Episode #110: One Year in Our Home With Jeremy Larson

Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast today my husband, Jeremy, is joining me for his first time as a podcast guest. It only took me one hundred episodes to convince him, but that’s OK. We’re recapping one year in our dream home, what we completed, what we struggled with and what we’re doing next. And we also have a pretty big pivot to share at the end. So I wanted to start off by asking you, now that we’ve lived here for one year, are you glad that we moved two times in six months in 2020?

Jeremy: I mean, I’m not glad we moved the first time, but this is the only way it could have happened.

Elsie: Right. So you’re glad we did.

Jeremy: I’m yeah. I’m, I’m happy we’re in this house. The last house. It kind of felt like I don’t know, I felt like we kind of knew it was a mistake in the back of our mind because, you know, we looked at a lot of houses for months and I don’t know, like we looked at that one. And I feel like we crossed it off our lists several times. And then I think that you just got tired of looking and we gave up and we just picked one and had worked before in the past. That’s how we bought the other house, our first house in Nashville.

Elsie: Well, I mean, it was a cute house. I think I kept coming back to it because it was like had such a cool exterior. But yeah, we like the first time we walked inside and I was like, no, I should have just stayed with that answer. Anyways, okay, but anything else about just like how it feels to be here for a year? Because this episode is we’re pretty much going to be talking the whole time about the good, the bad, all the things we got done. Sort of like a reflecting episode.

Jeremy: No, I think it’s been it’s been a good year. And the kids. They do seem to really like it, it’s they’ve already, I feel like they bonded a lot in this house. They, I don’t know, we’ve needed we needed some extra space. We’re not, you know, so cramped and everything. And so, yeah, I think it was it was definitely the right move.

Elsie: Ok, so in this episode, we’re going to recap what we did this year. But I do want to start off by just reminding everyone that when we moved into this house last August, we did not intend to remodel the house quickly. We picked it as a covid pivot because we were living — we had just moved to a home that we were planning to add a big addition to, and we decided an addition wasn’t a good idea. So what we looked for when we were shopping was something that we could sort of just like settle into and like renovate a little bit, you know, like paint and do stuff with Colin but not have contractors in our home all the time. So we kind of – our goal was a contractor-free during covid situation, which now perspective on how long covid would be, obviously has changed a lot this past year. And now it seems to be a little bit never-ending. But last year we had a lot more a different perspective. So anyway, we did complete two big projects, or maybe three this past year. But a lot of the projects we completed were small and that was intentional by design. And we’re really, really happy with what we got done. But there were definitely struggles. OK, so let’s talk about the big projects first. So the first big one and kind of the only big thing where we had contractors in our house was that we got the second story done with wood floors. So when we bought the house, it was carpet everywhere on the whole second story. And we got the whole thing replaced with wood floors. The carpet, it wasn’t that bad and we could have totally lived with it for a year or two. But the main reason was because,` in Jeremy’s studio where we’re recording right now, I will show you a picture. We haven’t posted the tour yet because we still have a few finishing details, but it’s basically done. And we wanted to do a 360 like every — all of the walls have bookshelves. We wanted to do bookshelves all the way around. And there’s really no good way to do that without removing the carpet. And so that was kind of the thing that put us over the edge. But I think in general, I also just felt like it would help us to settle faster and feel like just, I don’t know, a sense of like…it was one of the biggest things I want to change. So I’m glad that we changed it right away. It was really just a few weeks after we moved in. And yeah, definitely no regrets. I’m glad that we did it, but I wouldn’t have done it if it were a smaller team who I thought was going to take a long time. Like if it would have dragged on for a month, I definitely wouldn’t have done it in 2020. All right. So let’s talk about the exterior paint. So funny story. I had booked our exterior painter for our previous home when we first moved there. So I booked this guy named Lance, who owns a business in Louisville, Kentucky, called Classic Finishes. And I picked him because I wanted to try this Romabio mineral paint because I heard about it on John and Sherry’s Young House Love Has A Podcast. And they worked with Lance and they said he is an expert in this type of application. And I looked him up and saw that he was in Kentucky. And I like, you know, you Google like how far is like my house to there. And I realize it’s like four hours away, like, it’s a long way, but not horrible. So anyway, I reached out to him, I booked him, and then when we decided to move, he was like, very gracious and let me transfer my deposit and transfer the project. So anyway, he came here a few months after we moved in and painted our whole exterior with…it was our first time to try the Romabio mineral paint, which I was so thrilled with. I heard it lasts longer , I heard it’s better for the brick. And I definitely feel like this house was really asking for it and it was an instant upgrade. So are you glad we painted the house?

Jeremy: Yes.

Elsie: Right away?

Jeremy: Yes.

Elsie: I think it makes — it makes a pretty big difference in the front. Our neighbor said they liked it, which is always a good feeling because, you know, you’re always that’s like a nerve-racking thing. In our last home, I felt like — you remember our neighbor George? I felt like he maybe like didn’t approve of our house painting, but was also like, you know, a little bit awkward. But our neighbors here approved. So that was nice. And then really, like for me, the biggest difference is from the back, like when you’re in the pool area, back porch, all of that, it just like feels like such a better flow now because before it was a combo of brick and white parts. And now it all is the same so I really like that.

