This is an advent series I’ve done each morning on these days leading up to Christmas. I’ve been featuring found photos from the past seventeen years that feature a favorite corner (and memory) in our home. Please check back on Christmas Eve for the final advent post and our annual holiday letter – and we wish you and yours a joyful season of celebration.
(twenty-three) February 2008 / March 2011. I’m cheating a little here by using two photos, but I’m running out of days. And how was I supposed to choose between these two? Earlier this month I referenced all these built-in spaces throughout the house – how they’ve provided space for projects and creativity even before the girls came along and claimed some of these spaces for themselves. So I wanted to choose and share photos from these window seats because they are so dear to me. It took a lot of hard work and time and money to convert this attic space into a living place for our girls – but more than that, it took a lot of nerve. There were so many challenges to figure out, so many details to pour over and resolve. The top of our house was in such poor condition when we bought it – the mansard roof and dormer, the flat roof, the masonry walls that leaned and let light in through the missing mortar. There was no stair, there were no windows. No plumbing, no insulation, no walls or floors or ceilings. There were dead pigeons and 130 years of grit and grime, and not a bit of this work was glamorous or fun or inexpensive. I doubt anyone with any knowledge of real estate or finances would have recommended that we move ahead, so we didn’t even bother to ask. We just went with our gut and did the work, and even if we don’t have a thing to show for it in the end, we have these two moments, and that is enough.
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