Week 35: Our new home!

Wow. That’s all I can say after this wonderful long weekend. What a truly memorable time I had creating new memories—most notably, creating a space for Bellamy in our little loft apartment. This was a long time coming and a large project to tackle. Space had to be created within the context of 750 square feet. Fun! Once space was created, we started the process of redoing the newly open square footage while adding what felt like a million baby things! Easy! Basically, we now live in her apartment—not ours, but that’s OK!
“Making room for baby” really meant throwing half our possessions away. I enjoy a good purge session and really look forward to deep cleaning. I was born with the “nesting” quality in my blood. I nest for life in general, and I love it. This was the perfect excuse to go through everything while also having a valid reason to throw stuff away. Unfortunately for Matt, we waited until month nine to start this adventure, so he was doing most of the work. I wasn’t allowed to help move the couch, bed, piano, shelving unit, etc. He was running a one-man show, and I was acting as the visionary behind it. Again, easy!
Building a nursery was probably one of the more difficult design projects I have attempted. Baby rooms are tough because it’s a balance of wanting to display everything that’s attractive while also accessing everything practical. Our nursery is still a work in progress, because the inspiration wasn’t exactly natural, and I felt I got a little lost in the process of figuring out the concept of baby vs. adult. We are very minimal, neutral people, and I’m not great with color or anything cutsie. I don’t look at baby things and find them particularly adorable for decoration. I really wanted to create a space I actually wanted to be in. Her nursery accounts for half our living space, so the mega-baby theme was out.
We knew we wanted something more mid-century modern (hello, everyone living in 2016) and soft. We started by picking a rug, and ironically, we agreed on something woven and a pale shade of pink. From that point we started building the rest of the framework with our couch (her nursery doubles as a TV room), her bassinet (side note: I LOVE this Norse Bassinet from the Land of Nod—it’s so beautiful!) and a rocker. We invested in products we truly wanted, in hopes of using the same furniture for any future babies.
The room is not a perfect square, and it also has two exposed closets crammed full of our stuff. Our next move was to drape each closet off in an attempt to create a sense of calm and cleanliness. It is not serene when you feel you are living in an explosion of clothes, handy-man tools, yoga mats and shoes! Thanks to our amazing families throwing us two separate baby showers, we were able to buy all her nursery furniture at one time without worrying about storage needs. This allowed us to pull an “out with the old and in with the new” all at once, and 48 hours later we had a new home.
One of the sweetest moments I had alone was setting up her changing station. As I unwrapped tiny newborn diapers and bodysuits, I envisioned life with her. Her little plush toys, lovies and hand-knitted blankets filled my heart with overflowing joy. Even though it’s not totally finished, I beam with smiles every time I pass the entrance to her room. The other reason I can’t stop smiling is the fact that Matt still wanted to hang out with me after all that hard work. Somehow I didn’t drive him totally crazy, and he sat down with me in our “new” home and ate pizza with me and talked about how great life is. It seems small, but it’s something I think I will always remember! It meant the world to me to share that time with him after he spent hours and hours serving me through this revamping process.
With all the physical work behind us, we couldn’t wait to relax and let loose the following day at the lake! We snapped our first family photo and truly enjoyed one of the last times we would be there together as a duo. Our Memorial Day weekend was so memorable, and as we continue to perfect her little space, I hope the realization of her arrival will become more increasingly real to me!
We can’t wait for you to live here with us, B! And after this experience, you better love your room.