Mom in the Mountains | We Bought a House!

It’s been several months since my last blog! So sorry I have been silent, but life happened so here we are now. I want to fill you in on why I’ve been too busy to post! We’ve been casually house hunting for the last year, and with our lease up soon it was stressful because we hadn’t found our dream home yet. The housing market in Mammoth is very different from the city. Most homes are second homes that haven’t had a facelift in over twenty years, and they’re selling them all fully furnished (no thanks). Anything that was fully updated was out of our price range, and the market in Mammoth is already really high; I was beginning to get discouraged. 

Then along came this house. Some updates were and are needed, but its wasn’t nearly as bad as most of what we’d seen. And with it’s location in a nice neighborhood, walking distance to the village, and a fenced in backyard (that is unheard of in Mammoth); we put in an offer immediately. We bounced back and forth with the sellers for a couple weeks and then, we got it! Though there was one exception, they wanted a long escrow. We agreed to the long escrow and began a very anxious waiting period. After our seventy day escrow, just last month we became official home owners! 

During that long waiting period I dreamt of possible updates that I would do to our new home. I began filling my Pinterest boards with home decor and new furniture. I began researching the most non-toxic paint possible and choosing colors, because there was wallpaper in a few rooms! That had to go. I thought about what we had, and realized I’ve been so blessed in my life to have been given great furniture, all hand-me-downs or inherited antiques. But I felt like it was time to buy some of our own furniture that was truly ours, and I wanted to buy quality pieces that are eco-conscious and low-to-none toxicity. I have also always rented homes throughout my life, even as a child we didn’t own our home, we rented. So, we moved frequently. And I’ve never been so excited to finally put down some serious roots and make this new house my long term home. 

We finally got the keys in mid July. From day one we've been making updates, and we started with paint while we waited for furniture to arrive. Overall it was not an easy move even though we only moved one mile away and in the same town! The amount we accumulated in four years of living in the other house, plus having a toddler, was just too much. We planned multiple garage sales and started to purge, which felt so good. Plus we had to get rid of furniture left from the previous owners. Finally, after two weeks of garage sales, two weeks of painting, and a month of waiting for furniture…we are finally in! It feels amazing. It is ours; our first home. 

Isabella did great with the transition, and our dog Chex was actually more stressed than anyone. Unfortunately, Isabella’s second birthday fell just a week after moving in. I had no energy or time to plan anything (#momlife). I gave her a cake ball from the bakery and lit a candle. So we have decided to do a belated birthday party and housewarming this fall, because she won’t know the difference, haha! She still turned two, and had cake on her birthday, so it was a win. I am looking forward to making this our home and getting back to our regular schedule filled with walks to the park, hiking, and of course baking. 

I’m sharing some photos here, and including some of the pieces of furniture I bought first and a little bit about them. It can be difficult to buy eco conscious when you’re on a budget, but it can be done! And, you can even re-purpose furniture, our dining room table was left by the previous owners. And it ended up working perfectly, and I didn’t have to buy one.

I bought brand new chairs for the repurposed dining table, and it makes it feel brand new. I found my chairs here.

I still have some updates I want to do to our home, but they will come with time. And when I finally re-model my kitchen, I will be sharing it all here! That is something that I am looking forward to so I can make the most of our new space and bake and cook as much as possible. I love my farm sink and I LOVE my oven! But, eventually I want a lighter cabinet color and gold hardware!

Our bed frame came from West Elm, you can find it here. One of my favorite things about West Elm is that they not only deliver, but they put together everything, clean up and take everything with them! They are amazing and I already have my eye on a new desk for Matt. And now the never ending projects have begun!