I’m home again. I grew up in this lovely town in Alabama, moved a short 100 or so miles away for college and then further south to the great state of Louisiana for my foray into adulthood. But now we’re (my husband and I) are back to our old stomping grounds as they say, and I think we’re feeling pretty good about it. I had my reservations at first. I have always said I’d never come back here to live. What else is it that they say? Never say never. Hmm… Needless to say, we are back and living in our hometown, and despite what I may have said before about never living here again, we’re settling in quite nicely.
When I moved to Louisiana 8 years ago, I assumed I’d be there for a year for an adventure and then come right back the next year to get a job back in Alabama. I’m a teacher by trade, but I was having a hard time getting a job in Alabama. When my cousin’s wife called to tell me about a job at the school where she had previously worked, I decided I had to take it. I moved in with her and her husband (my cousin) and their six month old baby. (What where they thinking letting me come live with them with a newborn baby?!-God bless them for that!) I ended up actually loving it there. I moved in with a co-worker, who also happened to basically be my teaching mentor and taught me incredible teaching tools and helped shape me into the type of teacher I am today. I worked at this school for five years, made life-long friends, and grew up a lot. Also while working there I bought my first car, got engaged, got married, and bought my first house. (I have searched and searched and can’t find a picture of my house. I know I have them somewhere. Perhaps it’s on a flash drive in one of the 15 unpacked boxes still in the corner of my guest room.)
Anyway, I loved that house. I had to go see it without my husband, but as soon as I walked in the door, I knew it was home. I texted him when I left letting him know I thought it was the one, and the rest is history. We painted every room in that house, put on a new roof, replaced the old, dated laminate floors with beautiful new laminate. Here’s an Instagram picture I screen grabbed from my phone. The lighting doesn’t do them justice. They are such a beautiful light, wide plank, but the lighting in the picture looks so yellow.
You can see more of our old house and what I’m currently up to by checking out my Instagram feed.
We’re not here to talk about my old house or my life in Louisiana, but that’s where my current story starts. I got a call one summer about a Pre-K position that was opening up in a public school about five minutes away from my house. I knew the money would be better and the experience would be different and possibly better as well. So I interviewed and got the job. The people I met there became family. I worked with some of the most amazing women. We went through some very good and some very bad times together in the short three years that I spent with them. They will forever be in my heart and thanks to social media, most especially Snapchat, we’ll forever be in each others “inboxes”. I was about to start my fourth year at this school when I got a text from my sister-in-law about a possible job opening in a town close to home in Alabama. I was hesitant at first, but when we learned that there was a job opening for my husband as well, our ears perked up a little and we started paying attention to the things that were starting to happen in our lives. That job my sister-in-law told me about turned out to be a dead end, but the job for my husband did not. And then, my current job fell into my lap. God was really working to bring us back home. Like, REALLY working. As it turns out, my husband’s parents own a few rental properties that just so happened to become available at the exact time we were entertaining the idea of moving back home. We knew it would be a struggle financially because we would have to worry about selling a house. And let’s just brag on God some more here, okay? Because our house sold in about a month during a massive flood in Louisiana that was literally mere miles from our house. We were so blessed to have our home spared. And it was all God.
So, as I said above, I’m home again. I now live in an apartment downtown on a beautiful street with historically rich buildings all around. I know some of my Louisiana friends have asked for some pictures of our current home, so I thought I’d share some of it here.
Let’s start with the foyer. Like I said, I live in an apartment. It sits above retail space on a main road. We are a one story walk-up from the street that shares a foyer with another apartment. We live on the right. Forgive the wonky iPhone photo.
This building is over 100 years old and FULL of character. Take in those beautiful walls and hardwood floors. I’ve got all kinds of heart eyes for this space. I believe that it is all original to the building. You can’t see it in this picture, but if you were to pan down the sides of both walls there are door ways that look as if maybe it was a boarding house at one time.
Here are a few pictures from our living and dining area. You can see our kitchen as well since it’s an open floor plan, but we’ll get to that later.
The sofa is from Home Furniture. Paul went furniture shopping without me one day and picked out this whole leather living room set. It really is beautiful, but when we moved in to this apartment, all of the pieces wouldn’t fit. Our love seat currently lives in the guest room/office/gym/my closet/my dressing room/storage room. You guys!! I may never show you that room. You would die if you saw it right now. I had to literally step over things just to get to the computer table. (Insert that fun face palm emoji here!)
Sweet Bernie is my little sidekick, so I didn’t argue with her being in the picture.
As you can see we don’t have a whole lot of decor going on. I’ve done a little, but the walls in the dining area are still bare as is the area above the TV.
The buffet and coffee table came from a wonderful store in Louisiana called Kayu that is unfortunately closed now. They are wonderfully crafted pieces of furniture made in India. We have several more of their pieces in our bedroom that we’ll no doubt keep forever.
The painting above the buffet is something I painted a few years ago. I was loving all of the abstract paintings I was seeing on Instagram and Pinterest and decided to make my own. When I scored a canvas on clearance at Joann’s I knew it was time to make it.
This is our door from the foyer, so essentially our “front” door.
The dining chairs are from TJ Maxx about a year or two ago. The round table is the first piece of furniture my parents bought when they got married. They now have a pretty spectacular table that I’ll have to show you soon. It totally trumps this one, but this one is special to me. It’s where I grew up having dinner every night, and I love that I get to have it.
This big mirror is from my in-laws. They also own the retail space that is below my home and while it was vacant, I got to explore and asked if I could have this mirror. It really brightens the space up and I got to hang those fun twinkle lights I found at the dollar spot at Target at Christmas time.
I created this gallery wall just before Christmas. It took me three stinking days to get it all put together, but I did it very cheaply with free printables from Pinterest and some pieces I already had.
I love that the overall shape resembles a heart. Lots of love is represented in those things up there.
I’m standing in our kitchen while taking this picture. I have an idea of what I’ll put above the TV, but just haven’t gotten around to getting it up there. And I also have fabric for some fun curtains for that big window. Can’t wait to get those up and share with you!
Our TV stand came from Rooms to Go. It was a scratch and dent piece that we’ve had for about 6 years and has held up beautifully and through two moves. When we bought it we lived in an apartment on the third floor with no elevator. That same cousin I moved in with when I first moved to Louisiana came over and helped Paul carry it up all those stairs. Again, God bless him!
The sconces came from a precious store in Denham Springs, Louisiana. I can’t remember the name. But if you ever go there and go to that one street with all the second hand stores and other fun stores, it’s the big one on the corner. 🙂 Help me out Louisiana friends on the name!
I believe the rug is from Home Decorators. I found it on sale and fell immediately in love. I think it’s on sale again now! If you look closely, you’ll see Jack up there too behind the coffee table.
It’s such a charming apartment, and I genuinely love our little home. It has two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. It also has a very nice deck that we share with the neighbors. We spend a good deal of time out there every day with the dogs.
I hope you’ll come back to see more. It’s been such a journey making it our home, and goodness knows I’ve got a long way to go.