The last home tour I offered up was about one year and two months ago – just a few days after we moved in. Things certainly look different now, and I like the idea of marking our house’s progression for posterity (roughly) once a year. It’s a bit nerve-wracking to share so openly before our space is completely “done,” but hopefully it will be an encouraging reminder that not every home is transformed in a week, and not every homeowner has an unlimited budget. We’ve tried to make changes with thoughtful consideration, and purchases with our budget priorities in mind (and with hearts of contentment). There are definitely things we’d still like to do (and I’ve noted several of them throughout this post), but for now, please enjoy a peek at our home!

P.S. “Before” photos are included where I have them!

The Front Porch:

This summer, our front porch has really grown to be one of our favorite parts of our home. We’ve sat out there for hours in the evening, chatting, eating peaches or cherries, and living life slowly. Yes, rocking chairs really do make your life that idyllic. Since moving in, we’ve hung our American flag, added solar lights around the stairs, and added the rockers. Future plans include painting our front door, and growing something up a trellis on the side for a little more privacy.

The Foyer:

One of the first things we hung after moving in was that little plaque by the front door. I love it! Before moving in, we painted the entire downstairs main room Benjamin Moore “Simply White” colormatched to Behr No VOC paint in eggshell. If I was doing it again, I might have gone with a truer white – Simply White can look a touch too creamy with the amount of sunlight we get. We’d like to replace the light fixture and add a console table and a rug.

The Kitchen:

I love the bar in our kitchen – it’s where I sit when John is cooking! Since moving in, we’ve purchased a refrigerator, added the wire shelf, hung art and our rotating instagram bulletin board, painted a chalkboard wall, added new bar seating, and replaced the pendant lights. One more major improvement we are considering making is adding a vent hood with an exterior exhaust – we cook almost every night, and I don’t love how the smell lingers. Vent hood owners, do you think it makes a difference?

While we are considering other cosmetic changes, like painting our cabinets, switching out the tile for white subway tile, or replacing the cabinet doors with a simpler style, I think we will ultimately hold off and save that money.

The Dining Room:

“Dining room” is a bit of a generous term, since our table is really just situated in the open space between our kitchen and seating area! The only real update we’ve done in this space is to replace the chandelier with a lantern. Down the road, we’d like to get new chairs (our current ones were free hand-me-downs!), replace the blinds with plantation shutters, and maybe add curtains.

The Powder Room:

This teensy room received a fresh coat of paint (Sherwin Williams “Tidewater” colormatched to Behr No VOC in eggshell), a new and improved towel ring and new hand towel, and some art in honor of our home state. We’d like to replace the mirror with something more interesting, and maybe replace the light, as well – or just switch the finish to oil-rubbed bronze, like the towel ring. By the way, hardest room to photograph!!

The Living Room:

Y’all know our rug was one of the first big purchases we made after moving in, and we’re still pleased with it! We also hung our gallery wall, added a few new couch pillows into the mix, and hung a landscape canvas from our wedding day (our Christmas present to each other last year!). Down the road we’d like to move the trunk elsewhere and replace it with a larger, square coffee table.

The Hallway and Laundry Room:

This unassuming area might end up being the site of our biggest improvement down the line! I enter our home through the laundry room every day, since it leads to our garage, and the door swinging in from the garage and the door swinging into the laundry room from the hallway do not play nicely together, especially with full hands. I’d love to convert the hallway door into a pocket door, then knock out the two walls of the closet to create a mudroom area with seating and lots of hooks. I would definitely paint the pocket door a fun color!

The Master Bedroom:

Our bedroom was one of the only rooms the previous owners had painted, and we liked the soft gray, so it stayed! Otherwise, this room looks pretty similar to our bedroom in our apartment. A headboard/frame is on the top of our purchase list, so hopefully that change should happen soon (see my monthly goals!).

The Master Bathroom:

Not much has changed about the master bathroom since we moved in, but it’s on my radar! We’d like to paint the walls (I’m thinking Ben Moore “Sea Salt”) and frame out the mirror with wood.

I’ll be back with the upstairs soon!

P.S. How many times can you spot our cat Jack in this tour? :) She is quite the busybody, and was following me around the whole time I was taking these photos.

Holy moly, what a month! We celebrated John’s birthday, Natalie and Joe’s wedding, and then, to cap it off, our nephew was born earlier this week!!

I had to chuckle when I looked back at my July goals, because I said I was “keeping things simple to hopefully have a 100% success rate.” I clocked in at 80%, which I suppose is not so bad, but I feel like I actually got even more done last month than my list implies, so I’m pleased!

July goal recap:
Install a rain barrel. (It recently occurred to me we could buy one for less on Craiglist… have started the search.)
Finish taking house photos and post tour. (Photos are finished! Tour should go up next week!)
Finalize and print last third of household maintenance doc.
Clean out our “art storage room” – hang everything we like and organize/donate/sell/get rid of the rest.
Pick blueberries. (We tried several times, but farms were always closed or picked out!)
Celebrate John’s birthday! Among other things, we went to Bida Manda in Raleigh, and it was delicious!

