What Ana Does

And for my first trick ... HOOKS!  Our back hallway connects the kitchen to the garage, bathroom and laundry room. There's also a few closets. It's a great space but it (obviously) needed hooks for organization. For bags, pool towels, hats and eventually coats and backpacks. It was a quick and easy first project. When we moved in, the back hallway looked like this ...  That's the garage door to the left, and coat closet at the end of the hall. And to the right is the bathroom, closet and laundry room. A great little hallway, but not practical. And you know I love practical.  We pulled the sliding doors off this closet and I painted it green/grey (Behr: Greenwich Village). We're using the same cubbies from our last house to organize bags, shoes, etc. It's not pretty, but it's organized!  Then, I made a really inexpensive hook rail with a piece of pine and some "farmhouse" hooks I found on Amazon Prime Days sale. They were $1 a piece! What a deal! YAY, i...

 It's been a WEEK since we got the keys to our new house. And what a whirlwind it has been!  The movers arrived the next day and we spent the entire day directing a team of five where each of our 1,000 items should go -- from furniture, to art to boxes and boxes and boxes. It was a very long day. But it ended with us all sleeping in our own beds for the first time in almost three months. So worth it.  For the last week, we've been trying to empty boxes as quickly and efficiently as possible. We want them OUT and the moving company will only come once to pick them up. It's not a perfect science, as a lot of things don't have a place to live yet. So, we're negotiating around a lot of piles.  Regardless of all the work of unpacking, and all the home improvement plans and ideas I have swirling around in my head, I'm so happy to be here. The house is 100% better then I ever thought -- it's roomy and comfortable. And the pool is 100% more than I thought it would b...

We're getting so exited about moving into our new house. Just a few days away! We're going to have soooo much to do once we get the keys and the moving trucks arrive. It will be madness -- so, we're taking this next week of relative quiet to get some decisions made. Yup, we've had a lot experience with moving and being relocated. Our first cooperate move was 2000 from New York to California and we've been around the country, and to Paris and back, since. And given all these relocations, I've got a few steps that I generally follow.  Step 1 is inspiration! As I've mentioned before, I've been on Pinterest for weeks and, once we got this house, created a  New House board  with the rest of my family to share ideas and inspiration. Looking at pretty pictures always helps direct me to the style and design I want to see in the house.  Step 2 is to decide what needs to be done in the next 2 weeks and next 6 months. For me, it's hard to create a comprehensi...

When I planned for this likely two months of transition time -- going from one house to the other and staying in a vacation spot that isn't ours -- I thought I might take up something like jogging or yoga. Especially given the stress of this housing market and being away from everything normal.  But ... the hills around this cabin are mountainous and I can't be left alone long enough for a good yoga class. I also didn't factor in that, yes, I'm working full-time and have a bunch of important work projects I'm committed to getting done. (Plus, happy news, I really love my job.)  So, to distract myself from waiting (I'm not all that patient) and help relieve a bit of stress, I've been picking up book after book.  Here's the cool thing about living in someone else's vacation house -- no house projects. Nothing to paint, no DIYs to accomplish, no landscaping to do, nothing. The girls don't need me to drive them anywhere. The dogs are pretty routine. ...

We're tip-toeing towards our close date on our house.  Once our offer was accepted, the real work started. Inspections and uncovering issues, making lists of priorities for updates, remodels, schedules, etc.  We uncovered some major issues with the HVAC issue, radon in the basement. The garage is being used as a storage and is wall-to-wall junk with holes in the ceiling. And the pool is unusable; and likely not used in many years.   But no house is too far gone. And I feel so hopeful about taking over this lovely home and filling it with our things and our energy and our memories. There's so much potential.  So the sellers need to do their part to make it right, hand over a whole house that's ready for us, and move forward. Fingers crossed they do the right thing.   Inching forward ... 

 I don't mean to whine.  We really feel lucky we have friends who have a vacation home, weren't planning to use it, and would give us the keys. So we could leave Illinois and be closer to where we want to live; with the ability to look at homes on weekends, etc. It's a very comfortable house and we're very comfortable in it.  But here's the thing about me: I'm a nester and a planner.  That's how I'm built, and no matter how comfortable I am here, I can't really do either. And that's what's making me restless and this transition time painful. I love DIY and home decorating. Duh. This blog is basically cataloging my home improvement projects and decorating ideas. My Pinterest feed is mostly home decorating posts. And my Instagram feed is a lot of home renovators working on basements, closets and a really cool kitchen project. It stinks watching these projects when I can't imagine them working my space. Because ... I don't have a space! ...

In the last month we packed up all our possessions and sent them into storage for who-knows-how long. Sold our home of nine years. Packed up the cars with two kids, two dogs, two boxes of houseplants and a trailer full of gym equipment and pantry perishables and drove across several states to temporary home -- the lake house of good friends who didn't have plans to use it until July. And here we are.  To say we're all having some big feelings about this transition is an understatement. Though, we're all feeling pretty optimistic about opening the next chapter of our lives. WHEN is the big question.  The main challenge is this real estate market. The inventory is super-low. I've read news headlines saying it's a 40% its usual rate. It's a seller's market and they're basically asking for anything and everything. We, as buyers, get what we get. It's terrible.  It's good to be closer to Bucks county (2-hour drive) and able to attend showings in perso...