Tupelo Honey

life in delaware. HOME.

(purchased at our neighborhood yard sale a few weeks back, hangs above the tv in our living room)

a home is often defined as a place where one lives; a residence. 

our home is so much more than that. 

my favorite definition of home and the one we use a lot more often in our household is “the place where something is discovered, founded, developed, or promoted”. 

since moving from raleigh to philadelphia less than 8 years ago, andy and i have lived in 3 states and 6 apts/rowhomes/houses. while it’s always fun and exciting to move, i’m really getting the itch to settle down and buy. it’s not the renting part that bothers me so much as the fact that we can’t buy nice items for our permanent home since we don’t know what it will look like. what if we buy a new couch set that won’t fit into our family room? or a dining room table that doesn’t match the house’s overall style? until then, we make do with what we have, we buy a lot of used furniture on craigslist, and have yet to own a bed with a proper frame/headboard. 

a couple of months ago, the owners of our old house decided they wanted to tear it down to build a parking lot. we were given 45 days to move out (more on this later). i was 5 months pregnant and FREAKING OUT. we were already in the mindset that the next time we moved would be to NC, and we definitely didn’t want to leave the neighborhood. andy found our new house- conveniently 2 blocks away- in 5 days and we were moved in less than a month later. i call this house “the bachelor pad” since it’s not exactly kid/pregnancy friendly, but we made some adjustments and it’s turning out to be one of my most favorite places we’ve ever lived in. i can’t remember the last time i’ve been this happy- we love it here. 

this house is by no means perfect, nor is it what i would design for my family if given the opportunity. however, the architect that renovated this 110 year old house created unique details that combined, make this temporary residence feel like home to us. 

our bedroom on the first floor, looking out onto our front porch. in a few weeks, we’ll be assembling our bassinet for charlie’s arrival. i can’t wait to have our little man sleeping with us every night! 

2 of my closets. you can’t tell, but the one on the right is holding about 100 dresses. there are also smaller closets above these. it’s rare to find a house in the city with so much storage space… there are closets/built-in storage all over this house!

our bathroom, which separates our room and madeline’s nursery. you guys have seen this room a hundred times already :) 

my crafts area filled with years worth of art supplies. i love that i have a little corner that’s all mine for when the creative juices start flowing. 

madeline’s nursery. over the last few weeks, we’ve been trying to simplify this room a bit. our goal is to make this room a little more gender-neutral since this will technically be charlie’s room too- he’ll be sleeping in our room for the first few months but we’ll keep all of his clothes, etc. in here. baby steps! 

less is more. i’m resisting the urge to paint since i don’t know how long we plan on living here.

there is a glass window occupying the top portion of one wall in this room which allows just the right amount of sunlight to enter from the windows that line our hallway. 

it rained ALL.DAY.LONG on sunday, so we found ways to keep us entertained while stuck inside.  

boring picture, yes, but you can see how our hallway leads to the laundry room and a door to our back yard/patio. floor-to-ceiling closets line one whole wall of this area, but we store our wagon/3 strollers (soon to be 4!!!) under the stairs for convenience. 

our living area is on the 2nd floor. what i love most about this concept are the elevated views. our deck overlooks our back yard/patio and the living room windows overlook our entire street. our dog lady loves to sit on the top of our couch and watch people walk by. 

our dining room table used to belong to andy’s great-grandfather, it’s over 100 years old! 

this hutch is one of my favorite pieces of furniture that we own. i bought it off craigslist 4 years ago, right before andy and i got married to store our china and glassware. i’ll never part with it. 

where the magic happens. after years of ZERO counter space, this kitchen is a dream come true to me.

the custom made bobble heads were our cake toppers at our wedding. the cookie jar has chalkboard paint on it, so i can let andy know when i’ve made sugar or chocolate chip cookies. 

we turned our sunroom into madeline’s playroom. i love that i’m able to prepare dinner each night while keeping a close eye on madeline. 

more rainy day fun. these balloons kept her entertained for a solid hour!

our living room. we’ve held off on window treatments for 2 reasons- too many windows, too much money (they have to be custom made due to size). you can’t tell, but the blinds are burgundy and i refuse put them down. 

our very first fireplace!!!!!! this was a deal-breaker for me when deciding on a house, i’ve wanted one for YEARS…  winters in delaware are snowy and brutally cold, and i am dying to use this sucker alldayeveryday once we find a suitable childproof fireplace screen/cover. 

even more rainy day fun. madeline put a stickers on my pregnant belly that said “good work” and “nice job”. andy and i couldn’t help but laugh <3 

snack time, watching the wiggles while andy and i finished cleaning the house for our guests this week. 

bean loves to share everything with EVERYONE. 

our extra bedroom on the 3rd floor. excuse the lack of pillow cases, i was in the middle of washing them. 

things we never throw away: books. music. movies. 

3rd floor bathroom

our 2nd floor deck. we spend many nights out here grilling out, eating dinner, hanging with friends.  

while city homes are not always ideal for pregnant women with toddlers (4 sets of stairs/45 steps from the street to our top floor- yikes!), there is something to be said about living in a historic neighborhood with lots of charm and a stone’s throw away from the most popular restaurants and shops in wilmington. it literally takes me 1.5 minutes to walk to my hair salon. we may not always call delaware home, but we’re happy to say that this is where a very important chapter of our story begins.