Critter problems! That's what our local animal control guy called it when he rolled up at our house last Sunday. We've had our share of surprise issues {remember this and this} but this one really pushed me over the edge. I started feeling like I was in a fight with my house and the house was definitely winning {this where you insert my mother saying, welcome to home ownership while I try not to roll my eyes}.

So, I'm writing you today from a proudly "critter" free home, or so we hope. And in an effort to rectify my relationship with this roof over my head, I'd like to tell you the story of how I fell in love with it in the first place and why I continue to love the vision I see for it in the future.

{exterior of our house}

The style of our home is distinctly different than any of the other homes we saw in our search. In fact, it is very different than most homes in our area. While we live in the South, our home was built to be a traditional New England Saltbox style.

{image}

Upon moving in, we learned all sorts of things from our neighbors about the original owners.

Hailing from the North East, they wanted to recreate a house that was true to their roots. We've been told that the wife wanted to be historically accurate in her homage to a colonial style home; she chose paint colors to reflect that style and laid brick floors in most of the first floor- they even shipped in the cedar boards for the exterior of the home from Massachusetts.

While many aspects have change on the interior of the home, the bones remain the same. I can't help but feeling a sense of nostalgia as I decorate and garden in this place. Knowing the intention of past owners and the joy this place brought them makes me happy. And while I don't want to live in a literal interpretation of a colonial style home, I do want to try to preserve the original flavor of what they tried to achieve here.

I've recently read this book and would recommend it. I'm trying to become more educated about the colonial style and this was a good place to start.

I've also started collecting images that convey a sense of what I'd like to think of as "Colonial Chic" thanks Lauren. You can see a lot of those on my pinterest boards. Here are some examples:

love the windsor chairs

and portraits

Katy Elliot's blog is also an inspiration; she is living in a truly historic home in New England and has renovation/decoration stories galore.

So the story continues of a home, dearly loved. I'm there will be more surprises along the way, but this love story is to be continued...