Making a House a Home and Our New Normal

Having lived in Baltimore for the past couple years, moving to the suburbs has been an adjustment. With that being said, I need to remind everyone that I grew up in the suburbs…I actually grew up down the street from where Matt and I built our new home. While that has given me a leg up, it has still been an adjustment. When it comes to home building one’s first home, posts like areas to consider for landlords must be taken note of for the property to be comfortable and livable.

Some things have been easy to adjust to. For instance, pulling my car into not only our driveway… but our garage has been amazing. Getting into my car, that’s parked in the garage, and it’s a nice 68 degrees on a negative three degree day has been something I never realized I needed in my life.

But other things like, not being able to walk down the street and eat a Thames Street Oyster House lobster roll, a basket of Red Star garlic fries or grab a Daily Grind cup of coffee has been tough. On any given weekday or weekend we find ourselves cooking way more than we ever did when living in the city. And while I say this has been an adjustment, I think it’s one of my favorite things to do now. One of my other favorite things to do these days is having coffee, that we made together, in our home. This weekend ritual is what I’m calling our new normal and it’s sometimes my favorite part of our weekend.

Jade, of Jade Nikkole Photography, asked if we wanted to take some photos together in our new home the other weekend and I immediately said, “oh no, our house is NOT ready for photos”. But then she reminded me it’s not about how much we have furnished or decorated, it’s about us, our family, in OUR HOME.

So after an evening of pondering it over, I messaged her at 6 AM (yes… sitting in my car outside Pure Barre waiting for class to start) and eagerly agreed to a morning weekend session. I must say, the results far exceeded my expectation and I am so happy I agreed to a shoot. And I know, as our house becomes more full of memories and overall stuff, and we even got home inspection experts to make sure everything is okay. I’ll cherish these images as a snapshot in time of how we began making a house into a home.

I hope each of you enjoy this little sneak peek into our weekend mornings and what I’m calling… our family’s new normal.