Primary Bedroom

The first/easiest room to get mostly “done” was the primary bedroom. It was also kind of a necessity since we needed somewhere to sleep obviously!

This is what the room looked like before we moved in. The carpet was torn out ASAP after we closed on the house, and then the back wall was painted in Behr’s Equilibrium, a dark green, and the other walls were painted with Behr’s Beach House, which we also used in entryway, basement, and sunroom.

I knew I wanted the paint color in here to be a dark, moodier color, and liked some of the dark green bedrooms I’d seen on Pinterest. That plus the mid-century modern style of the house kind of informed the rest of my decisions.

This was my “inspiration” board.

I saw the color palette on Pinterest somewhere while looking for colors that coordinate well with dark green (the paint color for the room). Then I saw this print on Etsy from an artist that I’ve purchased from before and loved it and how well it tied in a lot of the colors from this palette.

We definitely wanted to get a king bed, and luckily there was plenty of room to have one. I knew I wanted a platform bed because we got a hybrid memory foam mattress from Idle Sleep, and a box spring would be unnecessary. Plus a platform bed will be easier for Jonathan to get onto :) Fun fact, when you change your address with USPS you get a ton of discount codes and coupons to different home goods stores, and one of those was a “buy one get one free” coupon to Idle Sleep. I knew my parents wanted to get a new queen mattress for their guest bedroom, so this let us split the cost of a mattress and save >$600!

Mike had a bedside table from his old apartment that matches “well enough” and gives him more storage (for what, I don’t know). I only need a lamp, tissues, and space for books on my bedside table, so I got this small one. My old bedside table is in the guest bedroom, along with the rest of my bedroom furniture from the apartment. I will probably spray paint the hardware on that table and on the dresser we bought from Elizabeth so that they match (probably brass!). And I knew that brass lamps would look really pretty against the dark green.

I kept the bedding mostly white, except for some color in a throw blanket and some accent pillows that tied into my “palette”. I’d been considering getting a big, 9x12 rug, but Mike convinced me that a smaller, runner length rug at the foot of the bed would make more sense, and make it easier to vacuum. He was right and this was much cheaper!

And this is what the room looks like now!

Buying Our First House!

Next week we are closing on our first house! We’ve been talking about becoming first time home owners since the end of last year, but we had assumed it would be a condo or townhome in Chicago. This vision was completely changed in the spring; the global pandemic hit, we were both working from home all the time, and it seemed like working remotely would be possible indefinitely.

I’ve lived in Chicago since October 2011 and hadn’t really considered leaving. I thought maybe if I got married and had a couple kids that moving to Evanston or Oak Park would make sense, but wouldn’t have dreamed of moving beyond that. But then COVID-19 happened. Suddenly, it was impossible to take advantage of all the reasons I loved living in the city. Even the lakefront path (which was practically my front yard) was closed. I started to realize how CROWDED it was downtown! Plus, I knew we could afford a bigger, nicer place outside of the city. With no access to nature, a small apartment, and anxiety over being far from my family, I started to reconsider Chicago.

Mike and I made a “decision making matrix” in Excel because of course. We included attributes important to both of us in deciding where to live and weighted them accordingly. Things like access to nature, proximity to family and friends, a 2 hour radius of a major airport, and cost of living were all included. The numbers didn’t lie, and the St. Joseph/Stevensville area in Southwest Michigan came out on top, far above Chicago, and even far above Evanston and Oak Park. We’d also researched Denver and Pittsburgh, but Denver was too far from friends and family (besides Brooke and Andrew!) and while Pittsburgh has extended family it would have left us at least an 8 hour drive from all of our friends.

Once we felt safe enough to leave the apartment bubble and visit my parents in Sawyer, we started looking at real estate listings (end of June) and found an agent, Doug (who I’d highly recommend!). We got pre-approved for a mortgage amount that could get us a nice entire house with a yard and garage, rather than the nice, small-ish condo I’d been anticipating. The first few houses we saw were nothing special; too small, too old, too much required work. We started to realize what we wanted and what was less important to us. We made another decision making matrix for homes! We knew we needed enough space for us to each have our own office room, at least 2 bathrooms, room for guests, a garage, a good sized backyard, and we didn’t want to be too far “out in the country”. Then houses started to fly off the market within hours.

I went to see a house in St. Joseph with my dad at the end of July (Mike was back in Chicago) that had been on the market for less than 24 hours. It was in a great neighborhood, and was a very well kept, small brick ranch with a BEAUTIFUL backyard. The sellers must have been retired and taken up gardening as their hobby. The kitchen had recently been updated and the house was move in ready. It was listed well below our budget, but of course I assumed we should negotiate. I talked to Mike and we agreed to make an offer that day since houses were going under contract so quickly. I told Doug that we’d go in a couple thousand under asking and he said that sounded like a good offer and he’d send over the paperwork later. As soon as I got back to my parents’ house, I got a call from Doug. “I called the listing agent to let me know you’d be making an offer and he said there are multiples, so you may want to go in at asking price or slightly above.” Ok, I thought, that’s not a big deal, we can easily afford this house. I confirmed a slightly higher price with Mike and then got another call from Doug. “So the listing agent just called me back…one of those offers was $40,000 over asking…” WHAT!? This house was very nice but it was not worth that much! Doug agreed and said the buyers must have been planning to forgo an appraisal, which meant they were likely paying cash. This had been happening more and more as people from the city and suburbs were moving to SW Michigan “en masse” due to the pandemic.

