Ahhh the house. For me it was love at first sight. It was one of those homes that as soon as we walked in the front door of the model home, I could see us living in the house. I could image our stuff on the walls, our furniture in the different rooms, eating breakfast in the breakfast area, hanging out on the couch watching tv….and the list goes on and on. Needless to say, I was sold.

Maybe I should rewind a bit.

After spending almost three years living overseas in the smallest apartment I have personally ever lived in, we were in Northern Virginia for all of 3 days before heading out on a much needed vacation and in that time we had to not only find a house but to put in an offer…and start the waiting process. And so began our house hunting expedition. And it was definitely a “hunt”! We saw big ones, small ones, medium size ones, ones with weird layouts and rooms in strange locations, some with yards, some with a square foot of grass that were listed as a yard, town homes, single family homes, and condos. I don’t know how we crammed that many houses into 2 days, but with our fearless realtor, Betsy, leading us, we squeezed them all in. I should mention that this took place in September 2008. If you remember, that was the height of the housing crisis. Houses were a wreck. Appliances were gone. Holes were in walls were unknown items used to be attached. Faucets were gone. Door knobs were gone. If floors could have been torn up, they would have been gone too. And yet, these torn up houses were still over our budget.

The experience was one of the strangest things I have ever been through. After a 27 hour flight (with a dog), we were tired. After looking at those houses, we were overwhelmed. Exhausted. Disappointed. Worried. Basically two jumbled messes. Even with Betsy as our guide, we didn’t think that we would find anything that we loved…or even liked…but we had to keep looking. We only temporary housing for so long and we were expecting the house buying process to take a while. On day 1 we did find one house but after putting in an offer, the family decided to rent it instead of selling it, so we were back act square one. Thankfully neither one of us were completely sold on the house, but it was the best one that we had seen and we were both ready to just cross “buy a house” off of our list. Settling is not always the best option people!

As we moved into the afternoon of day 2, we followed Betsy as she made a left into another new development. While I wanted personality. Dominick wanted new. I wanted a fixer-upper. Dominick wanted finished and turn key. The more we looked, the more the “to do” list grew and called for skills that were way out of my reach. I knew that this wasn’t the battle for me so we started looking at the model homes and apartments. It’s amazing how dejected a sad broken down house can make you feel! Model home after model home we toured. Blah and bland with builder grade items. Exciting stuff I tell ya! </sarcasm> The model homes were nice but they just didn’t have that warmth that I was looking for and the layouts didn’t suit Dominick. That was until Betsy mixed up a right and made a left.

We walked through the front door of one of the last model home we would tour and it just felt like…home. I was done. Dominick still wasn’t convinced. There were issues (price being one) but everything was minor. We saw a few more models to compare layouts and budgets, but we kept coming back to that one model in particular. It must have been kismet because as we were talking about what really was included in the 50% off finishes sale, I got a phone call and got offered my job. We were no longer a one-income family! It was almost as if  everything lined up. Planetary style yo!

As evening fell on day2, we were signing off on the paperwork, eating pizza, and picking out finishes, appliances, carpet and flooring, anything else that fell under the 50% off sale (read: mama went shopping like she was on DIY Network’s Blog House!). It was whirlwind. We didn’t have time to second guess our choices. We just went with what we liked best. It was quick and dirty, but we really didn’t have time to wait. We had to be in Florida in 2 days to catch a cruise leaving the Port of Miami! So we signed on the dotted line, er lines. Crossed all of the t’s. Dotted all of the i’s. And then decided the next morning that yes, we did want that fireplace after all! Scurry, scurry, scurry to update all of the paperwork and then we were off to start our road trip. And that, ladies and gentleman, is how we ended up in our house.

And the best part? We still feel as if it’s home and the best house for us. No seriously, we will still make comments to each other about how much we love this house and compare it to things we see on House Hunters and Property Brothers. Well, to be honest with you, I do most of the HGTV watching in this house, but every so often, I do get a hold of the remote and Dominick will give in and watch with me. But seriously, we love this house. It’s way too much for two people and three flights of stairs was waaaay too much for me when I had my knee surgery, but we still love it. And our neighbors are pretty wonderful to boot!

Fast forward to the present and we’ve been living in and with the house for quite a while. Okay 5 years and almost 7 months if you really want to know. I’ve sat in every room and thought about how I was would make it my own and what I would put where. I’ve spent countless hours reading blogs to get ideas, roaming the aisles of Home Goods to get inspired, and even painted a few rooms. I am not even close to being done with my list, but recently I decided to pull on my DIY gloves and tackle a few ideas that have been rolling around in my brain. It all started with a kitchen backsplash and a lot of convincing Dominick that yes, I actually did know what I was doing (thank you YouTube gods!), but it really is all about just getting started right?

So welcome to casa logalbo…established in 2008 and built on lot 747.