This blog post, by far, is the most special post I’ve written… to date. When Max and I got engaged back in 2015, my dad said to us, “here’s your wedding budget… choose how you’d like to use it: buy a house, or have a big wedding”. Now, let me just preface this by saying, I know that everyone’s situation is different and that it is such a HUGE blessing that my dad had set money aside for my wedding, like this. After he gave us these choices, I thought to myself, “well… shoot, I’m a wedding photographer and, of course, I’ve always dreamt of having a gorgeous, Midwest wedding. How can I do BOTH!?”

I was determined to make it happen, so with the help of my mom, we did EVERYTHING possible to have the wedding I was hoping, for as affordable as possible. (That could be a whole other blog post, in of itself. If anyone is interested, let me know!) Let me tell you, wedding planning was one of the most stressful seasons of my life, but we made it happen and even had money left in the budget for our house! We moved into an apartment for our first year of marriage and saved up more, for when it was time to buy our house. I cannot thank my parents enough, for setting us up to be able to buy our first home!

I’m the type of person who knows fairly quickly what I want. We walked through two or three houses, before we walked into the house on Franklin Ave. Sometimes, you just know, and when I walked through that house I just KNEW. Our amazing realtor, Priscilla with Columbest Homes, gave us the most amazing idea of vaulting the ceilings and adding sky lights and I KNEW that the house could look so amazing. I cannot thank her enough for all of her help when we were buying, and renovating. She’s an incredible realtor! If you’re looking for a realtor check her out HERE. THIS LINK will take you to her instagram!

Here is what the kitchen looked like when we bought it:

The entire top half of the house was attic and there was no way we needed all of that attic space! Vaulting was the perfect way to make this house feel bigger. My husband, Max, is 6’4 and the house felt so small to him… he could touch the ceilings! Priscilla gave us the vision… then, one of my best friend’s dads (who is a contractor) helped us bring the vision TO LIFE. I knew that he did great work, but I didn’t fully know his talent until the project was finished. We had his help when we were in the buying process, too! He came through the house to confirm that our vision WAS possible! He also found another sky light, that we dropped down to bring more light into the guest bathroom! Just look at how incredible the whole process was:

Bobby really worked so hard on this project for us!! What I loved, too, is that he set us up to be able to do some of the smaller projects ourselves! I’m someone who LOVES learning how to DIY, so it was a blast that he helped set us up so that we could do the floors on our own… mostly! :) If you’re looking for a handyman, he does incredible work. You can find Bobby’s info HERE. “Better Homes Today” | Since 1984.

This house is SO special to us. We made amazing memories here! We bought a puppy, had friends/family come stay with us, started our family here, and even quarantined during the start of COVID-19 here. We had some amazing seasons, and some challenging seasons here! There’s nothing quite as special as your first home!!

I cannot wait for our next adventure and hope to share more details as they come! Looking forward to seeing what God has in store for our growing family.

Now, if you’re reading this blog post, and you know that I am a photographer, you’re probably wondering why I’m sharing our home renovation story on my photography website… Well, “it’s my blog and I can post what I want to, post what I want to… post what I want to!” (Ha! Name that song). LOL… In all seriousness, as a photographer, I knew that our kitchen would have gorgeous lighting for photos and I was so happy to be able to capture some amazing moments and memories for my clients/friends over the years!

Check them out:

Featured above:

Molly from What Molly Made

Brittany from The Paper Betty

Below are some of my favorite photos that we’ve had taken of us in our house! Jenna Greenawalt came down and captured our maternity photos in the house and I will cherish these photos FOREVER! Our first home, my first pregnancy, and our first global pandemic… they all happened in this home. Thank you so much, Jenna, for capturing this season for us!

It was SO hard saying goodbye and I definitely had a really good cry, nights before we had to move out! This blog post is going to be an amazing way to look back and remember how special it was to live on Franklin Avenue.

Some other incredible people that need recognition:

Chris Salih - Elmwood Custom Designs (He made our custom island + Floating Wood Shelves)
Ryan with ARC Handyman (He helped us finish our guest bathroom and created the closet in Roman’s nursery, giving us a walk in closet in the master!)
Jacqueline Brown - She designed Roman’s Nursery and is pictured above in the denim top! 10/10 recommend her for any interior design projects!

Last, but not least, the realtors who helped us sell our house: Craig + Sam Buehler from the Powell Buehler Group. They’re experts in the Uptown Westerville Area and we were BLOWN AWAY by the offers that came in. Not just that, the timing of our house overlapped with a vacation they had scheduled in Florida, but they kept working for us, even while on vacation!!! I cannot recommend their whole team enough!! Find their info HERE. (Craig + Sam pictured below).