Two Years of the Little Reesor House
Happy home anniversary to us! We actually celebrated over a week ago, but as usual, time marches on to a beat quicker than my feet can keep up with. Despite the lag in time, I wanted to honour this special anniversary because home is something that is deeply important and special to me. The Little Reesor House is our little home and it finally feels like it.
Home - there are many different sentiments about what that truly means. Some claim it’s a physical space, while some claim it’s a feeling. Many say it’s about who you share it with, while others say it’s about the intention you put into it. Whatever the definition of home is, I believe you can only know it when you feel it. There is a big difference between a place you are living and a place that you call home. So when do you cross the threshold? When does your house become your home?
I’m not sure I know. But I did have a profound realization the other day that I truly felt deep in my heart that, finally, our house is our home. I can’t describe it. Maybe it’s the fact that we have found so much comfort in this space over the past year or maybe it’s just a matter of time. It could be that we have been putting work into projects that make it feel more like our own or even just the fact that we now have memories collected here. It’s likely a combination of all of those things. This house is our home. And I don’t take the peace that comes with that feeling for granted for one moment.
One of the first full-room makeovers I tackled was Mabel’s bathroom. I did a series of simple updates to make it feel more kid-friendly and cozy.
I have always been rather sensitive to the idea of space. Before Curt and I began our married life, I had lived most of my life in one single home. At times I have felt insecure about my lack of adaptability, often feeling homesick with only a single night away. But I think that my sensitivity to such matters was actually a huge asset when it came time to purchase our first home. I’m sure most people would feel excitement over shopping for their first house. I certainly had some excitement in the potential to stretch and grow our roots into something our own. But if I’m being honest, I was also really dreading house shopping because it felt so permanent and unknown - what if we purchased something that didn’t ever feel like our home?
Thankfully, my deep connection to home (also known as the homebody spirit) has allowed me to be very in tune to the feeling that a space has. When we began our house hunting journey, we viewed all different types of homes in all different neighborhoods around our town. I could pretty well gauge whether a house was a contender from the moment I pulled up to it. Sure, those places were not yet our own space, but whether or not I sensed the potential for home was a big discussion in our home-buying journey.
We saw a lot of properties. I spent a lot of time looking at listings online, only to be disappointed when they sold before we could view them. Many of the houses in our price range felt cold, dysfunctional, and empty once we viewed them. I couldn’t see us growing our family in them, making them our own, or collecting a catalogue of memories in them. They felt like empty vessels and that didn’t feel right.
I have such fond memories of squeezing in a quick project here and there while Mabel napped. I remember this day that I decided to paint our door mustard yellow. It felt like a bold risk, but I have never once regretted it.
The first major investment we made into this house was replacing all the carpeting on the second floor. The carpet was cozy, but we knew it wasn’t right for our family.
After another discouraging showing, our real estate agent offered to show us a home that she herself was also the listing agent on. I had seen the listing during my regular online evening perusal of local listings and pretty well skipped right over it. It didn’t look like it would be our cup of tea. It didn’t catch my eye. I didn’t even want to give her suggestion a chance. But Curt insisted that it never hurts to look, so I reluctantly agreed to view it. As we drove down the quiet and mature street and pulled into the driveway of a corner-lot house, my heart fluttered for a second. I saw potential and I felt hopeful. Within the first few steps inside the door, I knew it had the feeling. It had the potential. It could one day feel like our home.
We signed the contract on our Little Reesor House in March of 2019 and closed in June. This home was meant to be ours. The entire process was calm and peaceful, unlike anything I had imagined with the raging and competitive market we are living in. There was no other interest on the house, allowing us the time to make a series of thoughtful decisions. The inspection report came back with flying colours. And the home, although 40 years old, had been in the hands of one single owner - a lovely couple who took immaculate care of a house that was very evidently special to them. To top it all off, since our agent was also theirs, we were able to develop a personal relationship with the previous owners, which only added to the joy of the entire process. It was truly the sweetest home-buying experience I could ask for and I feel deeply in my heart that our house - our home - was meant to be ours.
So I suppose this post is my little ode to our sweet little home - an expression of gratitude and appreciation for the blessing that she is to us. We have had two wonderful years here and it already feels like an eternity. Home is a refuge. Home is a blessing. Home is where our hearts are. And this is our home.
Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.
-Sarah Ban Breathnach
It felt good to bring some life to our backyard space last summer. To this day, this transformation is one of the best performing videos on our channel.
How we have loved on our home over the past two years:
We have painted nearly every room (the only exceptions have been the main floor powder room and the basement).
We added a door between the house and the attached garage.
We updated the light fixtures in nearly every room.
We took out all the carpet on the second floor and on the stairs, laying new flooring upstairs and refinishing the steps with red oak risers.
We replaced the shingles on the roof.
We added a stone built-in fireplace to the main living room.
We replaced the pool heater (I hate when stuff like this takes priority!).
We felt grateful for every single day we have spent in this place.
Over the next two years, we hope to:
Re-do all the flooring on the main level of the house, including tiling the entryway and powder room and laying consistent flooring throughout the remaining spaces.
Build a built-in bench in the dining room and finish setting up that space.
Update the powder room.
Finish updating the drywall and organizing the garage.
I think of our stairway as the portal between where our home is and where we are headed. I chose the stair finishes to match my dreams for what the downstairs floors could one day be.
We have many more projects in mind for our little home ahead. In fact, one of the main aspects that drew us to this home was that it was beautiful and liveable for the now, but had a lot of potential to slowly update and make our own over time. This is our home.
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