First Home Renovation Update: it's been a year!

Hello hello, and welcome to Episode 109 of Life On the Brink!

It’s now been one year since I moved into my first house, and so much has changed! Josh and I have slowly but surely been renovating, furnishing and decorating this place and have watched it become our home. While there’s still so much we’re working on in 2024 (hopefully before Baby Girl arrives), today I’m sharing a 1-year update on our home renovations.

In this episode, I'm also sharing some resources that have been very instructional or inspirational throughout this process as well, and this week's Little Joy involves a delicious local gem.

For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!


Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys

Transcript

Unknown: 0:07

Welcome to Life on the brink, a lovely little place filled with inspiration and creativity that is dedicated to enjoying life one day at a time. I'm Ana. And together, we're exploring the beautiful things in this world that fascinate us. And often discovering something new. Hello, hello, welcome to episode 109 of life on the brink. We are almost a springtime, I can feel it in my bones, I hope you're doing well. And that you're getting a little bit of sunshine. Where I live, it's definitely warming up just a tiny bit here. And there. We have some warmer, sunshiny days. And most beautiful of all, daffodils have sprung up. And so I actually have a few from the garden, and I've clipped them and they are a harbinger of things to come. And so I'm feeling very springy, very inspired. After such a long winter, and I hope you're doing well. I think I'm also a bit invigorated because there's been a lot of progress. Regarding home projects for me and Josh a lot that's finally sort of coming together, or things that we're we're moving toward. And it's really exciting. It's bringing new life into some brainstorming and inspirations and stuff that have been slowly slowly coming together. And that's somewhat what today's episode is about, because February 12. of last year was our first night in this house. We closed on it in November of 2022. But we've just hit our one year mark of living in this house. And we've had one year to continue more projects one year in the garden one year living with this house, and slowly slowly been renovating. And so today, I'm basically giving an update of what has happened in the past year. Because I know some people who listen may be looking forward to buying their first home or are in that process, or you know, might be in various stages of renovation. And so this is a very realistic timeline. Because we have really not, it hasn't been an overnight thing. It hasn't even been a one year thing. We've been working steadily slowly on a budget. And I feel like it may be useful for anyone who's going into something similar. I'm also going to be listing any resources that I found particularly inspirational or helpful informational along the way. So if that sounds good to you, and I should say if, if you're not in the midst of a bunch of renovation, it does still, I have always enjoyed watching other people's home renovations even just to get like decorating, because you can redecorate a space and really transform it without doing a whole lot of stuff. And in some of the rooms. That's all we've done. And so there's going to be different levels of renovation. So go ahead and make yourself a nice cup of tea, something sweet and warming's something to cozy up with. I have a chai, I have a homemade chai latte today. And actually, I'm going to talk a lot about that in today's little joy. I've returned to a love of chai. And so yeah, I made one today with almond milk. And in fact, if you are interested in it, I'm gonna leave a link in the show notes episode 19 of life on the brink long while ago was all about tea lattes and how to make them and so a recipe I've been I've been messing with it trying to tweak it but the base recipe is in that episode and on the blog. But whatever you have, sit back and relax and hopefully let yourself be inspired today. So first I just wanted to sort of recap or reintroduce what the vision was behind many of the decisions that we made in renovating for this house. Just to sort of give you an idea of of my aesthetic because I know it mean everyone's going to be quite different. I adore old houses I would have preferred a house that was like 100 years old but was kept in impeccable shape and was very cheap to buy and had no plumbing or electrical issues whatsoever. But since none were available. Josh and I bought a house that was built in 1993. It's very much of its time, it there's nothing particularly special, in my mind know that I take that back. There's nothing particularly characteristic or niche about it, with the exception of one cool room upstairs, which is the furnished room above the garage. And I'll talk about that later, because we're just barely scratching the surface. But the thing that really made us fall in love with the house was the backyard. I've talked about it over the past year, as I've been, like learning the garden here. But it's a beautiful back deck that goes into a sloped yard, that then has a fence and beyond the fence is a pond and trees. And there's so many trees throughout this neighborhood. And there's trails and it's just a really sweet