our why behind our home remodel
What is home to you? Is it a place to gather, to entertain, to love, to spread joy?
For us, we believe health starts in the home. We believe in having a safe space for our children, our friends, and our children’s friends. We believe that our actions, activities, and design choices should reflect this. My mom always said our home back then had a ‘swinging door’, and it really did. I didn’t even have a key to that house, ever, because it wasn’t necessary. I had friends showing up at all hours of the night, knowing they could, and that they’d be welcome.
We’re in the midst of a home remodel, and it’s been YEARS since the ‘Two Seahorses’ blog that kicked off our first home remodel and my love of documenting our home design process up in Lynn Haven, Florida, in the Panhandle, but I can’t help but reminisce on the simpler times. The blog I created back then, I didn’t fear that people would judge me of design choices, or get annoyed that we were able to {work until midnight for weeks on end just to} get a new kitchen.
In this space, on this blog, on this website, this isn’t for keeping up. Allow this space to be a reflection of our hearts, a space that if we were friends IRL I’d invite you over in the midst of renovations, ask you in to see the progress, sans masks, dust off two chairs, and pour you a glass of wine or find you my fave juicy, hazy IPA (or a water, that’s cool, too) to talk you through my vision for our home.
For me, that vision includes sanity. Sanity for my brain, because it works so hard, all day long, all the time, and I want our home to invite our senses to r e s t. I’m the type of person that a messy home = a messy brain + anxiety, when it should be appreciation for a well-lived home and a beautiful family. I tend to see the messes, when I should be acknowledging the souls of the humans who live with me. A tendency of mine is to work until I’m exhausted… and thank goodness I’m out of the pattern of working myself until I physically get sick... I catch it now, but it’s taken years of the pattern to recognize this, and how to remedy it. (hint: it’s rest, self care, the right supplements, and some shots of essential oils + friends who fill my soul with all the goodness)
So while part of the remodel is for my sanity and for the home that was literally falling apart around us (like, it was either remodel the house or move type of falling apart), part of it has a deeper purpose.
My husband has this incredible shepherd heart that desires to create family out of friends, and friends out of strangers. He has this vision to create a home that welcomes people. He sees their souls, while I see people to feed and a home to design and a budget to make and a schedule to keep.
It’s like God knew that we each had our strengths - and went with it.
It’s kind of funny, because the song that is playing as I’m typing this is, “Crowded Table” by highwomen:
“I want a house with a crowded table
And a place by the fire for everyone…
If we want a garden
We're gonna have to sow the seed
Plant a little happiness
Let the roots run deep
If it's love that we give
Then it's love that we reap”
So, yeah.
We’re renovating our home. And I hope you hang out while I document portions of it, and feel like you’re part of it rather than feeling like you need it for happiness.
And if you’re local and want to pull up a paint covered seat with a bottle of Trader Joe’s wine or a couple La Croixs or a cold brew coffee, lmk.
First up we should talk about my floors… because I’ve been dreaming about restoring our original 1961 terrazzo since we moved into our home 8+ years ago. There’s a bit of a sneak in the pic above - and it’s calling desperately for professional pics to help me capture how AMAZING they are!