August goals:
— Sort pile in small bedroom. (When we moved to NC we didn’t know how long we’d be here. Once it became clear we had moved for the long haul, I began sorting through my childhood bedroom on trips home, deciding what to keep and what to toss. The unsorted pile finally got small enough that it could be packed into several suitcases and boxes, which were trucked down by my parents and deposited rather unceremoniously in our spare bedroom last month. Now I need to make keep/sell/donate/toss piles and take action on them.)
— Plant a few hardy bananas against our backyard fence.
— Make a trip to the Ballard Designs outlet and possibly buy a bed, if the one we’re interested in is there.
— Get our summer dinner party on the calendar.
— Make plans for our two year anniversary!

Considering we’ll be in Maine for over a week this month and I have an additional work trip, I think that’s quite enough! I would love to take a peek at your monthly goals if you posted them!

The run-up to Natalie and Joe’s wedding was remarkably calm, from my perspective, but there was one aspect of the festivities that was a little nerve-wracking – my other sister-in-law’s due date, which was one week after the wedding! Today is our nephew’s official due date, but despite dancing up a storm at the reception he still hasn’t made an appearance. Though I’m not sure Marget would agree at this point, I’m glad I’m able to make a report of the shower in his mama’s honor before he arrives!

We held the shower in New York, where my sister-in-law lives. We went with a loose “adventurous little boy” theme, since that’s (loosely) the theme of the nursery. Here’s the invite I made to send to guests:

I printed the invitations at FedEx, and sent them out in kraft envelopes from Paper Presentation I had on hand. I actually decided to list these as a download in my Etsy shop, so if you have a use for them, they’re right here!

We kept the decor fairly minimal: one of M’s friends made an adorable gingham garland, we arranged colorful yarrow into little tin buckets, and we displayed some adventurous books, pine cones, and wooden woodland animals. (They were part of my shower gift to Marget – maybe the start of a collection!) I also picked up a few tree trunk slices from A.C. Moore (easy to travel with!) for displaying food and made a special sign with nephew’s nickname.

To make the sign, I spraypainted a wooden craft store plaque white, then hot glued on twigs. Easy!

The favors were little muslin bags stamped with “Adventure is out there” and filled with trail mix! I used a self-inking stamp from RubberStamps.com and it worked beautifully on the fabric.

I really dislike most baby shower games, so we went simple and just had one activity aside from eating, socializing, and opening gifts: we painted blocks for the baby! The blocks were from A.C. Moore, and I picked up craft paint in the nursery accent colors and a multi-pack of brushes. It seemed to go over well; my brothers-in-law even picked up a brush to complete the set post-shower. As a side note, if you’re trying this and planning to have a really young child who might put them in his mouth play with them, I’d recommend adding a food-safe sealant after they’re dry.

Now we just wait eagerly for news of our nephew’s arrival!!

When I thought about recording our California adventure on EFM, I considered beginning with the San Francisco portion, even though it was our last stop. Since it was probably our least favorite leg of the trip, I didn’t want to end with a downer, but in looking back at it, there’s so much good, too. There were also some valuable lessons learned, so here we go!

When last we left off we were driving west from the wild beauty of Yosemite. The drive to San Francisco took about four hours, and we arrived in the city just in time for lunch.

In our pre-trip research, we had unearthed a pile of places we were interested in eating, thanks to Oh Happy Day, Black*Eiffel, Pinterest, and our friend Sam. They included: Cotogna, Pizzeria Delfina, Bi-Rite, Tartine, the Ferry Building, Boulette’s Larder, Mama’s, Quince, Slanted Door, State Bird Provisions, and Dynamo Donuts. We knew, of course, that we wouldn’t have time to visit them all in two days, but at that point in our trip planning we were tired of making decisions and so decided to “play it by ear” in San Fran, food-wise.

One of John’s priorities while in SF was really good Chinese food. After some Googling in the car on our drive, we turned up Mission Chinese Food, in the Mission. Our lunch was delicious, and the menu was interesting and inventive. As an aside, though, Jordan makes the Mission seem really trendy and cute (which parts of it are), but if you, like me, already don’t love cities, it can read more as grimy and decrepit – just FYI.

After our late lunch we were a bit at loose ends. Like I said, we had brainstormed a list of things we were interested in doing or seeing in San Francisco, but, unlike the other legs of our trip, we hadn’t planned out exactly what we were going to do when. While that was fine for Yosemite, it didn’t work so well in San Francisco. We frequently got frustrated because we felt like we were taking up lots of time driving back and forth to different destinations, and only spending a few minutes at each. It felt very inefficient and a bit futile, especially compared to the wide open spaces of the rest of our road trip. Can you tell we’re not city people? :)

After a frustrating stint in rush hour traffic trying to visit the Cuyana show room only to get there but not find anywhere to park, we retreated to the Ferry Building to assuage our grumpiness with some delicious treats. Happily, the Ferry Building did not disappoint! I expected it to be larger and more overwhelming than it was, but it was really delightful.