Oasis, it feels very private, even though we're very close to, to a lot of different things. And even when I saw the listing online, when I saw the backyard and the back deck, I was like, Oh, that's really pretty. And so that's really what drew us to it. And it was something that we could work with, you know, financially. And so I've slowly been trying to bring in some character, some elegance, some, I guess, more traditional or old fashioned, but also some, like whimsical or odd characteristics to the house. Because I feel like so many houses of the 90s can feel very bland or boring. And some of the more modern house trends of just a very bare or minimalist or white, or beige, anything that's too much like that, it's really not my style. And so I have tried to add little touches, and I'm continuing to do so to bring in a bit of like a romance that comes from the houses that I'm so inspired by. I've talked a bit about this in other house episodes of the podcast. But we Josh and I were very inspired by a particular French bistro that we love to go to because it's very colorful, but it never feels overwhelming. And our house like the main living area has a lot of really high ceilings. And so we're trying to play up that sort of thing. And I really love both like have like a French elegance. In fact, there I did a an episode several episodes back about French homes. But I also love the coziness of like an English cottage. And then from my mom's side, I also have a love of like Spanish. And then also like Mexican homes and the color and the the earthiness of it and all those things sort of mixed up into a new fresh, something different is what I was working toward. And so as I go through, I'm gonna basically just talk through each room. And I'm going to have lots of photos on the blog. So if you'd like to see what I'm talking about, there's going to be plenty of them on there, I tried to pick one main thing, or one or two main focal items to really be well the focus and to let those speak to the character of the room. And to really play up those features. And you'll notice as I go through that each of those big feature items or elements are going to be a bit classic or li elegant. Or something that really was not in the room at all before which I feel like has transformed each space. When we first moved in. I will say I did not enjoy any of the color choices. There was a lot of weird shades of brown. All the windows were covered with a UV light tinted film which I don't know how much UV light it was protecting from but it was dark. And the window treatments were all these really old to me felt very sterile blinds and I said we need some curtains we need some more light like it's it will a lot has changed because of those things that we decided to do very early on. And I also knew from the beginning, I was going to rip up all the carpet. Really Josh ripped it up But I'm not a fan of carpet. And I'll talk more about that as we go. So if you're interested and would like to see more of what my inspiration has been for each room, I do have several Pinterest boards, one for each room of the house. And I'll leave a link to my Pinterest on the blog as well, in case you'd like to see, see where all this is coming from. Okay, so the living room, there's some very high ceilings that sort of blend the living room and dining room space, it's a little more open, but there is a half wall that sort of separates them. So the living room side has a really tall wall with a fireplace. And so that's one of the main features that I wanted to play up, that's the tallest point of the whole house, that's the longest wall. And when we moved in, it was the same color as all the other walls of that huge space. In fact, I'm going to leave some before pictures as well. So you can see where what it was like before. And so to highlight that height, we painted that wall, like basically just the mental walls all the way to the ceiling in white. And then the surrounding walls were different than they were, our color palette has been a very soft brown sort of like the the shade from Valspar. It's called My Chai. So it's like a mid tone, not very dark, not very intense, neutral. And then there's like a sage green, light, turquoisey ish blue, a darker Indigo, blue, and yellow, like a very warm, not orange, but like the comforting shade of like happy yellow. And so surrounding that mantel wall were the neutral brown, the green, other things like that, but that one main wall, I separated it out, painted it white. And in time, perhaps I'd like to do like a bit of like, some sort of moulding design on it. But that hasn't happened yet. I just have a really big painting on top of the mantelpiece. And that's worked. The other main focal point of that room is the piano, I finally have an acoustic piano. We got it in March of last year. It's a baby grand, and it's brown. And it's gorgeous. And so not only is it much better for me when I teach piano lessons in the house, but it's to have that shape that presence of an instrument. It's the right size for our room, because it fits in this little nook right by the half wall in the fireplace, but it just elevates the whole room, I think. And so the other pieces in the room, we've got a couch, it's just you know, neutral, I found some chairs, one in a sort of beige color and other in green, the rug has bits