#178: Settling Into The New House: Expectation Vs. Reality

We have been in our new house for one whole month, and there are certainly some things that are shaping up differently than we had pictured. So today we are sharing why some house projects have been easier than expected, but getting settled in a few other ways took some turns we did not anticipate. We are also diving into the history of three popular and persistent design trends – like the true origins of subway tile and why the fiddle-leaf fig is not a recent phenomenon. Plus, a curtain hack that Sherry secretly tested out for an whole year, and what happens when Alexa commands get lost in translation.

You can also find this episode on your go-to podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.

What is New

• We talked about how we have been pleasantly surprised how swiftly furniture has fallen into place here, some of which you can see in last week’s post about our downstairs kitchen area. We are planning to do a similar post about how things have shaken out so far in our upstairs living room this week!

Updates

• I am reposting this map from Episode #175 where we talked about how we now live in the Central Time zone. We still get messages EVERY SINGLE WEEK that are like “Wait, are you sure you are not in Eastern Time? How can Florida be central it is on the East coast?!” We are 100% sure. The panhandle is especially wide and it crosses over into Central Time.
• Here is the full clip of Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen’s debating between Florida and Virginia in this question from a recent episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

The Story Behind Some Popular Design Trends

• Here is the article that spawned our discussion around “persistent” design trends like subway tile, fiddle leaf figs, and rattan. It also has some interesting stories about the popularity of kitchen islands, string lights, and macramé.
• I also referenced a couple of other articles, like this one with more details about fiddle leaf figs and this one with more info on subway tile.

• And here is that episode from last year with Carmeon Hamilton (appropriately entitled: “The Episode That Turned Me Into A Plant Lady“) where we talked about all of her best plant parenting pointers. It truly is the turning point where Sherry began bringing home a lot more real plants.

We are Digging

• You can see in the photo above what our curtain rods looked like with the finials took out (you can also spot them throughout our final, furnished video tour).
• And, for reference, here is what they look like with the ball finials re-attached before we moved. It is a subtle difference in photos, but it certainly made our existing rods look a bit more modern in person when they were off.

• Here are the curtain rods we have picked up for our new house (#1 below). Along with some other options that have what we’d call “minimal finials” (these all come in a variety of finishes)

• Lastly, here is the Piñatagram page where you can send someone a small candy-filled piñata through the mail – and it arrives simply like this! Not in a box or anything. My mom and Godmother both enjoyed them.

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we have recommended on our Book Club page.

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