#dolcehome

January 31, 2023

A NOT SO BRIEF TIMELINE OF OUR HOME

Our townhouse closed in August 2018, which is a pretty crazy thing to say because we will be moving in about 5 months, June 2020. 

I’ve taken photos and video throughout, but I wish I had documented the process in a more organized way - like on this blog! I will probably do before and after photos so I can still look back at the life of our home.

I’ll have to save our kitchen renovation for other posts because there’s just too much to discuss there, but that was roughly early September 2018 to end of November 2018. It would’ve been quicker if I had made decisions faster too haha. 

Since then, I’ve very sporadically started furnishing different spaces. Thank you to our friends who have given us free furniture too because it’s helped us immensely. That West Elm style writing desk (which is really from Wayfair) was given to us for free from Chung’s previous coworker.

I initially purchased a breakfast table from IKEA, but realized it felt too much like a kid’s play table you would see at the doctor’s office or something. I ended up buying our current breakfast table and chairs from Structube at the end of January 2019. It’s one of the things I’ve struggled with throughout this process because I’ve been developing my own style, and sometimes it takes making the wrong choice to realize which direction I actually want to follow.

In March 2019, I bought a beautiful rug runner from Rifle Paper Co., which is currently on our 3rd floor. And in April 2019, our bed frame from Wayfair arrived! 

Fit in a few vintage purchases along the way - and this is where I am really a bit torn because I love supporting small shops and the idea of giving furniture a second chance and a new story. At the same time, as a germaphobe, I do find it hard to fully embrace vintage sometimes (this will have to be another post). Lots of knick knacks to cover - mirrors, candleholders, etc. Handmade small shop love too! My first plant baby a.k.a. Planty, joined our family end of July 2019.

In the summer of 2019, I took a break from thinking about our home because my wedding stationery biz really picked up and I was working quite a lot after my FT work hours and also doing markets at least once a month. The culmination of this was at J & T’s wedding during the August civic long weekend. I was in the bridal party and I also took on a lot of their wedding stationery so it was super busy!

As soon as their wedding was over, my focus shifted gears back to our home. I started sofa hunting and thinking about what I wanted our dining room space to feel like. We spent a day sitting on sofas, picking out laminate, DIY ripping out our carpets on the third floor and then the infamous leak happened at the end of August.

In September 2019, we hired a contractor to help us install the third floor laminate and fix the damaged drywall from the leak in the hallway and the master bedroom closet. I put the sofa search on hold because of this financial setback and I was also preparing hardcore for the One of a Kind Show.

At the end of November 2019 - we bought our first sectional sofa from a wholesale distributor I had found from Hudson’s Bay. It’s a dupe for one that I had my eye on from Style Garage previously and a fraction of the price too! During the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, I found a great deal on a microwave and also purchased our walnut dining table from Pier 1 for 25% off. Can you tell that I like a good deal?

Over the Christmas holidays, 2 snake plant children from @nikimontage joined our family hahaha (they’ve been doing well). I bought some plushy pillow inserts from Tonic Living and pillow covers from H & M Home. I found our Louis style velvet dining chairs on FB Marketplace from a wholesaler as well (originally wanted linen but they were sold out and wouldn’t have stock until April/May - I’m impatient). The ones I wanted from Structube are normally $179 and they never go on sale, I was really holding out hope for Boxing Day, but nada. And I did splurge (even though they were on sale already) on some black cane breakfast table chairs from VdeV because I had always been planning to upgrade our $29 Structube ones...

I did some Kijiji shopping for a coffee table, and somehow ended up with crossback chairs (I wanted these for our wedding but can’t justify renting $10/chair), a STUNNING velvet sofa in mint condition (the one I loved from Style Garage) and a marble coffee table (perfect condition originally from Article). And hello, 2 beautiful reclaimed Kauffman vintage nightstands. 

OK so it’s been a little crazy in terms of furniture purchases the last 2 months and our wallets have been hurting. But that is all to say that it’s starting to really come together and I had a moment on the weekend where I just sat in the space and took it all in that we are really going to be living in this house soon...and it’s going to be the home where Chung and I finally get to wake up next to each other, cook together and likely where our first child will grow up too!