of blue and gold, bringing in that color palette, we've got quite a bit of brown as well, in the furnishings, a little bit of black, and then there's a lot of plants as well. And they just bring a whole lot of life to the room as well, obviously, literally. Yeah, and our coffee table is also black and brown. So it's nice and airy, because of the high ceilings. And another element that I've used to play up that height is a gallery wall of mostly very large paintings. I'll leave a picture of it online. It's above the sofa. And it's one of the first walls that you would see when you come in. And it's mostly like we've incorporated a lot of Impressionist, you know, early 20th century French painters, big fans of Monet and Van Gogh and stuff like that, but I've mixed in some other art and I hope to make it fuller over time. And I on the other wall, the opposite wall, I added some sconces with some battery operated tapered candles, which I think also just elevated a little bit bring a bit of elegance, but some of the other furnishings are much more simple, I would say more grounded so that it's overall eclectic together. Nothing too posh, it still feels comfortable, I think. And I'm in the process for the future. I'm looking at the wall that is behind the staircase. I'll leave a picture in the show notes so you can see. But if you're sitting on the couch and looking at the staircase, there's a large wall behind it that again and because of the ceilings is just really big and really bear. And so I'm in the process of working on another sort of gallery wall for that wall but with plants and I've got one really beautiful philodendron that sits at the top of the staircase in sort of spills out over the whole wall. It's like up from the second storey, and it's hanging over. And I've I've got clips guiding it along the wall. And I just love vining plants and like the the whimsy that they bring to a space. So that's the living room. And like I said, The dining room is very visible behind it. The main focal point, I mean, I love the dining set that I found it secondhand and I still have to like, I need to sand and re stain the table itself. Because it's, I've been meaning to do that for over a year now. But whatever. When people come over, I put a tablecloth. If I'm like having a dinner party, there's a tablecloth anyway. But the main focal point is the wallpaper that we chose. I know I've spoken about this wallpaper in the past. And I just love it. It's I got it from Wayfair. Like it's very much accessible. But it is just, I love what it brought to the room. So two of the walls have that wallpaper. And then I happen to find a pair of like golden tapestry like drapes, like curtains at the thrift store that have a very, very similar, like brocade pattern to the wallpaper. So it's very subtle, but I think they go together perfectly. Also in that room is a hutch where I keep some miscellaneous dining room things and like a lot of teapots and stuff. And we have a barchart that probably in future I will upgrade to a more substantial Hutch or buffet or something like that. And there's a plant and there's the record player on the record table. And that works well in that room. And yeah, I just enjoy that room a lot. Because there's also quite big windows in the back and you can just look out into the yard. And that's like the highlight of the whole house for me. And very close to the to that area is the kitchen as well. And so the kitchen is interesting. I feel like we have in some ways kept it very much the same, but yet it feels totally transformed. And it's just because of a few particular pieces of furniture and some paint really two of the walls in the kitchen, we painted yellow. And I just think it adds a nice energy and brightness to the room. And on those walls. I have two of my favorite items probably of the whole house. One is a vintage teacup display shelf, I was looking for one online for months before I finally found someone selling one. And it's perfect. It holds my teacup collection. It's I love it so much because not only are these tea cups that I've collected over the years, and some have been given to me by such special people. That's part of the decoration now but also they're accessible to us very easily. And that's it's above a, it's sort of like a a hutch that's also a wine rack that also has our coffee machine like it is multifunctional. But then there's a window in the back of the kitchen hanging above that window is a pot rack, which was here when we moved in. And so I use that. But I was also looking for a shelf, some sort of table or bookshelf that would fit right underneath that window. And I finally found a bookcase that was the exact dimensions I needed. It just takes time. And in this bookcase, it's filled with all of my cookbooks. It makes me so happy to look at it. It's like a little mini library in the corner of the kitchen. And then on top, I of course have more plants. And so I really love that corner of the kitchen. And then there's like a little corner that was in between this little bookshelf and the wine rack piece and it's sort of a strange little corner space and I wasn't sure what to do with it. And I ended up putting a ladder that would normally be used I think for blankets or something. But I use it for drying herbs. And so when you look at that corner, there's the window there's