BUYING A HOME: THE EARLY STAGES.

//source: here//

Cody and I have been working through the process of buying a home.
It's a lot of work, often confusing, and has been very grounding.
After considering buying a house with some land outside of town, then realizing that being able to walk to coffee shops and the grocery store are pretty important to us,
we have sorted through and have discovered what is truly important to us:
a yard spacious enough for a garden and Ramona to play freely,
a finished (or unfinished) basement to put the drum set,
and a small space to potentially rent out from time-to-time or for long term.

 As if those criteria aren't narrowing enough, add in my absolute refusal to pay thousands of dollars
for cedar kitchen cabinets, old carpet, or tiny windows and this process becomes nearly impossible.

We've been productive in educating ourselves, figuring out what we want in a home, meeting with our realtor and finding a sense of security in her, and discovering new pockets of town.
We spent 4 hours on Saturday driving around looking at houses. Ramona just barely made it.
It's been so fun, I'm still dreaming about a few of the houses we've found;
we are touring two more tomorrow!

In the meantime, all I can think about is:
the perfect caged pendant light to hang near those white subway tiles in the kitchen,
throwing out my dining chairs and replacing them with metal tub chairs,
making lots of things that resemble this fringe mobile,
deciding which color smeg refigerator I will no longer have enough money to buy,
and collecting ceramic pots for all of the indoor plants i'm going to put all over my house (because we will have all of that natural light, remember?).

So that's why it's been so quiet over here.
I'm enjoying a bit of free time since I'm on break from school, we've been consumed with all things home-buying, and we are getting ready for the holidays.
There has been a lot of cleaning out the small corners and the forgotten drawers, to declutter and simplify.

▲▲▲

//I finally got around to making Ramona's play tent.
I've sewn the fabric cover, I just have to go pick up the materials and assemble it.
I'll post about the tent later, after I finish it.//