a tribute to our first home

h
Aug 1, 2017
2 min read

we've been in our first home for two years, and today we get the keys to our second. this home that we've built together has grown with us, and now we have grown out of it. it has been a symbol of young adulthood, domesticity, and stability. this home bookended our chapters as separate individuals, and as kids, really. it was here that we first started paying rent with our own money, and not with our student loans. we've had so many personal wins and losses that we've weathered together, celebrating and mourning in this 900 square feet we got to call our own.

it was where i steadily cultivated a love of cooking, and tried new things. this home has seen more family visits and friend visits than i ever imagined. i've made dinner with those friends and family, and alex and i discovered a love for lounging at home that i always hoped i would have with my person. alex has rearranged and redecorated more times than i can count, in true donnelly family fashion. we have made so many cups of coffee in this house - we cultivated a love of the ritual, buying all sorts of coffee accoutrements.

we have replaced and purged so many things that we used to have for each of our old apartments, and slowly but surely even the small details became symbols of this home that we built together. this is the place we got to bring little lu into, where she became such a big part of our little world.

when we first moved in, we had no couch. only armchairs. we had no television. our living room looked more like a waiting room. after four months without a television, my parents gifted us a very nice one for christmas that first winter. after a few more months, a kind set designer friend of ours gave us a couch that they were desperate to get rid of. alex subsequently spent many hours on that couch when he was in the deep throes of a depressive state. he never loved that couch, but particularly after those months he had a deep hatred for it.

if someone were to ask me what my favorite memory of this house is, i don't think i could answer. what i can say for sure is that this home has been a haven. i feel really lucky to say that. after days both good and bad, i have looked forward to coming back to this place we made. it doesn't perfectly represent us, but it was a stellar first try. and, already, i can't wait to see what we create with our new home. here are some small moments we want to remember from this home, and later i'll post an update about how our new place is coming along.

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