the tea cups, the herbs, the plants, the cookbooks and it just feels so so like me and it feels like my kitchen and I love it and it just feels very different and warm. And then as far as the other side, like the Have the appliances, the counters the cabinets, I thought about painting the cabinets. But the longer we lived there, they're like a light wood, light stained wood it there, they have more yellow in them that I think matched the yellow paint. But there was this big soffit that was painted a different color. And it was not my favorite. So I painted that white sort of blend into the ceiling. And then all I did was add a backsplash of technically it was a vinyl wallpaper, but it looks like tiles. And it's one of my favorite elements of the whole house. Because I've never done tiling, perhaps we will in the future in the kitchen. But I just wanted to add that as like a, a way to see because we kept the cabinets the same kept the countertops, I don't mind them, it's all very neutral. And then just adding that little bit of character to the back was just enough for me. And we swapped out the light fixture as well one that operated with more bulbs to give more light. And it's just a little bit sleeker it was one it was a very, very dated light fixture in there. And that was all we did in the kitchen. I know that I talked for a long time, but I found some very specific furniture pieces. And I just painted and that was it in the wallpaper. And I just love working in there. All the appliances in there, by the way are black. And so that was really how our color palette came to be. Because we weren't going to swap those out when we moved in. And I thought how can we have like a deeper saturation in our color palette, while still letting things be open and airy. And that's when we thought of our you know that French bistro. So I really recommend checking out these photos because I think it's just the cutest little room. Yeah, big fan of the kitchen. So now moving on the last room that really well no, we've got a few more that feel complete. But downstairs is the master bedroom, and Josh replace the flooring. It was carpet, but now it's laminate that laminate wood. You know it looks like wood, but it's laminate. We matched it to the hardwood that is in the living room and dining room. And the focal point for this room is the huge windows. Like one wall is basically just windows. It's three, three panes wide and they're all very wide panes. And so you can just look out over the backyard the trees like it's gorgeous and it brings in so much light. So I really wanted to highlight that not only with really large window treatments, we have like a double where it's you can do two different rows of curtains. So one is shear and then one is like blackout. And I sort of extended the curtain rod placement so it's a little bit wider than the window so that when everything's pushed back the window appears even wider, even bigger. And it just makes the whole space in my opinion. So then we decided to keep the rest of the room fairly simple in its colors. The walls are all white. I do have one rug that has some green in it as well as some blue and gold. Our bedspread is all white. It's just got a little bit of texture in the in the in the duvet cover I should say bits of blue and green throughout the room but it's all very muted. And I brought our nightstands from the apartment because we still enjoy them I added a wood vanity where I store all my makeup on one side of the room and we have a wood dresser on the other side and now the latest edition is in one little corner. I have placed a bassinet which is waiting for a little baby girl and I know things might move around as we're getting used to parenting but it is so cute sitting in one little corner I have on the other side. A I guess it'd be a towel rack or clothing rack but we we hang our robes on there we we both like a really nice waffle knit robe and the clothes steamer and then this was a bit of a ambitious project but I got this beautiful mirror and it was quite heavy. And the installation took a little while for us. We had some heavy duty anchors in the wall and some brackets to hold it up and it was a whole thing but Josh and I did it and it is perfect. I just love the shape of it the size of it. I think it's exactly right. I have another gallery wall over the vanity in which I have mostly prints of flowers and also some fun photos like one from our wedding and things that are like more personal to me and to Josh. And so I still keep a few books in the bedroom, you know, I've got a little collection there, I try to keep it pretty visually clean and open, because I think that that's nice for a bedroom in general. And then also just to let the outdoors be the focal point just to let the light and the view, take center stage there. So it's I love being in this bedroom. Now it took a while, because I wanted to do more to it at first, but then I ended up liking the simplicity of the white walls and the sort of the bit of austerity that came with all of that. And so, yeah, I love it. Now, in contrast, the last room that really we gave our attention to, is upstairs, upstairs, there's three, well, there's two bedrooms, technically. And then there's this extra cool little room. So one of the two bedrooms we've made into our office. And I don't think I've ever