Our Quirky Mid-Century Modern: The Story Behind Our New House!
Okay, where to begin????? Let’s just say our housing situation has been a JOURNEY in the last year or so, but as I write this-- perched at our dining table in our new house in the morning light-- I can confidently say we landed exactly where we were meant to.
To understand where we are now, I’ll have to take you back to where we were… so join me on the little tale of selling & moving & renting & buying & moving again…
selling our first home & renting
As you may recall, we bought a small little cabin (1100 sq feet!) right when we got married and converted it to our year-round house. We LOVED this home s’much— it was our cozy little scandanvian cabin! Beautiful natural light, burning fires in the wood stove, natural pine ceilings… *ahhh*
but! we were pretty far outside of town & quite isolated from friends, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, etc. While we loved living there with just us two, we knew we didn’t want to be so isolated/outside of town long-term.
Ultimately, while we loved our cozy lil cabin in the woods, we knew it wasn’t our “forever” house and that we would eventually sell…. and when the market was so ~hot~ this spring we decided to go for it. Our little lake house was wonderful and we truly treasured our time there, but we knew it was time to take the next step
The selling process was a breeze, buuuuuuut once we sold we found there weren't any houses on the market that we loved.... And if there’s one thing I’ve learned about housing or one piece of advice I can share? DON’T. SETTLE. This is your home— where you live a majority of your life. Don’t you want to LOVE it?? You’re signing on to a mortgage and committing potentially many years (or even a lifetime!) in this house — you want to really, really, really love it.
We considered putting an offer in on an old quirky A-frame on Lake Superior, but again, it was quuuuuite far out of town, needed a good amount of work, and had less bedrooms than we were looking for. While we were enchanted, we decided it wasn’t “the one” and decided to be patient and opened our eyes to renting after we sold our house.
Welp….. we found the most amazing place when we started looking at rentals. Like, if i could write my vision board rental it was this place. It was a duplex right on Lake Superior, and to make it even MORE phenomenal, our best friends rented the other unit! Talk about a dreeeeaaammm (double dates 4ever, yaaaaaa know?).
In our “plan”, we thought we would be there for 1-2 years while we continued scrolling zillow & doing showings & waiting for our perfect house to show up. It was an odd in-between because we LOVED our rental and were truly happy there, but knew we were financially ready & wanting to buy somewhat soon. Basically, we weren’t in a rush at alllllll, but we WERE still open and looking at houses that popped up in the neighborhood and the budget we wanted.
While renting we used this time to ensure we would be READY when theeeee house came up— making sure our down payment was ready, saving up for future home renovations, getting pre-approved, and just waiting for the house of our dreams to show up.
house of our dreams?!
Out of nowhere (literally all in one day!) TWO houses in the neighborhood AND the price range we wanted were both posted. It kind of kicked us into gear in a way… like WOW, “thee” house could come a lot sooner than we realized. We decided to take a peek at one and it ended up being in worse condition than we wanted, so our attention turned to the other one….
This 2nd house was listed as “coming soon,” so we had about 12 days to wait before we could get a showing. We spent those 12 days making sure we had our ducks in a row—we talked about what it would look like if we got it, made sure our pre-approval was good to go, considered the consequences of leaving our lease early...annnnnnnnnnd took a few excited, semi-stalkerish strolls past the house (we couldn’t help it!).
I can’t put my finger on it, but there was something about this “coming soon” house that felt more serious.
...but it was also terrifying because we JUST moved. Like literally a few months before. It was definitely not our “plan” to move out our rental before 1-2 years. This is where I tend to get in my head, overthink, and worry “what people would think” if we moved again in such a short amount of time. I can get quite self-conscious about things like that. However, Adam is SO good at bringing me back to what makes the most sense for US. He really grounds & reminds me to tune out the noise & other’s opinions #BlessHim. Because, really, the only people that need to feel confident & good about the decision is US. It’s our life & we are allowed to make choices freely. This may seem very “duh”, but I struggle with over-explaining myself and justifying my “adulting” choices sometimes, but I just kept coming back to my gut instinct…. And my gut was REALLY excited about this house :)
taken in our house just hours after we closed :) I actually can’t even believe HOW DIFFERENT it already looks just a few months later. Like WHOA.
seeing the house for the first time
FINALLY the house went live & we were able to tour the house, and with the market how it is...let’s just say there was a lotttttt of interest. With the “coming soon” generating a lot of hype, the first day it was live was booked back-to-back-to-back with showings and we got the last open slot at the end of the first day for 8PM.
