Hello, Hello!
I thought I might hop back on the blog to give a little life update since so much has happened in the past few weeks! We were able to FINALLY move into our new house and start getting settled. It’s been a long road to get to this point, but it was (and still is) totally worth it. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and to finally be settling into our own place has been a huge blessing.
I know, I know. New baby, two toddlers, two giant dogs, a new house, and a remodel. We are crazy! But I honestly wouldn’t want it any other way. I like to think of it as controlled chaos and without it, life would just seem too boring!
Kid’s Adjustment
Over the past couple of months, the kids have had a really tough time with all the big changes that have been going on in their lives. It’s been hard as a parent to watch them struggle through all of their own feelings and emotions when it comes to moving and adjusting. While we were living with my in-laws, it was a tough balance between structure and rules versus your typical “grandparent’s house” vibe. While we wanted to keep the kids on their schedule and make life as “normal” as we could keep it, it was also important for us to keep the idea of Nana and Grandpa’s house special. We never wanted the kids to feel as though this extended “sleepover” with their grandparents wasn’t a special treat. And for Mom & Dad, it was a tough balancing act! But you can read more about that here. Having finally moved into our own house, I feel like we can finally take a deep breath and relax. There’s something about being in your own space that helps to make parenting a little easier. You aren’t as worried about the kids getting into anything they shouldn’t or breaking something. Especially with the remodel starting and all the changes we plan on making to the house in general, I’m not too concerned about the kids trashing the house to an extent… but let’s be honest, it’s not quite the free-for-all they wish it would be!
The kids have been doing great with adjusting to the new house and things have been going really well, minus a few bedtime struggles. The first week of bedtime was awful. Between late nights unpacking, lots of meltdowns due to them being over tried and over stimulated, all while Mom and Dad are exhausted and overwhelmed, it was the perfect recipe of disaster and everything you’d expect when dealing with relocating toddlers. We resorted to driving them up and down the freeway every night to get them to relax and fall asleep in hopes of getting a few quiet minutes to unwind before we passed out ourselves. Fortunately things have taken a really positive turn in the past few days and they have started to understand that they are back on their normal bedtime routine and have started to get more comfortable with falling asleep in their own rooms.
I think for any parent going through a move with young kids and trying to get through bedtimes, the most important thing to remember is patience. I kept having to remind myself that this was a completely new environment for them and that these meltdowns were only temporary while they get used to a new place. Luckily after a very long week, they’re starting to feel more comfortable and we are all starting to get the rest we need! Stick to the routine, it’s 100% worth it in the end!
Renovation Plans
As I said, there’s a lot of work ahead of us. Luckily, Oliver’s godfather (and one of our best friends) is a contractor and is able to help us out with the majority of the renovations we plan on making to the house in the coming weeks. Baby Girl is set to arrive the beginning of August, so to be able to start some of these projects and have an idea of what we are bringing her home to is really important.
When we first toured the house, we knew we’d want to make some changes. It’s actually one of the major reasons for putting an offer on it! We loved the idea of being able to find a place that we could put our own touches on and make our own. While the house definitely needs some TLC and personal touches, its perfectly livable and works really well for our family as of now.
The previous owners had a garage that they converted into an added bonus space. From the looks of it, there was a little bit of DIY going on because the floor is totally slanted, even I have to duck to make it out of the door, and the roof is sagging in the middle. On top of that there are random electrical outlets that don’t work or partially work, and even a few in the very low ceiling! To fix all of these issues, we decided that it would be a fun space to transform into our own master suite. I’m excited to see our plans come to life as we start the construction on our own little retreat!
Since we are creating a new master, we are turning the existing master into the kids playroom (all those design details coming soon, it’s probably my favorite room we’ve designed so far) and the existing master closet will turn into our laundry room. By turning the master closet into the laundry room, not only will I be able to keep an eye on the kids while I do the mountains of laundry we always seem to have, but we will also be able to move the laundry out of the kitchen where its currently living and really transform the kitchen into something cool. We are probably most excited for the kitchen remodel. If you know my husband, you know he loves to cook. Being able to design a kitchen that can cater to his passion and be totally personalized has already been such a fun experience! In the next couple weeks, I hope to be able to break down the plans and design for all these projects. We are so excited to get all of these projects started and I can’t wait to start sharing!
Embrace the Chaos 