shared photos of it before. But I have photos in this blog post for this episode. The focal point for this room was the wall treatments. In my opinion, I was really inspired by the almost cluttered look of some office spaces, where there's just a lot of things on the wall. There's a lot of books, and there's collections and things like that without being actually cluttered, of course and so for the walls, we put up a chair rail as a divider about it's a little bit higher than 1/3 up the wall, and then painted said chair rail all the way to the baseboard in yellow. And then above the the chair rail is wallpaper. And it's this beautiful print of like a white and taupe I should say, but it's kind of shimmery of gingko leaves, I just I really love gingko trees and the leaves are so characteristic and they bloom at such a weird time. And I just really love those trees. And so it's also a low contrast, print. And so I think it doesn't overwhelm. And so on top of all of that wallpaper, I've now added a bit of a gallery wall above my desk, one above Josh's desk, we've got our diplomas and things on the wall. And I've got other things that have been milestones for each of us. I've got a really cool clock that I brought from the apartment on one wall. And then on an opposite wall, another little gallery of our world map where we keep track of where we've traveled together as well as several photos of our families and our times on said travels. And so I like that as you move further into the house, the art moves from perhaps still personal but more ambiguous art all the way to the more private areas of the home where the the art is much more personal, it's much more intimate. So as someone would be welcomed more into your home, they can learn more and more. I just really enjoy that that boundary and that element of storytelling through just wall art. So anyway, that's added a really cozy touch in my opinion and that has sort of been my focal point of trying to just get everything to have that cozy library office not overwhelming but a lot of stuff going on feeling in one corner I also have a chair that has been passed through my family it's from Panama as well as a filing cabinet with a printer I finally have a working printer. I was like operating for like four years of my adulthood with no printer and it has changed my life. But provide more office related storage I bought a i What would you call it it's sort of like it looks sort of like a bureau or a wardrobe it almost looks like a wardrobe but inside has just a lot of cubbies and drawers and things for various storage. And then sitting by itself. I have a nightstand because this room also operates as a guest room. We don't have a lot of family that is not local, which is actually wonderful. And so our need for a a designated guest room doesn't really exist but I would love to have the space to host someone if need be and so there's a couch on the opposite my desk and that couch folds out and it's nice and compact. It's blue. I really love it also found it secondhand. Basically everything. Every piece of furniture was from Facebook market Replace. And so there's a nightstand that currently has nothing in it. Because I've set it aside to be for a guest. And I'm slowly trying to incorporate touches that would make it more guest friendly, I want to have like, a spot to make sure you can charge your phone or a plate, I want to make sure I have some tissues and some linens. And I have hangers in the closet specifically for that. But I'd like to find an old luggage rack, you know, just like little guest room touches that can exist in one half of this room. And then of course, when the bathroom up here is done, I can incorporate that in there as well. And there's two closets in this room that are just filled with various storage. One closet is music related storage. So all of my sheet music, instruments, various things like that. And then space for whatever guests clothes. And then the other closet has a lot of craft storage. So papers and yarns and also decor, oh my Christmas decorations are up here too. So I have grown to love this room. When we first moved in, it was just a strange blue color and carpet and nothing really going on. But I feel like so much character has been added through what we put on the walls, the natural elements that we've left in the furniture. So basically everything is made of wood. And I really love the look of wood. Some of it's painted white, some of it is just brown. And I think it feels at once very cozy and also not oppressively so. So that is the final room that feels kind of done. We're still adding stuff to it. But it feels like it's itself. So there are four, I guess spaces that are undone. And one of which is coming together very quickly. Josh finished all the laminate that's on the second floor. So all three rooms that are up here, the two bedrooms, one of which is the office, the other will be the nursery. And then there's a third room, which I mentioned earlier, which is just a room over the garage, that technically doesn't count as a bedroom. I don't know if for fire safety, it could be a bedroom, I don't know. But it's the coolest room in the house. It's got all of these weird angles, and it's got skylights above that open up. So you can have open air in there. And it's going to be a perfect little nook. So the plan is, while