Home Q&A

In case you missed the last blog post or Instagram news, Jared and I bought our first home! After we closed, we moved all our stuff up from my parents’ house in the Vancouver/Portland area and we’ve now been in our new house for a little over a week. I got some questions and thought it would be fun to answer them in a blog post. There’s not enough room on Instagram stories!

What’s the room you’re most looking forward to decorating?
I’m most excited for my home office! I’m indecisive with most home decor however I made up my mind on how I wanted my office pretty soon after we put an offer on our house. It’ll probably take a bit to get set up because some of the big items I want are always out of stock. Luckily I have some old Ikea desks from college that I’ll use in the meantime so at least I have somewhere to work.

It’ll be really fun to have an office space that isn’t in the bedroom or off the kitchen like in all my apartments. Having a designated space for work and blogging is something I value a lot now that we spend so much time at home. I have really enjoyed working from home and that will probably only get better once I have a nicer set up.

Will you guys be staying in Seattle?
I got at least 15 DMs about where exactly we moved however I won’t be sharing our exact location on here or Instagram. We did move back to the Seattle metro however – a lot of people were asking if we moved to our hometown, Vancouver. We’re about 25 minutes to downtown Seattle now and we are obsessed with the suburbs!! Every day we talk about how much we love where we are. Funnily enough, right out of college when I lived in the suburbs for a bit I really wasn’t a big fan.

Are you going to do a custom blogger closet?
I thought about it! We have enough extra bedrooms that I could have done a ‘cloffice’ but I don’t find it particularly appealing to have my clothes and office in the same space. If I were a fashion blogger, maybe! The main closet in our bedroom is not very functional – it’s just 3 hanging wire shelves currently. So, I do think we’ll have to do a custom closet system to make at least one wall of it more functional. I’ve always liked seeing peoples’ PAX closet systems but I don’t think that’s the route we’ll go in this house because our closet might not be big enough. If anyone has recommendations for smaller custom closets, let me know!

Wall paint color?
Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray – SW7029. I didn’t pick it, but I couldn’t be happier with the wall color. It’s the perfect greige color so if you’re into neutrals, I would recommend getting a sample of this. There are tons of photos online of this color as well as actual reviews/posts about it. I was surprised to see how popular it was online but now I get the hype. It can be paired with cool tones or warm tones and is really universally flattering. I would totally paint another home this color in the future! My friend Tina (@justatinabit) has this color in her home as well and she’s the home decor queen!

How are you going to decorate your living room?
This is a fun question for me because I thought it would be months until we had anything functional in the living room! Originally I was going to save it for a later project because I wasn’t sure how to decorate it. When we moved in, we were going to put our big gray sectional in our loft area upstairs however we realized it was a little too large for the space. The chaise was also the wrong direction for how we wanted to set up the loft. So, we tried the sectional in our living room and it immediately made the room feel super cozy and almost done! It’s funny, nothing has really been done to the room except we placed some plants on the mantle and put the rug/couch in. The plants probably won’t even stay there but we honestly don’t have any other furniture to put them on!

I’m still looking for more inspiration and could use some advice on what to place next to the fireplace on both sides, but for now I’m happy with having a comfy seating area. We do not have a TV mounted yet either but I think we’re going to wait until holiday sales to buy a new TV. We don’t watch a lot of shows/movies on the actual TV!

When will you buy motorized blinds connected to Alexa?
Haha, thanks for the question Steven! We are in desperate need of window coverings but…honestly there are sooo many options, it is overwhelming us! Motorized blinds would be amazing but they’re pricey! I would consider them if we had really tall windows somewhere that aren’t easily reached. If anyone wants to get us a housewarming gift, I wouldn’t say no to blinds. ;)

Where will the TV go?
We were really drawn to the loft in this floor plan so we’re going to set up a TV in there, with a nice comfy couch. We’ll have one above the fireplace in the living room as well. Honestly I rarely watch stuff on TVs and watch a lot of YouTube or shows on my phone or laptop. (Anyone else??)

What sealant did you use?
Surprisingly two people asked this! I already DMed one person back but will answer here as well. Our builder and other homeowner friends recommended this one (511 Impregnator Sealer). It’s really easy to apply. I recommend a small brush for tile and a small roller for backsplash that has more of a pattern. If there’s a lot of grout between the pieces of tile in your backsplash, for example, a roller will save you a lot of time. Then you just wait a few minutes and wipe excess off! It smells really bad though, please make sure you ventilate the area well, keep your pets away, and consider wearing N95 if you have it.

What kind of countertops do you have?
This question also came a ton! The countertops are quartz and from MSI – the name is Calacatta Naples. The veining is considered dramatic and it’s a cool toned gray against white. If you look at the stock photos, the veining looks really blue, but it looks completely different in real life. I love the counters so much and could not be happier with them!

We’re planning on buying a house. Any tips?
Oh my gosh, I have so many tips. I’ll probably write more about this in upcoming posts but for now, some general tips:

-Work on your credit and SAVE! It’s definitely not required, but I would recommend to anyone who can, to put at least 20% down to avoid paying mortgage insurance. Having immediate equity in your home is a great feeling too.
-Interview or “shop” around for mortgage brokers, lenders, and real estate brokers. They work for YOU. Unfortunately not everyone has your best interest at heart and you won’t always click with the first people you meet. What I value may be different than what you value, so I would honestly proceed with some caution even when you get referrals
-If you make a wishlist, be flexible with things that can be changed. The one thing you can’t change about your home is the location, for example. However anything cosmetic could be remodeled or updated.
-Research everything. You can never be too prepared for home buying in my opinion. Unless you’ve done it before or learned from family/friends, there are a lot of terms in the process that you may want to review. For example: escrow, pre-approval, closing, earnest money, loan disclosures…the list goes on. There’s a lot of legal language that feels really daunting when you start reviewing contracts, but if you’ve done enough research, it’s honestly not difficult.

Thanks for asking questions if you asked one! It was fun answering a few questions now that we’ve been in our home for a full week.

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