Home is where the hearth is.

Where did the last six months go? I guess between work, family visiting here, visiting family there, and lots of house projects, blogging has gone by the wayside.

Oh right, we bought a house!

That's right, Nick and I left our beloved-but-tiny apartment in Cambridge and went full 'burbs. We have grass. We have neighbors whose names we know. We have power tools. New experiences from the first month of #homeownership:

1. Day 3 of possessing the keys: In-laws arrive to help us refinish the entire first level of hardwood floors, a "fun project" we were foolish and optimistic enough to take on.
2. Day 3.5: We determine my primary utility in the floor sanding process is to make runs to Home Depot and Dunkin' Donuts.
3. Day 6: We call pros to finish the floor job.
4. Day 14/day 2 of waking up in the house (after aforementioned floor work was completed and we could actually move in): After running the shower for about five minutes and the winter water is still ice cold, I pronounce the hot water heater non-functional. Thankfully, Google brought us a swift solution for how to fix it. Can you even imagine owning a home before Google??

Since then we have painted almost every room and nearly identified what all the light switches do. It took me a little while to get used to the new setup, but as soon as I cleaned and unpacked the kitchen and cooked a proper meal (roast chicken), it felt like home.

At the end of March, my parents came to town. Though doors were still off hinges everywhere, the "guest room" consisted of a mattress and some stacked boxes for night stands, and pretty much every square inch of house was covered by painter's tape and tarps; the family (in standard form) was able to pull off a pretty spectacular dinner at home:

Cheese plate (on a housewarming gift, "Massa-cheese-tts," or "Chee-se-chusetts" as Nick likes to call it):

Mussels with garlic and white wine:

Steamed lobster pasta: (really no recipe besides lobster, garlic, white wine, heavy cream, butter, salt and pepper)

(Shells made an incredible lobster broth for future brown-butter lobster risotto)

...all made for one happy girl:

Homeownership is hard work, but it's been pretty awesome so far. Above all, we are incredibly grateful for all the support and help from friends and family who have helped feather the nest and warm the house.