we only have one child, and we have the space for it, we're going to make it into a library. Because again, I don't think we have the need for a designated guest room, we wouldn't have that many overnight guests in our just in our lifestyle. But a library, I mean, I have a lot of books. And I'm thinking it'll just be cozy little haven with cool lighting. And maybe we can keep some games up there and cool chairs. And it can just be a secluded, cozy little hole. That's the idea. And so as of this recording, it's finally been painted, which was a whole ordeal because of all the different wall angles. And we're going to move everything in there while we're renovating some other rooms, but that one will come together. I'm very excited about that. And then the other bedroom up here, like I said, will be the nursery. I do have plans for painting and then one wall to have some wallpaper on. It's going to be very sweet. I've been collecting nursery furniture for the past couple of months. And I'm not concerned about that. So now in between the office and the nursery is a bathroom. And it's a Jack and Jill bathroom. So both rooms connect on one of the bathroom spaces, which is where the sink the vanity is. Now why this room was carpeted, I have no idea. So we ripped up whether that's going to be ripped up. But the vanity is gone. The large mirror is gone. And so the idea is we're going to have to take up the carpet in that room and then there's a tile that's down in the room adjacent which just has the toilet in the shower. We're going to take those up and then put one flooring across the whole bathroom. Don't know what it is yet, but we plan to have a double vanity up there because there's the room for it. And we're going to paint it put new flooring, put a new vanity do all that and then I'll then I'll get the nursery together. So I just really wanted to have that bathroom done before the baby's born in the event just because I feel like having a working bathroom that's not full of just like random things as you move and it's fully functional and feels done on both levels of the house. So that is very much in progress and then the other two bathrooms that exist in the house one is attached to the master bedroom downstairs. And one is in a hallway, just like a powder room, half bath, we have not touched those at all. Likely, there'll be the last rooms that we address. And they are not cute at all. But they are fully functional, and it's fine. And so I've thought of doing like a phase one, sort of mini makeover for at least the hallway like the half bath. But I just want to replace everything. So that will be hopefully this year. And then I would want to do a larger overhaul of the master bathroom. And I don't know when that will be, but those we haven't touched at all. And then the final remaining project aside from those would be the stairs because the stairs also are carpeted. And I would love to take that up and either polish the the wood floor that's underneath or figure out what goes on, you know, something like that. And that will be the final bit of carpet gone. Now there are two in between spaces that exist one on the first floor one on the second. And the on the ground floor, it's just a hallway that leads to the bedroom. And there's the bathroom off the side. And I've been kind of bringing that one to life I did paint it, we switched out the light fixture for this really cool. It's a light fixture with feathers. I've got a picture of it because it's hard to describe. And if you recall last fall, I found a humungous movie poster framed of The Great Gatsby. You know, it's one of my favorite things. And so it's little quirky things like that, that I'm trying to put here and there. And so I've got some pretty cool art that I'm still working out where everything's gonna go. But I think that's going to come together very soon. And then upstairs, there's a cool little like just a landing at the top of the stairs, where all of the bedrooms meet. A painted that the dark blue. And I'm just going to put a rug in some cool art. And I love how that's coming together. So I don't have pictures, I'm not going to share pictures, I should say, of the spaces that are not done not yet. And when I say done, it's like a loose done, obviously. But like the rooms where nothing's changed, I'm not gonna bother sharing right now, or where it very much is on finished. doesn't feel like a room yet. But the ones that have so living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom, and office, I'm going to share all the details and photos on the blog, and you know, probably some extra ones. And so you can find that, of course at life on the brink dot live, all of those will be there. Oh, and I should say like the outdoor areas I'd be I did get like an outdoor dining set and an outdoor rug and have been working in the garden. But But I really do love that dining set, like having the ability to eat outside to read outside is definitely a huge joy of this house. So that's the update. As you can tell, everything has been going quite slowly, with the exception of some painting in the living room and dining room. Because the walls are so tall, which we had a contractor come in and paint as well as some of the wallpaper in the dining room. It's just they were so tall. That happened before we actually moved in. Aside from that