The Background Deets

{our wedding party}

I feel like I should share more about myself, my family, our house and why I decided to start a home blog.  (And more than a few random pictures thrown in just for fun.)  First off, my name is Erin and I'm in my early-to-mid-thirties.  (Geez!  Mid-thirties?  When did that happen?  I swear I was just in college...)  I'm a stay-at-home mom to a wonderful 2 1/2 year old daughter, Finley, and I'm married to an incredible guy named Andrew.  We've been married a little over 4 years and we live in central Austin with our big (read: quite chunky or just plain fat), black Lab named Rusty.  Why a black Lab is named Rusty, you ask? You'll have to take that up with my hubby!

{our house when we first bought it}

Andrew bought our little 1950's ranch bungalow almost 6 years ago, when the market was high and houses were selling like hot-cakes in our neighborhood.  Seriously, homes were only on the market a few days before you'd get an offer.  Those were the days!  Big sigh.  After we had Finley, I felt like we were quickly outgrowing our 2 bedroom/1 bathroom, 1150 square foot house.  We decided to put our house on the market in the spring of 2010.  Naively, we expected our house to sell quickly.  When September rolled around without having received a single offer, we took our house off the market.

{November 2010 - Finley, 15 months}

I grew up in the suburbs and just assumed my kids would too.  While our house was on the market, we put a contingency offer on a house in the 'burbs and I had already mentally moved in and decorated the place.  But God definitely had other plans for us.

{super cute, smily Finley}

When Andrew and I got married, we combined our random pieces of furniture, many were cast-offs given to us by generous relatives.  And in Andrew's case, some of his stuff was particle board crap that he'd had since college.  (I'm still in awe that he moved that stuff around with him for 10 years...)  Anyway, long story short, we really hadn't spent much money at all on decorating our house because we assumed we'd save those expenditures for our 'new house.'  "Why buy new sofas for this house when we don't know what kind of furniture our new house will need?" was our way of thinking.

{Mama and Finley, 27 months}

I tend to be a pretty positive, glass half full type of person, and when something bad or unforeseen happens, I try to search for reasons why to make sense of the big picture.  I have a background in psychology and it's in my nature to analyze and over-analyze things until I come up with an acceptable explanation.  I was pretty crushed when our house didn't sell and it didn't take me long before I realized that I grew up in one house from the age of four.  So when we had Finley, I was subconsciously trying to find our forever home, so that she too could grow up in one place; however, Andrew's family lived in three or four homes while he was growing up.  To him, there was no need for a forever home, but he understood where I was coming from.  Sweet man that he is he understood that even though our little bungalow wasn't going to be our forever home, I needed to make our house into a home.

{Finley seen as she most often is - in motion!, 28 months}

Once it was decided that we were going to scrape some money together for remodeling and decorating, I got to work.  Slowly over the course of the next year, I (with the help of our wonderful contractor) went to work.  While much of the bigger projects are finished, I still have quite a few that need to be completed.

{two of my very favorite people}

Remember that house I mentioned earlier that we put an offer on?  Well, it burned down in one of the many wildfires we had in Central Texas last summer.  I remember the shock of watching the news and seeing Steiner Ranch (the neighborhood the house was in) was on fire.  In that instant, I knew why God's plan for us was to stay put.  While I can't help but question God's plans for us at times, I am so thankful for His love and protection.