husband and I, we lived a total of about 15 years in the city. I guess we'll always be city dwellers at heart.

Well that's it folks! Hi. Hello. I'm back. This feels good.

 

 

And so it's happening

It's official. We're packing our bags and heading to the suburbs. If you follow me on Instagram then you know that six weeks ago we bought a house.

The letter that got the house

 

And then we sold our house.

 

Things have been a little quiet over here as I try and make sense of what the heck just happened these last several weeks. Within a two week period we had bought a house, and then turned around and sold our home...in three days. THREE days! We are forever grateful that the Buffalo market is HOT, but I wasn't prepared for just how fast this process would be. I mean, I have a hard enough time deciding what I'm going to have for dinner (seafood, pasta, or chicken...the choices are sometimes agonizing). Making an on-the-spot offer on the largest purchase of your life totally blows my mind.  

We've since regained a sense of normalcy now that contracts have been signed, inspections are done, and people have stopped walking through our home. It's one huge sense of relief. I know I shouldn't complain because, let's face it, we sold our house in three days. But trying to maintain a museum-like environment while living with a toddler, dog and husband was driving me bananas. People, the buying & selling process unknowingly turned me into Vicki Gunvalson.








Well. I'm so glad that's over with (until it's time to start packing & orchestrate this move, and then it's welcome back Vicki).

I had great intentions of taking pictures of the new house at the inspection. But we thought it would be a brilliant idea to bring our over-active toddler with us (until Grandma & Grandpa could come pick her up for naptime) and the thought completely slipped my mind. So sorry, too bad...I'm keeping all of you in suspense until July. But just know that we are pretty excited to be moving into that charming, updated cape on a pretty fantastic street. 

In the meantime, I'll be back to entertain all some of you with my witty repertoire until we close. Topics will include (but are not limited to): my unhealthy obsession with the Bravo network (could you tell?), my ridiculous quest to find an affordable farmhouse table, and all about the night my toddler learned how to take her diaper off during bedtime.

You're welcome (in advance).   

House hunting

Get ready for a wordy post folks, because this family (points to self) is officially in the market for a new house. We actually started the whole house hunting process back in February--when the husband informed me that he had contacted a realtor who was coming over to take a look at our house, like, um...that next night. Say what now?

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We've always known this isn't our forever home, as our living space is comfortable, but not large by any stretch of the imagination (adding a baby into the mix only drove home that point). But look, this mama ain't looking to move anytime soon. Besides, just weeks before meeting with the realtor I got on a major purging kick. It's what I like to refer to as the 'everything must go, we must clean, organize and ship it off to Goodwill' mode. I became a borderline hoarder when I was pregnant...must be I was coming out of my new mommy haze, and finally got my wits about me to get all of this shit out of here. Aiming to live simply, I was.

Our realtor gave us good news. Really good news, in fact. He offered to list our house for significantly more than I'd imagined. Makes you feel good about all that love & hard work you put into a place. But again, this mama ain't really ready to move--a point I drove home to our realtor no less than 6,402 times during our meeting. But as resistant as I was to moving (the thought makes me a bit--okay a lot--emotional), I couldn't help but get a little excited at the thought of a new home.

We've already seen some places--some we've both hated, some we both liked (but were sadly over budget) and another that I loved but the husband did not. The husband is the first to admit he can't see past the awful. Me? Well, I totally envisioned us living in the House 'o Liberace. But I guess buying a house is a big enough decision that you should both be on board, right? I can usually win when it comes to what color we'll paint a room, or what throw pillows we'll toss on the couch. But in this case my other half won (Spoiler alert: House 'o Liberace sold just weeks later...evidentally to someone who saw past the ugly, or at the very least loved mirrors on every.single.wall in the house).

I should mention that our house is not currently on the market. It's also worth mentioning that there's really not much out there. Well, at least to our liking. We're looking at two desirable & in-demand neighborhoods...you know, with everyone else in Buffalo. So I guess for the time being, we're not moving. Or looking (but really we're always looking even if we're not looking...did you get that?).

My mind kind of exploded at the thought of making any changes to our house when we were thinking about a move. But now that we're at a house hunting stand still, girlfriend is all about making some changes! First off, we're getting the kitchen floors replaced next week. Yep, the floors in that room we had remodeled almost 4 years ago now (hello, embarrassing admission!). I'm also tweaking some pieces that won't be coming with us...nightstands for our bedroom--finally!--that have been collecting dust in our garage since last summer, I'm changing up a wall in the kitchen (that was in desperate need of a makeover), and I've also gotten to work on Emme's play room (aka the old scrapbooking room). Here's a crappy shot of how things are looking right now...

 

 

 

It's hard to believe this is the smallest room in the house & I can already see that it's going to take me the longest to finish (there's only so much Baby Einstein I can force let my child watch). I'm using Behr paint which (in my opinion) is pretty much the suckiest paint on the planet (eh...have Home Depot credits, will use). It's hard to tell from this amazing shot, but the new color is a pale, pale pink. Ironically, a color I was thinking about for Emme's nursery way back when. Hello, full circle. I have no other plans for this room aside from wanting a taller book shelf. I love the one that's here now (my grandfather made these for me and my cousins way back when) but it's kind of dwarfed against this wall & likely going to get a complex.

I came across this idea earlier today. Um, amazing, right?

 

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Granted, I haven't stenciled a wall since college (a pretty amaze-fest floral border). Something makes me think this will be a bit more complicated, but whatevs. I think it would be kind of fun as an accent wall. At the rate I'm moving along on this room, I might have to ship baby off to her grandparents' house for the weekend!?

Anyhoo, I'm alive & it feels good to be blogging today. And getting my ass in gear when it comes to tackling projects around here. Mama got her mojo back!