About four years ago, we moved from our corner home in a city neighborhood to our corner home in the suburbs. Plus, Parker grew up on a corner, so there’s that. We loved our first house, and put a lot of love into fixing it up (I hope to share some of that here).

Once we had our first child, we decided we’d like to move to the school district where I teach. Parker agreed that this was the right decision, but was also hesitant. He grew up in a very nice older neighborhood with gorgeous architecture and beautiful trees. He struggled with moving to a suburb, especially since the suburb we were considering had really been developed in the last few decades on farmland. There aren’t a lot of neighborhoods with mature trees or older homes with the kind of character that make a house a home for him. We weren’t in a hurry to move, so we just kept our eye on real estate (one of our favorite hobbies). We ended up coming across our corner lot and were both very excited about it. We loved the location because it was near a part of town that was supposed to experience some revitalization with the addition of a new park.  And….there were mature trees in this neighborhood for Parker. It is a new construction neighborhood, but most of the houses are custom, so it wasn’t too cookie cutter for him, either. We pretty much decided right away to buy the lot.

Then we went about picking a builder and trying to build a house (will also blog more about this later). I’ve always wanted to build a house. I thought it would be awesome to start from scratch and pick everything I wanted. The reality is that you have a budget! I wanted a house that we didn’t have to work on. Parker wanted a house he COULD work on. Turns out, that’s pretty much what we ended up with. There is nothing in our house that we HAVE to do (I want to make it clear that I realize there wasn’t anything in our old house that we HAD to do, either. I realize that we live better than much of the world and have been lucky to have so many opportunities). Anywho, we are comfortable in our house, as is. However, there is a lot that could be done to make it feel more like us. That’s really important to us, for some reason (and its something we seem to bond over as a couple).  I want my house to feel like me. I think I view homes a bit like art. I want it to represent me and my tastes. We didn’t have the budget to build a dream home. Our house is pretty builder basic.  So there are still lots of opportunities for Parker to do house renovations, which is what he loves to do…what he was made to do, I think.

And that brings us here…to our corner of the internet, blogging about improving our corner of the world, one corner at a time.  Is that getting old, yet? I am so excited to have this creative outlet. And I’m excited to showcase Parker’s talent.  I’ve already learned so much about the blogging process and am excited to learn more! Learning has always been my favorite 🙂 (And Parker…does this count as a hobby? I think I have my first hobby!)