But ahhhhhhhhhhh, the tour! I can’t really describe it, but it was just ENERGIZING. Like this house excited us both— both for what it was and for what it could be.
Not only did we love the structure, but the LAND. Wowowowowow. This BACKYARD is amazing— truly a woodland little haven. We were so obsessed with how close it was to Lake Superior, some of our fav running trails, grocery stores, schools for our future kiddos, etc. Truly a unicorn location for us.
The thing is… this house has NEVER been on the market before. An architect designed & built this house for his family in the 60s and lived here until the day he died, so it’s never been for sale. Ever. (Adam was lucky enough to meet the family one day, and they were so kind & lovely. It is CLEAR how special this house was to them, and they made us even more excited about the potential of living here!) The original owner took amaaaaazing care of it and it is actually in great shape from a structural standpoint even though it is older. Not to mention, it has ALLLLLL the mid-century quirk and charm (gorgeous wood paneling, wallpaper galore, original cabinets, windows everywhere that make you feel like you’re in a treehouse!)
….but it was also outdated in a lot of ways. It was definitely move-in ready and 100% liveable, buuuuuuut to bring it to 2021 we knew some elbow grease was needed.
On the tour, Adam and I both had an overwhelming and exciting feeling of just seeing the potential. We were pointing out things we could do and updates we could make and allllllll of the ways we wanted to use the space—just one of those feelings like oh my gosh, this is it.
the backyard & location is what sealed the deal. towering trees & birds chirping & beautiful gardens, oh my!
putting in an offer
We knew how popular the house was with showings, so picking what to offer was tough. We didn’t want to overshoot & pay more than we needed, but we also didn’t want to lose it.
One thing we realllllllllly believe in is being financially responsible, so we didn’t want to overshoot what we could comfortably afford. We aim to keep housing costs below 30% of our take-home income, so with that in mind we put forward the best offer we could that was reasonable for us.
….Our realtor told us it was a strong offer, but there was a lot of interest in the house so we should be prepared to lose it. Basically, our offer was strong, BUT not unbeatable. (especially in this wild market where people were goin’ NUTS)
Ultimately we both had peace with the decision we made and the price we put out there. As we made the FINAL decision on what our offer should be, we were [weirdly] standing in our walk-in closet at our rental just standing there, and we hugged each other, said a lil prayer, and just felt true PEACE with the offer we were gonna put out there.
We knew we may lose it, but we made a strong— but reasonable— offer…. If it was accepted then amazing, but if not, we had no regrets.
With our offer, we wrote a letter to the owner’s family and included a Polaroid of our lil fam, put in our offer, and trusted that if this wasn’t the house then something amazing would come. (However, I will say there was a feeling that there will never be another house like this because it’s so unique—the house, location, and lot were all so perfect annnnnnnnnd it’s quite literally never been for sale before. So it felt like this may be “the one that got away”, but Adam and I truly did both feel good that we put a strong offer forward that was within our budget)
our offer letter & lil fam polaroid :)
But then something amazing happened...we DID get accepted. AHHHHHH!!!!! Apparently (obviously I don’t know all the behind-the-scenes from the seller’s perspetive) there had been an all-cash buyer from California who was going to buy it sight unseen, but dropped out at the last moment because his partner didn’t want to move to Duluth...and we were the next highest offer. AHHHHH!!!! We were beside ourselves.
It felt SO right—we were literally jumping up and down from excitement. Like actually, jumping around like maniacs for a solid 5 minutes.
