We moved to this dainty, sun-filled apartment the first week of January. And while a lot of it is starting to feel right at home, there are still boxes and bins of things that don’t fit. And there are stacks of decor items that I haven’t found the perfect spot for. The nice thing is – we’re here for a good, long while. Which simply means that I can take my sweet time decorating!

In our short-term apartment, I put pressure on myself to complete the place and make it feel like home, all before packing it back up and starting over. While everyone told me it was crazy, (and in hindsight I can see that a bit of it was) I did it for myself and of my kids. I wanted to ease the transition by making us all feel at home right away. And I will say – it worked! But it also added a lot of crazy stress to my plate during what was already a busy season (December is filled with birthdays, anniversaries and, of course, Christmas).

So given the stressful last several months, I chose to ease myself into this one. While furniture has moved around a few times to find it’s perfect home, the walls remain (mostly) bare. And for the most part, I’m okay with that.

When it comes to moving, everyone has a room that is their top priority to unpack. For me, the kitchen is right up there (only following the kids’ room…which I’ll talk more about another day). I mean, think about it! It’s the space that gets the most day-to-day use, and without somewhat of an order to the place…it’s just downright frustrating.

Another reason getting the kitchen in order was so important to me was so that I could make healthy meals again. With the craziness of the holidays/birthdays/anniversary and a week of homelessness…we had more than a little bit of longing for some normalcy. And I don’t know about you…but when my eating patterns get all out of whack, the rest of me does too.

Don’t get me wrong. I mean, it’s April now and I still find myself shifting things around from cupboard to cupboard trying to find the easiest work flow. And while I find a lot of sanity by having the counters clean and tidy, inside my cupboards show that its still a work in process.

When we first moved in, we thought the piano would fit perfectly in this dining space. I wanted to bring music to our living room and this seemed like the best spot for it (it took the place of the buffet in the dining room). It took all but two minutes to realize that the piano completely took over the space and left no food for actually dining in the dining room. Whoops. My hubby wasn’t thrilled to move that beast yet again. But now that we have the buffet in here, we can all agree that it makes the space so much more usable.

Hmmm. Can we all just agree that apartments are CRAZY for putting carpet in the dining room? I mean, c’mon! With two little kids, there is approximately zero chance we’ll get our security deposit back…simply because of that. But I’m trying to prolong that carpet with this rug. And it might be the best thing that happened to this space (along with those green chairs that literally come from a coffee house in Seattle….*swoon*)!

And right here. This picture writes our love story for this apartment complex. This is the view out my dining room window. I love opening the blinds first thing in the morning to sunshine gazing in at me. This grassy area is often filled with ducks and geese. Just around the corner is one of the favorite sunning spots for the turtles. And every now and then, as we are eating our breakfast, twenty turkeys will run past our window and make us all laugh.

So I think its safe to say we have all grown to love this new home of ours. In fact, Hollywood just told me the other day that this was his favorite home we’ve ever had. Awwww.

I still have a long ways to go in terms of styling the apartment. But as I’m working on putting this place together piece by piece, I look forward to sharing it with you during the process. It’s imperfect and far from Pinterest-worthy…but it’s home.

Thanks for checking it out. I would love to hear what your favorite part of our mini kitchen tour was.

What is your favorite home you’ve ever lived in? What did you love about it?