contracting work, we have been doing all of the renovating ourselves with help from family and friends, of course. But the replacing of the floor, the painting, the wallpapering has been us. And we also haven't been putting everything on hold. We've just been going about our lives and then also working on these things slowly. And fortunately, the main living space dining space, and slowly the kitchen, they will they were fully operational quite early on. And so we were able to really live and go about everything kind of normally, the office space was a little bit weird for about six months. So like working at a computer and stuff. But we've been able to just go about our lives and we've still had people over and still hosted things and all that sort of thing in the midst of this renovation. And that's another thing that I wanted to bring up. I really didn't want to wait until the house felt, quote unquote, done before having people over before hosting things before hosting parties and things like that, because it's always going to be in a state of flux of movement of change. And so, we've had so many wonderful memories made in this house already, even though Oh, the spaces were not complete, or they didn't feel finished. I really enjoyed that. I'm glad that we didn't wait to start living in the house, really. But now that we've got baby coming, we've got motivation to get some of this upstairs space really knocked out to move quickly to get this bathroom done. And I'm loving it, I'm loving the momentum, I'm gonna ride that as far as we can go before the baby comes. And so I know that if we already had a child, when we moved into this house, for example, or things like that, the circumstances would be different and that our houses needs would be different. But I hope that it's encouraging just to see that it's a long process. And we don't even have like, very in depth, like we haven't been tearing walls down or doing stuff like that. I think possibly, when we do the master bathroom, it might be a little bit of some gutting, but I've been devastated by that. Not gonna lie. But we've been doing it just ourselves slowly. I've been collecting furniture secondhand. And these decisions have been mostly budget based. And it's worked out for us, it's just required a bit of patience. And I think that spending time in the house has also shown us what we need, how we need the rooms to function. And that's been really useful as well. But I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of these rooms come together and having people over in other rooms of the house. And so I do want to leave you with some resources that were constant inspirations for me, not only the Pinterest boards, which you can feel free to check out. But I enjoy the blog and podcast have a beautiful mess. There's a lot of home decor DIY tutorials, how to do lots of different things. Also two YouTube channels that I really enjoy one from a woman named Anne Lin. She does a lot of home decor, and sometimes like quick transformations. And i Her style is not at all like mine. But I enjoy her eye and just seeing how she gets things done. And the other is from Caroline Winkler, I love her channel, I would say that her style is a little bit closer to mine. And she does a lot of both renter friendly, and just overall renovation, home decor, interior design, a lot of very artistic videos. And sometimes she is looking at larger design or architectural trends. And I just I'm super inspired by her channel, it really helps to connect the idea of a home and making a home and interior design with art and seeing the other as art. And so I really, I really highly recommend her channel. And I'm also going to leave a link in the show notes to all of the home episodes that I've done on this podcast thus far. It's just a category if you go to life on the brink dot live, and you head over to the blog section, there lots of little categories, and one of them is home. And so you can find lots of other related interior design or moving or house and all of those things. So I hope that with all of these resources and some of this, some of my own personal journey here that it sparked some inspiration or a little bit of motivation or encouragement depending on where you are in your home, or your relationship with your home. Like I said, I'm very excited to see what happens next. But in this first year, I think that we have come a long way considering all the other stuff that's gone on over this past year, all the life that has happened. So feel free to check out pictures on the blog, and I will be right back with this week's little joy this week's little joy was a meal that I had with a friend of mine. And I'm highlighting it also because if you happen to live anywhere in my area, you have to go to this restaurant. It was introduced to me by my uncle, who was a big fan of Indian cuisine. He spent probably across a large amount of time he spent a couple of years living in India. And he had told me and Josh like we have to go they have some excellent southern Indian cuisine, like stuff that I've never seen in the states like it's the best I've found outside of India. And so if you live in southeastern Virginia, or planned to visit Hey, please go to a muta that is a m i r t h a curry and bar. This is the best Indian food I've ever had in my whole life. And I went with my