Fast forward to now, and that’s the story of how we wound up in this house! We ended up leaving our amazing rental much earlier than we thought— while we were so grateful for our time there on Lake Superior with our best pals (seriously 10/10 would recommend sharing a duplex with your besties), and while we were sad to say goodbye to that unique set-up, nooooooothing compares to having a house of your own that you’re so excited about.
sitting in our empty NEW HOUSE hours after closing. ahhhh, the most surreal moment.
the house style
Let me start by saying this house is a ~quirky~ mid-century modern style. Either you LOVE #vintage vibes like this, or you just….. dont. But we are in the camp that LOVED it. And while it is VERY quirky, all of our loved ones just keep saying “it is VERY you guys” hahahahha. It just felt RIGHT & made for us.
We truly couldn’t love this house any more, and we want to honor the beautiful mid-century time era and keep its beautiful bones & ~vibes~ intact, so our goal in renovation is to KEEP the mid-century magic, but make it more “us” and bring it up to 2021. However, I feel a little torn in the middle of the mid-century renovation crowd….
Because there are some people that would totally gut this place and start fresh and get rid of ALLLL the history *major cringe* AND there are A LOT of mid-century-modern OBSESSED people out there (me included, hahahaha) There are MCM instagram accounts & facebook groups & fan pages…. IYKYK. And while I LOVE mid-century design, some fans of MCM are total purists and believe that you should do everyyyyyyyything to maintain the original floors, fixtures, time-era pieces, only decorate with vintage items, etc.
…. And while we are absolutely doing that in many ways, but i don’t fully align with that standpoint. Because while I want to honor the history, I am also not afraid to update where we want to & buy modern pieces & exchange old lighting & make it ours. Truthfully? I don’t want it to feel like I’m living in a time capsule…. but I ALSO don’t want to cheapen or destroy the beautiful history and bones of this house. Essentially, I want to put emphasis on the MODERN in mid-century modern and find our own lil sweet spot :)
(As with most things in life), I am kind of throwing out the rule book in what I’m “supposed” to do and just following my gut :)
As we peel back layers and layers and layers of wallpaper, I’ll continue to update the blog with each room we update, so check back often for new before and afters!
the letter left by the previous owner’s family when we closed…. safe to say adam and I both got misty-eyed reading this. safe to say we both got a little misty-eyed reading this note. I mean.... wow. so special. 🥺🙏🏼🤍 because what they wrote honestly feels TRUE. Like you really can *feel* how special this place is & all the love absorbed in these walls ✨ can’t wait to experience the magic within these walls!
renovations & updates!
And these updates begin the moment we got the keys. Safe to say, we hit the ground running. We got so much done in the first few weeks I can’t even begin to describe.
(funny story— for our anniversary “gift” to each other this year we booked a lil couples photo shoot. We hadn’t had any photos taken since our wedding day so we booked it a few months prior just to capture this season of life in general, annnnnnd the photoshoot ended up being THE DAY we closed so we took some photos in our empty, new house and it was SUCH a fun way to celebrate our new house & capture this new chapter. The photos were taken by peach & honey and are scattered throughout this blog post! It feels SO special to have photos from the *exact* day we closed!)
Photoshoots aside (ha!), we were ready to GET TO WORK and do a few big projects right away. We decided to focus our time, energy, and budget on the upstairs of the house. This is where we spend the majority of our time, and we will save and budget for the lower level for future projects! I am really happy we did it this way because the first floor is already feeling SO refreshed & new & “us” & RIGHT. We didn’t try to do the whole house & half-ass it all, instead, we chose a few rooms and put a LOT of intention into them. They truly feel close to “done” in a lot of ways & it feels SO good to have our main living area mostly complete as we make it feel like HOME.
This seems like an important time to say, the reason all these renovations were possible (and so dang affordable) is because of a few key people. My dad (who is Mr. Fix It and can do ANYTHING) was the absolute MVP-- without him these projects would be sooooo expensive. He came over every day with his unique, uplifting Tommy energy, ready to work, optimistic, and DID SO MUCH.
