town home tour

We've been in our new home for almost two weeks now so I thought it about time to show you the place. Here are photos I took a few minutes before the movers arrived (i.e. not the best quality - I was too excited for our stuff!).  I'll go floor by floor (yes, we have multiple floors!) and show you the space and what we plan/need to do for each room. Here's our home tour...

First Floor:

When you enter on the main floor we have a small room to one side (my office), a powder room, and the front entrance and the garage entrance. It's hard to tell in the office photos because we already had some boxes in there, but it's the perfect size for a desk, a bookshelf, and a bench for Lily to look out the window. 

^^ One side of office

^^ Other side of office

^^ Powder room

Main floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Desk (done!)
• Desk chair
• Rug for office
• Shelf for office
• Lily bench/ottoman
• Lamp
• Rug for powder room
• Welcome mat
• Hooks/bulletin board/message board for hallway

Second Floor:

When you walk up the stairs to the second floor you enter into a large, open room which will be our living and dining areas. It also has a laundry room (which originally I wished was swapped with the powder room on the first floor, but now I'm liking not having to go down another set of stairs for laundry), kitchen, pantry, and small patio. 

^^ Living/Dining. So much light from those windows.

^^ Full size. Bless you.

^^ View of kitchen from "dining" side of living room.

^^ Kitchen

^^ View of living/dining from kitchen

^^ Patio off of kitchen. Lily loves going out here. We do have plans to put some chicken wire along the bottom just to be safe, but I'm pretty sure she couldn't fit her gallon head through it.

^^ Hello lover. Beautiful, beautiful pantry.

Second Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Sofa (Done - not arriving until Mid March)
• Chair & ottoman for Al (Done - not arriving until Mid March)
• Living room rug
• Accent chair
• Living room coffee table (?)
• End table
• TV (Done! Al's Valentine's gift)
• Farmhouse dining table (Done!)
• Dining chairs
• Bar cart
• Bar stools (ours are too short)
• Patio chairs / table
• Patio flowers
• Get rid of arch lamp (anyone want it?!)
• Get rid of cement coffee table (anyone want it?)
• Red chest from our old entry way to storage
• Laundry room shelving/storage solution

Third Floor:

The third floor has our master bedroom with en suite bathroom and walk in closet, as well as a guest room with en suite bathroom and closet. The master is about 3 feet larger than the guest room - both are very good sizes and I can't tell you how excited I am to not only have two bathrooms, but two sinks in our master!

^^ Master Bedroom

^^ Master Bathroom (TWO SINKS!)

^^ Master bathroom other side

^^ Master closet

^^ Guest Room

^^ Guest Bath (Notice the linen storage. Mind. blown.)

^^ Guest Bath

^^ Guest closet (aka Christmas and coat storage)

Third Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• King mattress (Done! And never going back to Queen life.)
• King bed (Done - arriving mid-March)
• Dresser for master
• End tables for master
• Lamps for guest room
• Organize guest closet (it is currently the location for I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this items)
• New towels and bathmat for guest bath (Done)
• Get rid of leather club chair (ugly and broken)
• Makeup storage for bathroom (so weird, the vanity has two sinks, but no drawers?)

Fourth Floor:

Our fourth floor is a fairly spacious roof deck! We love going up there during this nice weather, although I doubt we'll be up there in the full sun during the 100 degree summer months. Lily loves sprawling out and sunbathing up there while I read. The deck curves around to the left and has a faint view of the city skyline.

^^ Same thing as with our patio. I don't think Lily could fit through the fence, but we're going to put some chicken wire along the bottom just to be safe.

Fourth Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Patio furniture
• Grill (so nice that there is a propane hookup built in up there)
• Outdoor rug
• Chicken wire around fence
• String party lights around top of fence
• Plants, flowers, herbs in pots

Some other things that we love about our place and the complex: 

• Under-stair storage in the garage
• Pool! (Bonus points that it is gated so dogs cannot go in it -- most frenchies can't swim!)
• Two off-leash dog areas
• Friendly neighbors with friendly dogs (Lily has so many new friends and they all romp around each afternoon)
• Great location - close to restaurants, several grocery stores, and an 8 minute commute for Al!

So that's it! Our humble abode. We're excited, if you can't tell. :) Willing to take all decorating tips and ideas. We are overwhelmed with all this space, but are adjusting quite well. I think it will really start to feel like our home once our furniture is delivered (6 to 8 weeks delivery time is so painful!).  

My step-mom sent me this cartoon from the paper last Sunday. It couldn't be more true. More space has it's pros and cons (and so many stairs!).

weekend recap

Hello from warm and sunny Dallas! (Sorry friends in the northeast!). We are settling in nicely here and had a wonderful weekend. I can quickly see that our weekends will be spent outdoors enjoying this weather! Here are a few photos from our first weekend as Dallasites...