friend Kristen, over the past weekend, I already knew that it was going to be great. She already liked Indian food. And we just had a great time, we ordered several different things. And then it was a cool little community going on, because, like, it's a small enough restaurant, that people started to talk to each other across the tables. And there was this one couple who they, like they were Indian, and like, their family owns an Indian restaurant on the other side of town, and like they had never been to this spot, but they ordered a lot of food and it was way too much food and they weren't gonna be able to save any of it. So they were like passing their plates across the restaurant, like try this. Have you like, Would you like to try some of this. So we got to try a lot of food. It was also good. The friend that I was with, she's very, she's very easy to talk to strangers with. And so she's, she was very inviting, and just talking and making conversation. And so it was a cool moment, like everyone was enjoying this meal together in a way and the food was just delicious. Like it's reinvigorated my love of Indian food and flavors. And it's also the reason why I keep making Chai, because when you as soon as you sit down at this restaurant, they bring you water and then they bring you a little cup of their like house Chai. And both times that I've been there in person, because we've gotten Josh and I've been getting it to go quite a bit. But they also give you a little cup on the way out the door, which is so nice. But it it was so much food we ended up while she let me take the leftovers, which was very kind and for the price, like it was excellent. But it was a really nice time in which I was able to introduce a restaurant to a friend of mine who is who we've talked about food all the time, like she very much enjoys a good restaurant. And for that experience to be just so welcoming and to be with other people was really special. And it was everything that I hoped it would be. And then we went looking for plants. We went to the plant nursery, so it was really nice. I'd had a couple of more emotional days, thanks to the hormones. And so I was looking forward to it and it was great. So that was this week's little joy. And like I said, if you're in the peninsula area, please go to amazing. And finally, I'll leave you with an album of music. This is one that I've been listening to kind of on repeat. I've listened to it several times recently. It's not new at all. It's something else by Cannonball Adderley. It was released in 1958. And Cannonball Adderley is a saxophonist if you're unfamiliar. And this album has Miles Davis, Hank Jones, Sam Jones and Art Blakey. It's fantastic. I was listening to it because Josh and I recently saw a movie that had the recording of autumn leaves, the one that's from this album, and I was like, where's that from? I've heard that. And it has a very characteristic intro. And then I ended up listening to this whole album a couple of times, and it's just really, really nice bebop, mid century jazz. I forget how much of a fan of cannon ball I am. But I'm always a fan of Art Blakey, he's the drummer. And yeah, I really do enjoy this album a lot. So feel free to check that out. It's a nice chill. I think it's pretty chill jazz. It's not too crazy. But it is very interesting. And good for this time of year. I think already my friend. I hope that you have enjoyed this episode. And I'm excited for all of the things coming with this spring. I feel much more invigorated thinking about it. I want to get back out into the garden and I have some very fun episodes coming soon. Some guests in fact, in the next episode will feature my first guest of 2024. So get excited for that. Feel free to follow me over on Instagram. I'm at ANA on the keys ke y s with underscores in between each word. And of course you can find the show notes at life on the brink dot live. Of course, you know I love hearing where you listen from I can tell in my analytics that you're listening from all over that some of you listen in Sweden and Germany, even a few in Kenya like I'm blown away by it and I love hearing your stories and where you listen and how you listen and if you haven't yet, feel free to leave a review on Apple podcasts or a star rating or over on Spotify. If you love it, love it love it then you can just leave five stars and that that tremendously helps other people find this podcast who would enjoy it. But even if you do none of those things know that I So appreciate you being part of this community. And I hope that you're able to enjoy the end of the season that you're doing well that you have a nice cup of tea today. And just thank you so much for listening. I'll be back in two weeks have a lovely day. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Life on the brink. If you're enjoying these episodes, please feel free to leave a star rating or even better leave a review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word. For podcast show notes and extra inspirational posts throughout the week. Head to the blog at life on the brink dot live. And if you'd like a little extra dose of inspiration in your life, sign up for the monthly newsletter, which lights up your inbox the first Friday of each month. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, friends you have a lovely week. Bye