No sooner than we stepped in the door, Alessia called, wanting to know where we were up to and if we had moved yet. Luckily, she wasn’t a talker like Chi Chi, so I indulged her until she had her fill of Luca intel and let me go. Sophia and I did a little light cleaning to pass the time. Desiree arrived just as we finished our chores, so it was time to say goodbye to the house. She was a little more emotional than we were, basically growing up in that house. When she felt ready, we left and went home.
The closer we got to the house, the stronger the salty sea air got and filled me with so much excitement and pride. Purchasing this house was a pivotal moment on my journey through manhood because I couldn’t think about getting this house without thinking about Sophia. I proposed to her there. And I was living with her while I hustled to make enough money to pay for the house. Moving in with her was the first real adult thing I’d ever done, being halfway through my young adult life. Desi was born in that house, and it felt like the completion of a beautiful cycle climbing those steps with her in tow. I explained to her that the house was twice as big as it used to be. Everything to the left of the stair railing used to be our side yard. We had to give up something in order to get the space we needed, so the side yard had to go. Given our two yards, one filled with Desi’s playthings, the decision was a no brainer.
With double the porch space, we added additional outdoor seating since we lost the space from the side yard.
As I told her before, the space limited our options, especially given how cramped the original space was. I hated losing the foyer, though. True, it’s the least important room in the house, but I still loved it. It was almost like having a holding area to greet friends and family before letting them into our personal space, as if crossing the threshold was some secret badge granting them access to our lives.
I had the contractors put walls around the living room to make it a guestroom. With the original bathroom right next door and the stairs landing in the living room now, guests staying in there should have a fairly private experience now.
The living room moved to the new side, and we told them not to change the furniture in there. The entire renovation would change everything so much, we didn’t want the house to feel foreign. Besides, we loved how we styled that space and needed to maintain that sense of identity.
The kitchen was the catalyst for the entire renovation. Whenever we thought about going back home, sad feelings about losing our kitchen always pulled us back. If we were going to enjoy our old house, we had to transform the kitchen into an open chill/work/eat space. The jury is still out on which space I liked better, but at least we had parity. I watched Desi as she looked around. She didn’t say much, but I knew she was excited and a little overwhelmed by all the space. I suppressed a chortle, thinking she should enjoy the space now because once we went upstairs, that was the end of it, heh.
Ahhh, cramped hallway. How I missed thee. Not. Now that the stairs faced a different way, they took up so much room in the hallway—room we didn’t have in the first place. I tried to explain the old configuration to Desi, but I wasn’t sure if she could visualize it. I told her she and I used to do tummy time out there and about the time I was teaching her to sit up. She gave me a half smile and said, “awww.” I heard the tiredness in her voice, so I got back to tour duty and tried to keep the sidebars to a minimum.
I started at the end of the hall where the old guest room—the room I thought Mama would take over—was which was now Desi’s place. I had them knock down the wall between it and Desi’s old playroom to give her a good sized room like she was used to. She was all smiles as she gently stepped around the room, spinning around to see everything.
“This is mine?” she asked.
“Do you like it?” Sophia asked.
“I love it!”
“Your bathroom is next door,” I said.
Since this was our forever home, and we had tons of cash, I made sure we all got our own luxurious bathrooms. I figured since her bedroom was so colorful and loud, she could use a calm, subdued style in the bathroom.
Our room was across from hers, so we went there next. We took Desi’s nursery and turned into our en suite and gave our bedroom one or two more squares. I had hoped we’d have enough room for a closet system like the one we just left, but we only had one good wall for it and pictures, so we went with a dresser. At least it’s inside the room this time. I was really missing that closet, though. We might have to try it and see if we can make it work.
On the new side, I created a room for myself that was inspired by Dub and Maia’s place. She has a yoga studio, and he has a man cave where he has his gym equipment and his SimTube studio. I’ve always wanted a dedicated space to record so I didn’t have to disturb everyone, talking in the hallway late at night. I setup a space to meditate and possibly record guided mediations, and there’s also a desk to do vlogs and edit videos.
Across the hall is another guest bedroom we created specifically with the nephews in mind. Breanna, being the lone girl, always got her own room, so she could either take the room downstairs or sleep in Desi’s room.
With nothing left to show, we all went to bed. The house was looking pretty plain, but we were in no rush to put up our pictures and get it looking like a home. We’ve now got the rest of our lives to shape this place into whatever we want.
