inspiration block

Well, it's been two and a half months now that we've been living down here in Chapel Hill. There have been lots of challenges related to moving across country with a new born (he was only 2 weeks old!) but on of the big ones for me has been how it's impacted out new home.

We decided to choose a rental townhouse off craiglist so that we had something set early (the last thing I wanted was to have uncertainty about where we were going to live as my due date approached) and to start looking for a place to purchase once we got familiar with the area. The tricky thing about moving from Chicago or Boston to Chapel Hill is the housing stock is so different. Gone are the old brownstone or triple decker apartments with all their vintage goodness. Hello carpet, electric ranges, low ceilings, and shoddy finishes. We ended up finding a townhouse set in a wooded area with almost all our "must-haves." Three bedrooms (space was important since I'm working from home), laundry, AC, dishwasher and high ceilings. We have plenty of room and a few extra perks (two-stories, access to a pool, etc). There is carpet and the kitchen leaves a lot to be desired, but you can't have it all.

At first I really hated the place. Older white carpet really means grey/beige carpet. They didn't clean the place so it gave me the creeps until I could slowly scrub it down in the hours Levi was asleep (not many of those early on!). However once we were finally able to unpack and get some furniture set up- I realized how well our midcentury/danish inspired pieces fit with the place. I really do love the overall vibe of the space. Also- turns out carpet really works well with a little one.

The biggest challenge though has been been that now that all the boxes are unpacked, some art has been hung on the walls, the furniture arranged, I've done very little else. I've not even considered painting. Our bedroom/office has really just been thrown together. I've lacked the inspiration to make the space our own. I'm bogged down by working and caring for Levi, and since I know we may decide to buy within the year, I keep asking myself if it's worth it.

Yet, up until now creating spaces for our home has been a pretty central part of who I am- it's a pretty significant hobby - and not exploring that creative part of my personality has been a real downer. It's what I do to make a house feel like our home. Now, I feel even if I had the time or energy, I have no ideas.

Over the past few days Levi has been sleeping more at night, which makes me feel like I have a little more space in the evening. I'm hoping to have more energy (when I'm not catching up on work) to putz around a little in the evening and get creative with our space. I loved our home in Boston, and even if we are only here for a year, I'd love to love our home in North Carolina as well. I'm getting there. Slowly.