When Life Happens and Focuses Shift

Hi Everyone!

So Naomi and I have been doing a bit of traveling over the last couple of weeks, but we are home now and getting back into the swing of things.  We had a great time both visiting Chicago and spending time with friends and family in Southern Californa.  Ill be sharing a bit more about our Chicago trip soon, but today I wanted to do a bit of a deep dive into some of the conversations Naomi and I have been having lately.

Our trip to Southern California was absolutely amazing, and it sparked alot of unexpected conversations for us.  We went to celebrate the marriage of our close and dear friends, and although we’ve been down many many times (Naomi is from Southern California) for some reason this time it was especially hard to leave.  We felt like we were leaving a bit of our hearts behind.

We’ve always known that #thecottagebungalow was not our forever home, and we also knew that Sacramento would not be our permament location either.  We’ve talked for years about our long term plans for life after our kids graduate. We both really want to live near the beach one day, perhaps be a little closer to extended family, maybe do a stint in a city like New York, or possibly live somewhere international for a bit?! We basically arent ruling anything out.

This recent visit sparked some conversations we havent had in a long time and some we’ve had a bit more often.  About the fact that our oldest only has 2 more years until she graduates high school!  (I cant even bear the thought of that without pushing back tears, by the way.)  We talked about what that could mean for our family and for our life here in our home.  And we came to the conclusion that we wont be here as long as we originally intended, which means that our focus has shifted on what we want to do with our home as far as improvements moving forward. When we first purchased our bungalow the intention was to be here for at least 10 years.  We would be here through Bryanna graduating high school and potentially Michael as well.  We moved into this home with the intention to add on a third bedroom and second bathroom within that 10 year timeframe, and now we’ve decided not to do that.  Here’s why…

1, We plan to move shortly after Bryanna graduates high school…maybe not immediately, but we see the move happening within the first year of her graduating. That means the move will be in about 2 years.  At that point Michael will be heading into 8th grade. With that being said we know we realistically wont be able to financially swing an addition renovation within at timeframe.

2. We dont need it. Yes, we WANT another bathroom because sharing one with a teenage girl and tween boy isn’t the most fun situation, but we don’t actually need it.  And in terms of our bedroom, our current one is a good size, has HVAC and electrical tied in, and we’ve got plenty of storage as is.

3. We dont feel the need to invest in taking on an addition renovation if we arent going to live here long enough to actually enjoy it.

When we decided to take on downsized life we did so with the constant intent of keeping our needs in mind. We love our home as is and have found it provides us with more than enough of what we need to live a happy, healthy, joy-filled life within its walls.  Our focus is now shifting just a bit to that end.

So with all that said weve decided to really dedicate time and energy into how to make our house really work for us in its existing footprint.  The area most impacted by our new plans to move sooner than later is our bedroom and the bathroom.  I always treated our current bedroom as a temporary situation (as it was supposed to be) so I never wanted to put any real creative energy into it.  Never even wanted to paint the walls.  That’ll now change. The bedroom will be getting a makeover and Ill be putting some focused attention on making it a space that we really enjoy being in.

Now that we’ve made the decision not to add on a second bathroom, we absolutley need to focus on the one we have.  It just doesnt function well at all and there are some issues we have to address in there, so we’ve got to give it a major overhaul.  This will also help with any future plans we may have to sell, which we don’t plan to do anytime soon.  (We actually want to keep it as a rental property when we move.) But, having a much prettier and better functioning bathroom in the house has now moved to the top of the priority list.

All the other spaces in the house are just fine and will continue to get the attention they’ve been getting.  We’ve still go to install the new kitchen floors and tackle the laundry room, but those were always on the to do list.  We will also continue to focus on our outdoor spaces, garden, and landscape.

OK!  Phew! That was alot.  Thanks for sticking with me, if you made it all the way to the end.  I thought it was important to share this becuase it shows where we are in our lives and our homes right now.  It shows that in life plans change, priorities shift, and that’s totally ok.  Sometimes we gotta pivot and we are excited about the next phase of our lives.

Until next time friends…

Posted By: Shavonda Gardner · In: interiors, life, thecottagebungalow