Not to mention, my grandpa Ron, who was also an electrician and painter by trade, so he was at the house with us a lot as well painting, taping, replacing lights, rewiring outlets, etc. (he is 85 years old and showed up every day ready to WORK-- putting in flooring, climbing ladders, painting near the ceiling… I am so impressed & hoping I get his aging genes because he works harder than most 40 year olds I know!!!! #GoGrandpaGo! ).
With the two of them, my mom, my brother and his family, and me & Adam, we got to WORK. Removing wallpaper, putting down floors, painting, switching out lighting...just getting those initial “big” things DONE. It felt like a fresh start-- a blank slate in which we could choose how to intentionally design & build upon moving forward.
Now that the paint, floor, and lighting are out of the way, we’re in more of the intentional design phase….
my EIGHTY-FIVE year old Grandpa Ron came to help out every single day for the first few weeks. As if I didn’t already know he was in great shape for his age, this house proved it! Truly, one of the hardest workers I know!
my approach to design in this house (a new mindset!)
The thing is, we are shopping for & decorating this house quite different than anywhere else we’ve ever lived. In all of our other homes, we have solely re-used old furniture, bought stuff from craigslist, and repurposed stuff from college and childhood. But now that we’ve found our long-term home we want to invest more intentionally in pieces we love.
Tbh? It feels kind of weird! Like, I’m a true adult or something shopping around for a bed frame??!?!?! hahahah
I’ve always prided myself on being a bargain hunter & still am getting a lot of stuff from craigslist, but I ALSO see the value in buying something of high quality ONCE that you will use & love for years & years & years and are head-over-heels obsessed with. It’s been SO fun intentionally picking out & investing in our home’s decor, furniture, etc. and picking out the piece that is juuuuust right :)
Thankfully, we’ve actually been waiting and planning for this! For the past few years I’ve been saving in Qapital (my fav money app) for decor and renovation for our future home. We knew we would likely buy a bit of a fixer-upper so I wanted to go into our future house with money intentionally set aside to cover that initial bolus of renovations, decor, etc. I am very thankful we had that foresight, because having that money set aside allowed us to move in, make big changes, and buy pieces we really loved right away and pay cash.
Most of the pieces in our home are a mix of vintage, pieces from small businesses, Etsy, thrift shops, Craigslist, facebook marketplace, etc. AND stores like CB2, anthropologie, lulu & georgia, urban outfitters, etc. In each room we bought 1 or 2 pieces that were true investment pieces that we thought were statements that made the room. These pieces are definitely investments in every way—it’s more than I’ve ever spent on furniture—but we wanted to invest in the things we wanted and keep the rest affordably! It’s a total blend of new & used, small business & big box that feels really nice to me :)
My approach? With home decor I like to buy one or two unique & bold statement pieces (like a rug, coffee table, or bed frame) per room. These are often quite expensive, but I try to keep the rest of the decor affordable by picking up inexpensive curtains, picture frames, homemade art, thrifted mirrors, etc. When you invest in ONE piece that you LOVE, it makes the room feel exciting and put together and you can build the rest off that one piece.
A list of the before & afters!
So with all that being said, we can dive into the before and afters (don’t forget to check back as I add more from additional rooms!):
thankful thankful thankful
You guys have truly been SO supportive & engaged in this new home process & I just wanted to say thank ya. We cannot even describe how lucky & thankful & giddy & honored we are to be the new owners of this little unicorn of a house!
Upon walking into the house for the first time, adam and I both just felt such a deep peace & mmmm that deep-soul-feeling that this is 10000% RIGHT.
—which is hilarious because just a few months ago we signed a brand new lease on a rental that we would “stay in for a little while”... “probably a year or two”.... “just until we found THEE house”.......annnd welp! 6 months later, here we are! THEE house had arrived & somehow we LIVE here?!
Life is WILD & beautiful & unexpected & perfect & we are just happy to be along for the ride! the way life unfolds is truly magic. Because finding this home didn’t happen how we expected it to— but it happened *exactly* as it was meant to.✨ I truly believe that.
Soooooo, all of that to say.... it is SO nice to meet you, lil home. Can’t wait to experience the magic within these walls…. let the adventure begin!