Home, Sweet Home

Oh, hello there. It's been a while and I'm sooo happy to see you again.

You may have noticed (and if you didn't, spare my feelings and act like you did) things went quiet at the Woodward Place over a year ago. Alas, now is not the time or place... we'll get to that. Bible.

A lot has changed this year, but my most exciting development is I bought a new house! I can't quite believe that tomorrow it will be four weeks since I closed on this charming fixer upper. After I bought a fixer, my return to the blogoshere was inevitable.

The new pad is anything but...she's the least new, dirtiest, cracked, and high-maintenance place I've ever lived (including apartments and houses growing up). Every inch of this beast needs to be repainted, some areas need to be replaced, and overall it's just a ton of work.

Seriously though, I don't want to say anything too mean about this old gal because I'm truly very in love with her. My list of reasons to love it is almost as long as my to-do list; she's in a great location, on a great lot with lots of mature landscaping and creatures (I've had deer in my backyard twice already). The house is well-loved and has great bones; she has a very traditional floorplan but still very liveable and relatively open given her age. She was built in 1978 and has a real wood-burning fireplace and mullioned windows. In my opinion, one of the best things about older houses are the windows and mullions are pretty much Spanx for houses: they make everything else look that much better.

So far, it's been quite the adventure. On top of all the projects, I'm living on my own for the first time in a long while plus I have a veritable zoo on my hands - it's enough to drive me straight to the rosé. I can't wait to share more about the day-to-day hijinks that are par for the course just living in Little Grey House.

Now, I want to confess something I haven't been able to gather the courage to say: I never truly felt at home at the Woodward Place. No doubt it was a beautiful house that I was thrilled to live in. But in a way, it almost felt disposable - like every apartment I'd ever lived in. Someplace to enjoy for a while, then move on from. For lack of a better explanation, I never felt that "home" hug you get when you walk in the door. Little Grey House has that, and I felt it the first time I walked through the door.

This house has soul.