This Old House

our new 100 year old home 😢

Hi friends,

Can I share some fun news?

We bought our house. I’ve been letting the reality settle for a few months.

I literally can’t believe I’m saying that! It’s been our dream to buy here ever since we moved here in 2014, moved away to another state in 2019 and then another continent in 2020, and then decided to move back in 2022. lol

It’s a funny, serendipitous, lucky-as-hell story of how we went from renting our house to buying from the lovely lifelong Persian Parisian couple who turned expatriates and floated the idea to us offhand. Maybe I’ll tell it one day.

But this week’s note is all about…

This Old House. She doesn’t have a name but I feel like she should. Like a good old car. TBD. But for now, in honor of Bob Villa and all the episodes of This Old House I’ve watched with my dad, let’s nickname her that for now.

A few quick stats bc after you’re a Zillow fanatic house hunter, you become a pseudo real estate agent:

• Built in 1928

• 5 bd/2 ba

• Traditional style

• 1950 sq ft

• unfinished basement

• minimal yard

It’s a big (for where we live) old house with some recent bathroom and kitchen renovation but with plenty of charm. There have only been two prior owners of the house and both have showed so much love and care for the house and obviously put a lot of intention into the updates to maintain the old house feel while ensuring it was up to code. Truly, the first time we walked into the house to see it for the first time when we were considering renting (and it was the first house we looked at!!), I immediately had the warmest feeling. The house has good vibes. Again, reinforced by the then-owners 100% but also by the arched passageways, original hardwood floors, and great layout. The house flows so nicely for a busy family like ours.

And then, this is so weird but bear with me, the house has a loop! Ever since the first house we bought in Salt Lake City, we’ve realized that we always want to have a “loop” in our apartments or houses. Essentially, just a pathway for our kids to ride trikes, scooter, run, or chase each other through the house. We had it in our first Berkeley house (though that was indoor to outdoor but still a loop), SLC house, then in our Seoul apartment, and now, again, in this house. It’s a quirky thing to care about but weirdly awesome to have naturally in the space for our rambunctious sons. So there you go: the loop.

The house is also two stories. I think in the back of my mind I always hoped we’d return to a multi-story house—they’re so charming. Stairs can be tricky with kids but now that our family is getting older, I was really hoping we would find something that help us get more square footage going up rather than out. I think I’m also nostalgic for this gorgeous row house we stayed in in Copenhagen when we did our house exchange with a Danish family. It was essentially 4(!) floors and so, so cool.

Over the next few months I’ll share some stories about different rooms in our house and talk far too much about what they mean to me in an unnecessarily personal essay format. I know—I can’t wait either.