When Alex and I bought our adorable little house in Seattle we never in a million years expected to still be living in it, two kids and nine years later. We love our home’s charm and character and the location is perfect for us. Now that we do have a family, though, we’re bursting at the seams and ready to take a sledgehammer to the walls that compartmentalize the space.
While a major home renovation is off the table for us at this point, we’re thinking creatively about how to make the house work for us for at least another couple years.
Our little house doesn’t have a front entry way. When you walk in the front door you’re in between the dining room and the living room. It only bothers me when I have a coat and things to set down. For nine years we didn’t have anything more than the back of a chair to drape a coat over.
I’m not sure how the idea even surfaced, but we decided to add a little bench and some hooks to a wall in our dining room and fill out the space a bit with added functionality. We also took the leaf out of our dining room table and it gave us so much extra space in there.
We absolutely love how it turned out and it has been so handy with the kids. Getting out the door is rather challenging these days and to have all of their coats, winter accessories, backpacks and boots stored right there by the front door has been a game changer.
In other teeny tiny home improvement news – we got a new kitchen faucet! Only because our last one broke and then started leaking all over the place. I do actually really like the new one – it’s a bit more of an industrial feel and it works really well.
Keeping up with two houses is nuts. Our house in Seattle regularly gets neglected, so on those rare weekends we’re home in Seattle we do try to give it a bit of TLC to keep her happy. We’ve been feeling like there’s been a giant spotlight on all of the things that are wrong with our Seattle house or that need touching up now that we have a brand new house. There’s always something!