My mom always says that everything happens for a reason, so I figured this house must not have been meant for us. And I was right! A few days later Doug said he had a listing from his neighbors that wasn’t on the market yet, and did we want to see it early? The sellers had just had a baby and were relocating out of state for work so they were eager to avoid a lengthy selling process of multiple showings. Doug sent the pictures over and Mike and I got very excited. The house had great curb appeal, was just a few minutes south of the neighborhood of the other house we’d liked, had a great backyard and didn’t need a ton of work. It had plenty of room for us both to have our own home office spaces, as well as guest rooms for our friends that we hope will visit us often. And on top of all that, it seemed priced right!

We made an offer the day after seeing it, at asking price. Even though we knew no one else had seen the house yet, we knew the sellers were aware of how competitive the market had been getting so we were hoping a strong offer would help us avoid negotiating and get everything buttoned up. Our offer was accepted! Unfortunately the sellers wouldn’t be moving out until October and they still had to find a house in their new state. We waited to nail down an official closing date while we started to pack up the apartment. Our landlord wouldn’t extend our lease just ONE MORE MONTH so we got a storage unit, moved the whole apartment into it and moved in (temporarily!) with my parents in Sawyer.

Mike and i at michael and megan’s mini-wedding over labor day weekend, mid-mortgage process, post-inspection

I’m sure I will miss Chicago, especially once the pandemic is finally over, but also who knows when that will be! Plus we are less than 2 hours away, my friends are there, my brother and his wife are there, and my company’s headquartered there. I know we will be going back a lot, but I also know how privileged we are to be able to leave. Living in a big city can be HARD and FRUSTRATING, especially if you’re low income, but even if you’re well off like us! The pandemic, constant racial injustice in the news, the abhorrent income inequality in Chicago, and the upcoming election just exacerbated all of that that frustration for me.

St. Joe isn’t perfect though, obviously! There is tension in the St. Joe/Benton Harbor and has been for decades. Whirlpool is the biggest employer in the area, and historically St. Joe was where the executives lived, and Benton Harbor was where the workers lived. This segregation has continued but is getting better. I’m hoping that once it is possible that I can find volunteer opportunities in Benton Harbor similar to what I’d been doing in Chicago. There’s also the whole issue of FIPs and locals, but I digress!

I’m so excited to move into the house in a couple of weeks and share our projects here! We already have a LOT of ideas on what we want to do; nothing major (at least not yet). We are planning to rip up carpeting in half the house right after closing. We know there are hardwood floors underneath, so fingers crossed they are in good condition and don’t need much work. We’re also planning on painting most of the house before moving in, with the help of my parents, brother, and new sister-in-law.

Here’s what else we want to do:

• Landscaping! The backyard is pretty big but there isn’t much of a landscaping “design” so we want to do a lot of planting.

• The backyard plan will also included either tearing up or building over the cracked concrete patio currently there. This will wait until spring.

• Update lighting fixtures throughout the house

• Update the kitchen. The appliances are all newish and very nice since the sellers worked for Whirlpool, but the cabinets may be original to the house, which was built in the 1960s. We’re planning on living with them for a while before we decide what to do/how terrible they are. Maybe we can just paint them, maybe get all new doors, or maybe we will just get all new cabinets and slightly redesign the kitchen. This definitely won’t happen till at least 2021 though.

• The bathrooms. The bathrooms are “fine” but just very GRAY. Sadly (for me) they are both floor to ceiling gray tile which will be annoying to demo but not impossible. We will also likely get new vanities and the master bathroom definitely needs a new shower door. The full guest bathroom has a nice, deep bath tub which I’m excited about. We will likely tackle the master bathroom first and see how that goes before getting to the guest bathroom. The half bath in the basement is fine, it just needs a coat of paint, some better lighting, and maybe some new fixtures.

• The garage. Just having a garage will be such a luxury! We only have 1 car but may eventually get another. With both of us working from home it is unlikely we will need another car most of the time unless one of us has to drive into Chicago. Mike wants to make the garage into his “workshop”, which will include epoxying the floor, installing new lighting, and putting in some storage and a work area. He is in charge of all of this, I don’t plan on spending much time in the garage except to get in and out of the car.

There are probably things I’m forgetting, but I’m also just excited to buy some real, full sized furniture for the house and design each room! I’m most excited about my home office, which I have big plans for.

I’m going to try to document our projects and inspiration here, which will be fun to look back on when we one day sell this house (not for a WHILE though because moving is such a pain in the ass!).

XOXO, Alyssa