Our House Tour - Before and After!

I've been meaning to take pictures of our sweet little home for a while now, but it wasn't until we finally hung the living room gallery wall that the house has felt complete. I'm usually the type to move in and get everything set up right away, but something about nailing holes into the walls we just paid to have painted felt like a big commitment. Once you put those things off it's easy to get used to a house with blank walls, and when you add a newborn into the mix, the projects never get done. However, this weekend we finally tackled the gallery wall and kept asking ourselves what took so long - it was easy and made a huge difference in the main living space.

Before sharing the pictures, I wanted to give a bit of background on the house. It's a small three bedroom, one bath house with an attic and additional outside storage in a shed. Thankfully, coming from New York City we didn't have a huge need for storage, but those two areas have been a huge help as we accumulate more things that come with home ownership. I was also over the moon to finally have a laundry room, coat closet, and linen closet - these are things that you learn to live without when in New York and they are really helpful in terms of organization and not having towels stuffed in random places. The main selling points of the house were the updated kitchen (it's exactly what I would have done myself), close proximity to the metro, located in a great neighborhood, and all of the natural light (even on a very cloudy day).

Prior to moving, we had new hardwood floors put in as I didn't love the parquet flooring (although it was hardwood, too). We also had the entire interior painted and spruced up the bathroom with beautiful marble tiling and a new vanity. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the bathroom this time around, but hope to share those eventually. The guest room / study is also not pictured for now as we just had a guest leave when I took these pictures and I hadn't yet tidied the room :) Enjoy the before and afters!

The Living Room Before:

After:


The Kitchen / Dining Area Before:


After:


The Master Bedroom Before:


After:


The Nursery Before:


After:

Fall in Georgetown

There are a number of things I miss about living in New York, but the thing I'm finding it hardest to miss is fall in the city - there's really nothing like it. Every Friday morning during the fall, I'd pick up a latte at our local coffee shop and head to the park for a walk and some leaf documenting. These were some of the most quintessential, magical New York moments for me and this year it's been sad to not be there... until yesterday! Aaron and I had planned to meet after his workday was over for a drink in Georgetown, so Hazel and I headed down a bit early for a walk amongst all of the beautiful streets, and I was won over by the magic that is fall in this part of DC. The combination of gloomy skies and fallen leaves (but still enough on the trees) made it such a memorable afternoon, and a lot less sad to be missing fall in New York.

Pumpkin Picking at Homestead Farms.

After two blissful (and tiring!) weeks, Aaron headed back to work on Monday and Hazel and I were left to fend for ourselves without our favorite guy. Thankfully, both my mom and sister kept us company at the beginning of the week, and my sister and I even managed to get a pedicure with Hazel in tow!

To make the first week a bit easier, Aaron took Wednesday off so we could go to Hazel's two week doctor appointment together. After getting a clean bill of health (she already weighs 10 pounds!), we headed out to Homestead Farms to enjoy the perfect fall day. This was another one of those full circle moments, as Homestead Farms was always the destination for pumpkin picking while growing up. I've been coming here for years, and to think that I was once a little kid wandering these same fields and now to be here with MY baby, was just so surreal. We practically had the place to ourself so we were sure to take lots of photos!

A Weekend at Deep Creek Lake.

Ever since I can remember, my family has been going to Deep Creek for a weekend in October. We'd always go with three other families, and some of my earliest childhood memories are from these yearly weekend trips. The tradition dwindled a bit as the kids went off to college and moved to different states, but when Aaron and I moved back to Maryland, my sister and I were determined to continue the tradition with our own growing families. When we booked the trip late last winter, we had no idea Jess would be due with her second baby any day, and we were also super optimistic about bringing a two week old along for the ride. Thankfully, no babies were born and Hazel did quite well (besides one middle of the night sleep protest…). We stayed in a cozy, lakeside cabin and made sure we took Aaron and Sam to all of our favorite Deep Creek staples. It's still surreal to me that we are old enough to have husbands! And babies! But so sweet to share some of our favorite life memories and traditions with the people we love the most.