Ready, Set, Snap: Radiate Week 3: Memories of Me

“Just know you're not alone
Cause I'm gonna make this place your home”

This week I chose the journal prompts that asked me to discuss what I love about my home and the prompt that asked me to discuss the places in my neighborhood that I love to visit.

This was such a timely prompt as it was one month ago that we took possession of our new home. The thing that I love about our home is that it is OURS in every sense of the word. Our previous home was a house that I had purchased when I was single. However, from the moment that Dennis and I merged our lives, I stopped thinking of that house as MINE.

After my daughter was born, to me the old house wasn’t a good fit for us in my eyes. I longed to raise my daughter in a house that was comparable to the one that I had grown up in.

I think anytime one is in the market for a new home, you come with a list of wants and needs and you hope that you can find a new home that meets most or all of them. House shopping is stressful to put it mildly and this time around house shopping with a spouse was different because he too had his own list of wants and needs. At times I wondered if we would both find “THE” house that we would both be happy with. I was determined not to settle and was willing to hold out for the perfect house. I am happy to say that when we both saw this house for the first time back in July we both knew that we had found the right home for us.

So what do we love about our home.

1) Space and lots of it. Our old house was a 3 bedroom 1 ½ bath ½ duplex. With two adults, a toddler and two dogs it was a bit cramped. We now have a 5 bedroom 3 bath house.

I wanted my daughter to have a decent size bedroom(check) and a playroom. My sister and I had one growing up. In our new house we took what the room that used to be the previous owners’ office and decided it would be Rachael’s playroom. From a practical standpoint it made a lot of sense….this is the only non-carpeted room in the house and my daughter loves to paint so this was a no-brainer. From a totally self-centered standpoint it allows my living room to be a living room. All of my daughter’s toys can be stored out of sight in the playroom. Yes my daughter does play in the living room, both of them, and that it totally fine by me but my living room no longer looks like a playroom.

2) We live on a cul de sac. This was on my list for the ideal location. For awhile there it seemed like all of the houses that kept showing up on the listings were located on a main street. To me a main street is not the ideal location for a family with a small child. To me my impression of a cul de sac is close knit neighbors who will watch out for each other. This will create a sense of community. So far this has meant my expectation; our next door neighbor has a daughter a few months older than Rachael and there are many families with small kids on the road. The residents in our cul de sac appear to be friendly.

3) The Garage. Now this was not high on my want list but it was very high on my husband’s list; therefore it was a must for us. Dennis is very handy and has carpentry experience. I am so happy for him that he finally has adequate space for all of his tools and space to work on home improvement projects etc. Dennis told me that I will be able to park my vehicle in the garage. The only thing preventing this at the moment are a few boxes.

Looking at our garage at the moment, an outsider will probably only see the all too many boxes, but what I see are the memories still yet to be created.

I can see my husband working on a project, I can hear the power saw in use and smell the wood.

I can see my husband working on my truck.

I can see my husband practicing his golf swing.

I can see my husband teaching Rachael how to ride her bike and how to swing a golf club.

The place that we visit most often in our neighborhood is the park. Rachael LOVES the park and loves swings so almost every night she is asking to go to the park. Being close to a park was a MUST for us. As I write this I can see her big smile, I can hear her laughter and I can hear her begging myself or her Daddy to push her higher and higher. More fast Mommy.

Our neighborhood park is a short walk from our house and we pass it everyday as we enter our subdivision on route to our house. I envision that we will be spending a lot of time here in years to come.

This week in Radiate we were introduced to vintage edits. I edited all of the following pics in Pixlr trying out both the pink and blue vintage. Overall I favor the pink vintage edit but since it was cloudy and rainy for post of the week, the blue vintage seems to add to the look.

Anyway take a look at my pictures and as usually I am looking for feedback. Which vintage edit do you prefer?