First of all, let's back up a few days. I went back to work (remotely) on Wednesday and am now struggling to be efficient from this position. Hoping to come up with a better solution when I set up my office in the coming weeks.  She is so needy with me during the day.

Friday afternoon I met my friend Julee and her darling new baby girl, Brooklyn, for a late lunch (at Chili's obvi). And then we strolled Brooklyn around to some furniture stores to get ideas for our place. We have to buy so much new furniture - it is nuts. It was such fun to spend an afternoon with my old NYC friend in our new city and be with her well-behaved, darling little girl. 

Al and I have come up with a new Friday night tradition and I'm so excited about it. We plan to visit a different Mexican restaurant every Friday until we find our favorite. My family went to the same Mexican restaurant each Friday of my childhood and it was such a comforting and fun tradition. The first on our list was Gloria's. We've had people rave about Gloria's to us and it's not far from our apartment so it was an easy first pick. We made the unfortunate decision to eat two (TWO!) bowls of chips before our food came so we were a little too stuffed to enjoy our meals, but they were still fantastic. Two thumbs up for their chips and famous bean dip (and queso) and two thumbs up for proximity to our town home. Dallas readers - what Mexican restaurants do we need to add to our list?

We were pumped for Saturday as it was supposed to be in the mid to high 70s! We spent the morning on the Katy Trail with Lily. For those not familiar - the Katy Trail is a large and well manicured path for walking, running, biking, and rollerblading. It stretches for 3.5 miles through Uptown, Oaklawn, and Highland Park (neighborhoods just north of the city center). There are several bars and restaurants near it (some that back up on to it) and it is the place to be when it is nice out. (Fun fact - the Katy trail follows the path of the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. Thank you Wikipedia.) Lily loved the wide sidewalks and being out in the sunshine. We all did. 

After dinner we dropped our worn out little pup at home and headed to do some furniture shopping. Thankfully we pulled the trigger on a long farmhouse table and my desk! Feels good to finally begin putting some furniture in our rather empty place (if you recall - we left quite a bit of furniture back in New York). While Al drove, I explored the radio stations. It's so hard to set your preset buttons when you have no clue what are the "good" stations. :) Oh, and it's always best to conduct one's research on a piece of paper used previously for blotting lipstick. 

It was still so beautiful out when we got home that we went up on our roof deck to relax. Relax = reread cookbooks and eat Wheat Thins with Lily. We really need to get some outdoor furniture for the roof - the beach towel is not cutting it. 

Saturday night we met our friends Scott and Caroline for dinner at what could possibly be the best "welcome to Texas" restaurant ever - Stampede 66. Think frito pie, chicken fried steak, baked beans, corn bread, cobbler, etc. I've come to learn that Chef Stephan Pyles is a big deal around here. I'm looking forward to eating at his other restaurants. We loved Stampede 66!

^^ Chicken fried steak YESSSSS.

Sunday was a whole lot of this....

...followed by this...

... and ended at Mutts! Oh gosh Mutts just might be the best place on Earth. Two huge off-leash dog parks with a bar! Waiters come to you inside the dog park and take your orders for drinks. It's the perfect way to spend a few nice hours on a Sunday. Lily absolutely loved it. We went ahead and bought a year pass because we know we'll be back frequently. 

Sunday supper was steaks, mashed potatoes and asparagus. Because why not? It seemed like the best way to close out a perfect first weekend in Texas.

And look at that forecast for this week! I've never seen so many sun emojis in a row! It's amazing how much weather plays a part in my mood - I feel happier and lighter and more energized with all this sunshine. 

It's safe to say we're all doing well here in our new Dallas life. Things are good. And we all went to bed happy.

Check back tomorrow for some photos of our new place. Stay warm my East Coast friends!

new york photoshoot

Greetings from Dallas!  We drove here Friday from Kansas City and thanks to some stern conversations Al had with our movers, our moving truck arrived Saturday (after they had told us it would be Tuesday before we'd get it due to the storm on the East Coast). We are settling in nicely to our new town home and have almost unpacked. The cable and internet guy came yesterday and I've never been so excited to be "connected" again (is that bad?). I've still got quite a few boxes to tackle and the furniture we ordered won't be here for several more weeks so while we're here, it's no where near a complete home yet. 

Forgive me for the rest of the week while I finish up stuff around the house and try to put together my new routine. I'll be back to regular scheduled posts next week, but in the meantime I have a lovely little surprise for you..

For a going away gift, several of my girlfriends got together and gave us a day with a professional photographer in New York. We spent a f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g morning before we left the city taking a photos in some of our favorite spots around the city. It was such a thoughtful gift from my friends and we will truly treasure the images. What a great way to remember our life in New York.  Take a look at a few of my favorites...

  

  

 Thanks to our friends for hooking us up with the incredibly talented and friendly Elizabeth Shrier. 

See y'all back here next week. Now off to unpack more boxes...