We walked up and down the row a few times looking at the vendors and sampling things, then settled on treats from Miette – two macarons to split, a chocolate pot de creme (in the cutest little glass jar!) for me, and an ice cream sandwich for John.

Fortified by sugar, we decided to brave the roads again to pay a visit to Coit Tower in the Telegraph neighborhood. We chose not to pay $7 each to ride an elevator to the top, but the views were still good from the bottom. It was SO windy up on the hill, and in the low 60’s! We didn’t stick around too long.

Our last stop before dinner was the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District. It is startlingly monumental, situated as it is in an otherwise upscale but normal neighborhood! (If you’re curious about the background, it was built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, inspired by Greek and Roman architecture.) We enjoyed looking around, but again, it was pretty windy and chilly.

That’s me in the mint pants!

We met up with my sister, who is in San Francisco for the summer, for dinner at Pizzeria Delfina (back in the Mission). We had been told horror stories about the wait, but we were seated immediately! The pizza was delicious, and the company, better :) We did not skip ice cream at Bi-Rite post-dinner across the street, even though we were shivering as we ate it. Not to be missed.

On Friday night we were lucky enough to stay with my mom’s best friend from college in Tiburon, which was a delightful change after all of our hotel stays from the past week! It was great to catch up with them briefly. We started our morning on Saturday with a hike in their neighborhood (Ring Mountain Open Space Preserve).

Photo for the parents!

After cleaning up, we drove back into the city with Kim for lunch at Greens, near Fort Mason, right on the water. We met up with one of my good friends from college, and had the loveliest time! Greens was her pick, and I’d highly recommend it – everything was delicious, and vegetarian.

After lunch we drove back to the Ferry Building for another treat from Miette – Kim hadn’t tried it yet. This time we ate our sweets on the pier, with a lovely view of the Oakland Bay Bridge.

Our next destination was the Seward Street Slides! I had read about this hidden gem on (you guessed it) Oh Happy Day, and did a little more reconnaisance on Yelp. They are tucked away in a neighborhood, but there are signs that point the way:

A word of warning: they are serious about the 5pm closing time! We only got to go halfway down because a worker was there locking bars onto the midway point and bottom.

Our last stop before parting ways with Kim was Golden Gate Park. We scooted around to a few different spots, including the buffalos, but I think my favorite was this little stream that ran along beside the road. For some reason it completely captivated me – I pictured kids (okay, me) spending hours floating boats down it.

By far our favorite part of our stay in San Francisco, aside from seeing loved ones, was our last night. We stayed at Hotel Drisco, an independent, historic hotel nestled in the charming Pacific Heights neighborhood, on top of one of SF’s famous hills.

We checked in around 6pm, a little bedraggled, cold, and ready for dinner – except we didn’t have a reservation, and the places we called were all booked. We perked up when we were told that our room had been upgraded – hooray! In fact, the concierge was so nice that even though we had never used one’s services before, we asked if she might be able to help us with dinner. A few minutes later she had made provisional reservations at six restaurants within walking distance, and sent the menus to our rooms via bellhop to peruse. We called her with know our choice, and she canceled the others. I know I might sound a bit provincial, but it was amazing!!

Our choice was Baker Street Bistro, and it was perfect. To get to it, we walked down a few blocks of ridiculously steep steps past some of the most gorgeous houses I’ve ever seen (a.k.a. my personal brand of bliss). The bistro was tiny, cozy, and adorable. I’ve never been to France, but it seemed very authentic (French accents on the waiters!), and our hearty meals were perfect for the chilly weather outside. We stayed for several hours, then braved the steep walk back up the hill to Hotel Drisco (we took it a bit more slowly than the trip down).

Our suite was also perfectly cozy and charming. We loved all of the original period details, and all of the included amenities like a pillow menu, warm face towel at check-in, turn down treats, and more.

A true Continental breakfast is also included, and we enjoyed it on our last morning to the fullest! Scones with lemon curd and clotted cream, twelve types of breads, croissants and muffins, hot oatmeal, fruit, cereals and granola, yogurt, meats and cheeses, and smoked salmon and brie — all served in a charming, sunny dining room! Charming was the operative word here.

As we drove out of town to the airport the next morning, we had one last chance to admire all of the beautiful houses. Definitely a great way to remember San Francisco!

We chose to fly out of San Jose because it was cheaper, and the one hour drive to the airport was a snap. Though we tried on the flight home to choose favorites from the trip, it was nearly impossible – each stop was so good and special in its own way. I am SO glad we got to have this experience, and would highly encourage everyone to take a similar trip!! Thanks for following along!

Our California road trip:
Day one: Malibu, Ojai, Montecito
Day two: Santa Barbara, Montana de Oro, Cayucos
Day three: Cambria, San Simeon, Big Sur
Day four: Monterey and Carmel
Days five and six: Yosemite