Twenty-six months ago we moved into our new house in Inglewood (an East Nashville neighborhood), which makes the house not so new anymore. Nevertheless, this post marks its debut on my long-dormant-but-now-wide-awake blog. We consider this our dream house and have no plans to leave, possibly ever.
This house is the result of us buying our first house in East Nashville when we were young, sitting on it while it climbed in value and then selling it with a nice profit, which we used as a highly satisfactory down payment on this spiffy guy. I also believe we got this house because we are friends with the builder, Shane Stratton of Stratton Exteriors, whom I worked for when I was pregnant with Livvy and in the year or so after I had her. He's been incredibly kind to me since day one, and his kindness extended to this transaction, as he gave us a month to sell our old house, holding this one for us in the meantime. He does impeccable work and I can't recommend him highly enough. David Baird is the architect.
We moved in the day before Thanksgiving in 2015. Best feeling ever, especially for a girl who considers her house an extension of herself.
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| Our front door: color is Sherwin Williams "Celestial" and was the result of my hunt for the perfect periwinkle |
We bought this house because we wanted more space--in particular, for the girls to have their own rooms. And I admit, I also wanted all the shiny newness of this place. The windows that slid opened and shut like buttah (and came with screens!), the fireplace that sprang to life with the click of a button, the carrara marble countertops that felt cool under my fingertips, the intoxicating smell of paint and lumber and varnish. There was a PANTRY and a WALK-IN CLOSET big enough that people have joked it could double as an extra bedroom. (This was our old closet.) But the place didn't feel smug. Just luxurious enough. And though it's two stories (a must for me), it's NOT one of those tall-skinnies that Nashville has become infamous for. And it didn't NEED a thing. There wasn't paint peeling from the exterior. We didn't have to worry that the HVAC unit was lurching toward its last days. There was no basement that smelled like mildew. No brown recluse spiders whose ancestors had lived in the house for generations.
We still feel proud when we pull in the driveway (and I mean that humbly, because I am so grateful to get to live here). I would show you pics of the inside, but I've changed a lot (the kitchen island has been three colors already). And I want to go through it a room at time.
This place was a beautiful blank slate--all the walls painted Sherwin Williams Shoji White and the trim Sherwin Williams Intellectual Gray. It all felt very new, and I've worked to splash personality, joy and character around. I've found that it's a different kind of fun trying to bring old-house character to a new house.
If, as Nate Berkus implies, my house is my autobiography, I want it to be full of passion, color, surprise and comfort. And I want to tell part of that story here each week.
