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OUR NEW HOME

December 25, 2019

Merry Christmas, everyone!

As Laryssa and I are relaxing at home tonight, covered in our new weighted blanket as we watch Elf, we can’t help but feel thankful as we looked around us at our beautiful home. Like we mentioned in yesterday’s post, decorating our house this year has been especially sweet as it was something we didn’t get to do last year. Let us tell you more.

It all began in September 2018. We had just moved back to the area, and we were so excited when our real estate agent showed us our future house, just a few days after it had been listed. We were so excited that we immediately made an offer, and after a few counter offers back and forth, the seller agreed. Our original closing date was November 1 – the day after Halloween – but we were wide-eyed and optimist that everything would move along flawlessly and we’d be able to move in before Halloween – or have “second-chance Halloween” if we didn’t close until the 1st. So young, so naive, so clueless.

The next few months pretty much looked like the same thing; a constant stop and go with closing on the house, and it seemed like every time we got two steps forward, we took one (or several) steps back. Long story short, it was one hoop to jump through after another – would our bank approve our FHA loan? Would the sellers agree to the required repairs? When could the required exterior painting be completed? Most of the time, we just felt confused, frustrated, and unsure if we’d ever end up moving in. It seemed like every time we found a solution to one problem, another came up, and each time, we got more and more frustrated, concerned, and just ready to be done with it.

Sometime in early-December, we found out that our new closing date would be December 20; five days before Christmas. We were ecstatic; our vision of getting a Christmas tree last minute and decorating it just in time for Christmas was about to come true. We even found the perfect “our new home” ornament while we were window shopping one day. Even if it was the only ornament on our tree last year, we knew it would be perfect.

And then, as luck would have it, the State of Michigan went into a government shutdown, backing up the Michigan State Housing Development office (who was a part of processing our loan), for a solid three weeks. Our dream of decorating our house for Christmas fell through. And as grateful as we were to be able to stay with Laryssa’s mom and dad during this entire process, but we both just so heartbroken that we wouldn’t have a house to call our own for Christmas.

After a long and tedious process, we finally closed on our house on January 15, 2019. It was such an exciting day for us. We both had goosebumps as we walked into this house – our house – for the first time. And although we didn’t get to decorate for Christmas last year, we were able to dive right in with painting our kitchen, dining room, and family room, thanks to five consecutive snow days in late January. Since then, we planned a wedding and a honeymoon, had our siding and exterior trim painted, spent endless hours out in the workshop, and completed (and partially completed) other projects around the house – all while making this beautiful house our home.

So as Laryssa and I sit on our couch tonight, watching one of our favorite Christmas movies, we can’t help but feel grateful, excited, fortunate, and blessed. Merry Christmas, everyone, from our home to yours!

A+L

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Two young lovebirds working to make our first house our forever home. Tag along as we tackle DIY projects, drop gallons of paint, and use the occasional filthy word.

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Our poor front yard. Year after year, it can't seem to catch a break. Last year, we lost a huge part of our beautiful maple tree, and this year, we're having two trees taken down (one already down just waiting on it to be milled), and our utility company is replacing a gas line.
We really need to get around to writing a blog post about our new desks, but are struggling to come up with a witty title. Anyway, we are loving our new @autonomousdotai SmartDesks. When we both started working from home, our temporary solution, which stuck around for 12+ months, was our old dining room table from our first apartment. With two laptops and two extra monitors, we literally had no space. Now? So much room for activities!
It's been a while since we've updated our blog or posted on Instagram, but we thought we'd blow the dust off today and share one of our favorite traditions. Since 2017, we've ordered a polymer clay portrait from @littleclayland. Check out our latest blog post to see more! Link in our bio! #TheBeckStreetHouse
Having an [almost] finished dining room is seriously the greatest thing. We’ve been working on this room in some way or another for the past two years we’ve lived here, including some window trim we put up, decided a few minutes later that we hated it, and it sat for almost a year 🥴. We splurged and bought our first real dining room set - a beautiful cherry set from a local furniture company [@gaschofurniture] and it definitely completes the space. We’re so darn excited that it has a leaf too. Still on the to do list is figure out some window treatments and switch out the light for something more our style. Oh, and new flooring someday. And house plants. Definitely more house plants.
Here we go again! We want to blog more this year, and we're kicking off 2021 with a post recapping our 2020 (in a really, really long run-on sentence), sharing our goals for The Beck Street House, along with a list of projects (with sarcastic commentary) we're hoping to cross off the list between now and December 31.
Merry Christmas from the Beck Street House! We are obsessed with this original water color painting of our favorite place on Earth from Laryssa’s sister. It’s perfect; right down to Barkley’s one floppy ear and one stiff ear. Merry Christmas!

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Our poor front yard. Year after year, it can't see Our poor front yard. Year after year, it can't seem to catch a break. Last year, we lost a huge part of our beautiful maple tree, and this year, we're having two trees taken down (one already down just waiting on it to be milled), and our utility company is replacing a gas line. 

Makin' the Beverly Hillbillies look good. 

#TheBeckStreetHouse
We really need to get around to writing a blog pos We really need to get around to writing a blog post about our new desks, but are struggling to come up with a witty title. Anyway, we are loving our new @autonomousdotai SmartDesks. When we both started working from home, our temporary solution, which stuck around for 12+ months, was our old dining room table from our first apartment. With two laptops and two extra monitors, we literally had no space. Now? So much room for activities!

#TheBeckStreetHouse
It's been a while since we've updated our blog or It's been a while since we've updated our blog or posted on Instagram, but we thought we'd blow the dust off today and share one of our favorite traditions. Since 2017, we've ordered a polymer clay portrait from @littleclayland. Check out our latest blog post to see more! Link in our bio! #TheBeckStreetHouse
Having an [almost] finished dining room is serious Having an [almost] finished dining room is seriously the greatest thing. We’ve been working on this room in some way or another for the past two years we’ve lived here, including some window trim we put up, decided a few minutes later that we hated it, and it sat for almost a year 🥴. We splurged and bought our first real dining room set - a beautiful cherry set from a local furniture company [@gaschofurniture] and it definitely completes the space. We’re so darn excited that it has a leaf too. Still on the to do list is figure out some window treatments and switch out the light for something more our style. Oh, and new flooring someday. And house plants. Definitely more house plants.

#TheBeckStreetHouse
Here we go again! We want to blog more this year, Here we go again! We want to blog more this year, and we're kicking off 2021 with a post recapping our 2020 (in a really, really long run-on sentence), sharing our goals for The Beck Street House, along with a list of projects (with sarcastic commentary) we're hoping to cross off the list between now and December 31.
Take a look for yourself! New blog post is up! Link in bio! #TheBeckStreetHouse
Merry Christmas from the Beck Street House! We are Merry Christmas from the Beck Street House! We are obsessed with this original water color painting of our favorite place on Earth from Laryssa’s sister. It’s perfect; right down to Barkley’s one floppy ear and one stiff ear. Merry Christmas! 

A+L+L+B 

#TheBeckStreetHouse
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