Open House...

Ever since Justin and I first looked at our new home, one of the greatest proponents of our move (after my mother, who has been, by far, our biggest champion) has been my friend, Lauren. This could have something to do with the fact that we used to live about a mile and half from each other, and got to hang out all the time, until she moved with her husband to Evanston. When I told her we were looking in Roger's Park, she was thrilled at the prospect that we might be living close to each other once again, and when our short sale finally came through, she began eagerly lobbying to see our new place.

Generally speaking, I've been reluctant to let anyone see it until it's completed, since it's full of dust and our much patched and yet-to-be-painted walls look rather diseased, but today was Lauren's birthday, so I invited her to come hang out in our new dining room table while Justin and I worked on painting and cleaning. Though I would usually bake something to commemorate such an event, because I'd only been in town one night since returning from St. Louis, Justin and I picked up some treats from a bakery for Lauren's birthday, and proceeded to do our first entertaining in our new house.

It was low-key, and I worked on scrubbing old grease off the fronts of our kitchen cabinets while we talked, but it was nice to open our home to a friend who's been such a supporter of our move. We're both looking forward to having Lauren and Clarence over as guests more often in the future -- after all, we're back to being kinda-almost-sorta neighbors!