And just like that it’s we’ve been in our home 5 whole months!  It seems like yesterday we moved from Florence to Erlanger.  From our cramped townhome to a more spacious house.  We had no clue how easy it would be to settle into our house as if we’ve lived here forever.

Life seems right for being in our home for only 5 months.  Our house is becoming the home we have always wanted.  And just like any other homeowners we’ve talked to, our to-do list keeps growing and growing.  Each month we are finding the flaws and updates this place needs…  But honestly, we wouldn’t change it. 

As we slowly continue to settle in this place and make things our own, we wanted to keep you updated on the major events that have happened!  Plus, we’re a little selfish as we are writing this for our future selves as much as sharing our adventure with the world. 

• As we were wondering around Lowes one evening, we decided to look at porches lights. Ryan had found one he liked, but it was out of our budget. Then, Nicole happened to find one that was very similar and well within the budget. Now we have an updated light that matches the outside colors and style much better than the previous one.
• Before we bought our house, if you look at old Google photos, there is a huge tree in our front yard.  However, it was cut down, but the stump was left.  After fighting with it and tripping over it a few too many times, Ryan went around the front yard and removed old tree stumps. Now… the earth just needs to resettle around it a bit to avoid having a big crater in the yard.

• After we fixed the leak in our bathroom and discovered the wall falling apart.  So, we set up an appointment with BathFitters…. Yeah definitely not in the budget right now.  Instead we have literally used duct tape to fix the main bathroom wall until we can fix it permanently. #DuctTapeFixesEverything
• The new red couch arrived.  For the time being, we moved the old/ugly red couch upstairs and put the new red couch into the entertainment room.  The problem with having the red couch delivered is it should have been accompanied with the new living room couch and TV stand.  Both of those were delayed by a few weeks for the TV stand and a few months for the couch.

• Since we had one new couch delivered, the old red couch moved upstairs before it can taken by its future new owners.  Do you know what that means?  We had the pleasure of sitting in our living room, on living room furniture for the first time.  Even if it was on the old couch.
• Totally random proud moment in this pandemic, Nicole found some Clorox wipes.  Don’t worry, we didn’t take all of them, just a few tubes. 

• Paint samples were bought for our downstairs.  These were the only walls in the house that were not painted before we moved in.   They are currently a dingy white and we’re hoping to make them a nice neutral gray.
• One evening while Nicole was out capturing a wedding with another photographer, Ryan and the kiddos used the firepit for the first time.  They enjoyed burning wood and making smores.

• Ryan pulled out his drill to hang up some décor and shelves.  We bought more shelves for our bedroom to display our frames we’ve collected in our travels together.  Not only did we hang up a few things in our bedroom, Ryan headed across the hallway to Caleb’s room and hung up his posters.
• Our basement storage is an explosion of unorganized mess!  Boxes half opened and just randomly stacked all about.  So, Nicole bought a few more shelves for our basement to help get the space organized and tidy.   As of right now, they made it out of the box but not actually assembled.  

• This past month we had two separate house guest… Nicole’s mom and “niece.” Of course, Nicole had to capture some photos of them… Remi had decided he loved hanging out with his grandma by sleeping with her and attacking her feet.
• They’ve been around for a very long time but we invested in a digital photo frame for our living room. The best part of this one is the fact it connects to wifi. We can send photos to it anytime and yes majority of them are of the cats!

Our home is slowly coming together.  We have done a few things but still have a lot to accomplish.  We’re slowing putting our personal taste on things, but it’s slow progress.  This is our long-term home, so slow progress is better than no progress.  Knowing we will be here for years to come, we’re in no hurry to do things hastily.  Eventually, this place will be exactly how we want! 

Now… we can’t forget a few photos of the fur kids enjoying life in the house!

Until our next monthly updated,

Nicole & Ryan

P.S. Pecko has officially reclaimed her cat bed…. So, we had to buy Remi his own bed!

Not sure what was being discussed here… but Pixie does not look amused by the conversation dad is having with her as she sits perched on the kitchen shelf.