GOODBYE 2020!!!!

photo by Sara Grayson

Before I sign off for a long weekend, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of you in this community who have supported me (personally and professionally) this year. 2020 has been one for the books – both good and bad. I can’t flip the bird at the entire year, since I did finally give birth to my second baby, completing our family and ending my seven year battle with infertility. A HUGE, HUGE milestone that I’ve almost swept under the rug because of the pandemic, post-partum depression, INSANITY of the world, etc. But I plan on doing something special for myself today to mark this big, happy occasion before the year is out.

We also bought what we think is our forever home, and sold our first real home – an emotional journey that marks a new chapter of life for us and closes a sweet, but complicated, one too. That house was the subject of both my books and was a labor of love from beginning to end, working on it with my dad and his firm to become the gem it is. And it’s going to some very lovely new owners that I could not be happier to pass it on to. But it IS hard to be leaving the place I brought both my babies home to – I’m very glad Emma’s first Christmas will be in this house before we say goodbye.

The renovation of our new house will bring lots of new blog content, possibly a third book, and a lot of joy to us as a family. Having so much more space, inside and out, is truly thrilling and we are so happy to be moving into what already seems like a very special neighborhood. I want to also say a big thank you to our contractors, Brookes & Hill, my painting team Adelfia Painters and our stone fabricators United Marble, for moving at a break neck pace to get us in by end of Jan. Many of you have commented on IG about how fast this is all moving, and it IS. I’m lucky to have such an awesome team in my corner. I can’t wait to show you more!

Oddly, the pandemic proved to be a boost to our business (our whole industry actually – real estate, construction, design – we’re all so busy it seems). As people recognize how important it is to have a home they LOVE and that functions, we’ve been inundated with new client requests. We are so excited to get to help so many more people this coming year with their homes! We’ll be wrapping up the biggest project we’ve ever done this year and really look forward to getting to photograph all the work we’ve done that we have yet to capture and share! With all of this news, it looks like we will be growing our team a bit and moving to a larger office as well. Why not just REALLY blow it out with life changes all at once, right? :). I’m so grateful to have such a talented, hard working team of people working with me day in and day out to make this business run and grow. I’m incredibly lucky.

But alongside all these exciting changes there has been an incredible amount of suffering and loss, and I want to say a HUGE thank you to all our first responders, doctors, nurses, essential workers, teachers and everyone else working to keep us healthy, safe and, hopefully, on the path to healing. The sacrifices these incredible people have made for our country is beyond measure. It’s hard to imagine life going back to normal, and that scares me, but I am going to try to hold out hope that this global crisis will someday soon be something of the past.  I hope that you and your families stay safe this holiday break, and that there is some peace in it for all of us. And that 2021 will bring us all relief and joy and the ability to be together again (mask bonfire, anyone??)

Thank you, I love you guys – and stay healthy,

XO,

Erin