Jeremy: I can’t even actually remember…

Elsie: What it looked like?

Jeremy: No, I was just thinking about it, trying to remember what color the brick was.

Elsie: It was just like bright red 1990s brick and…yeah.

Jeremy: Yeah, I’m just so used to it already. I couldn’t picture it.

Elsie: That’s true. I mean, it has been almost the whole time we lived here. And a lot of people always ask, like, would you ever paint a house a different color? And the answer is like, definitely yes. But for this house, I just couldn’t really see it any other color besides white. And another thing kind of funny is that when we first got it and we were kind of showing our friends and stuff, a lot of people said it looks like the house from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which it doesn’t really, but it kind of has like the same, I guess, transom thing in the front. But anyways, that house is white. So I feel like after I saw the Fresh Prince house, I knew that it had to be white. Don’t think if he would have painted a dark color, the column-y front porch would have looked awkward or something?

Jeremy: Also, there’s a lot of trees around our house and it’s kind of hidden anyway. And so, yeah, like painting it a dark color with all the trees around it. I don’t know. I think the white helps you to actually, like, see the house.

Elsie: Yeah, I agree. I think it stands out and just really…it definitely like makes pop. We’ve been working on a DIY post about how to paint your house yourself with the Romabio mineral paint. So we are going to post that. The main hang up…there’s been several hang-ups. The supply chain has been messed up and he wanted to wait until like the supplies are actually available, which I think is smart. And then the other thing is, is that I got my house landscaped and we did a lot of stuff to it, but our hydrangea bushes just like kind of didn’t grow in this year. Like, I had the impression that they were going to be like big fluffy hydrangeas, like you see when you drive around. And I guess that takes a couple of years. So our landscaping still looks just OK, think over the next few years it’ll definitely get more lush and if it doesn’t, we’ll like add to it or whatever. But anyway, that is just my perfectionist talking. You guys know, I like to have kind of a small perfectionist, but there’s one in there so. Yeah. So we’ll post that one when we post it. But Lance is so cute and sweet and he was a wonderful painter to work with so I know he’ll write a great tutorial when it’s time. The last thing I wanna talk about is our office spaces. Because out of the whole house, there right now, there really is not a lot of rooms that I would say are done. They’re either they had their phase one or we made them good for now or we decided to just leave them how they are and do them later. But our offices, we really made them great. And we both work from home. So let’s talk a little bit about that. Like what it’s like working from home together with your spouse every day of your life. So we have both worked from home, most of our relationship. And like, first of all, I would say is like when people ask us, why do you need such a big home? My honest answer is like, no one needs such a big home. Like we know that we don’t need a big home. We live in a suburb. Homes are a little bit bigger suburbs than they are in the city. They just are. And whenever it was like time for our covid pivot to move, there was only two houses that sort of like fit our needs to tour. And we picked our favorite out of the two. So that’s how we ended up here. And we love the house. Like, I’m not putting it down in any way, but I will say that we didn’t pick it based on its size. It is a little bit bigger than what we really needed. And we, like, know that and we admit that. With that said, when you both work from home and our jobs do require workspaces, especially Jeremy’s job, like my job, I can if the kids aren’t home all day, I can work in like the dining room or the living room and like, I’m fine with that. But I do need, like, space for all my supplies and stuff like that.

Elsie: But Jeremy’s job with, like, music stuff, you know, he does some music production. He has his own sample library company now. So anyway, he has a music studio. And that is the sort of thing that in the past few homes has taken up a lot of square footage. So, yeah, it’s a big priority to us. And it made our house hunting a little bit more tricky. And another factor, I would say, is that this is just personal to us. But we are two introvert adults who work at home together full time. So it’s kind of nice for us that when we’re working during the day, we’re not — it definitely wouldn’t work out for us to work in the same room. And we need to have like a little bit of our own space and our own routines so we actually don’t have lunch together while we’re working. And we really do have our own workdays that are completely separate and as strange as that might sound it’s really healthy for us, and I think it’s one of the factors that makes our work from home situations like healthier and sustainable, because then when the workday is done, you know, we pick up our kids, we have our night together with our kids. And then after that, we have our TV time together and like our couple of time and having, like the separate zones, I think has been one of the healthiest possible things. What would you say about working from home? Like, how is how is it different in our life than other families?

Jeremy: Well, I’ve had a lot of different situations like, you know, studio situations since we’ve been together, including like separate buildings, you know, to work in. And I think that this is probably my favorite. I’m not doing as much on the production side anymore, so I don’t need very much space. In fact, like where we’re sitting right now recording this, it’s like in my — it’s my studio, but it was just going to be like the control room and there’s an attic space next to it that we were going to, you know, convert into like a real studio space, like, you know, soundproofing and stuff. And that’s kind of on pause right now because I don’t even know if I want any more space. I kind of like just being in this one room. You know, if I were still in a place where I would need to, like record drums and stuff and this wouldn’t really work out, but that just doesn’t happen very often.

Elsie: I think it’s good you’re giving it time to decide your needs. I mean, that’s one of the big things that we talk about with like the slow designing, you know, is just like not like our last home. We built a pretty large studio with three separate rooms before we moved in and then we moved out. Do you want to tell them what the next owners did with it?

Jeremy: Yeah, this was like the first time that we ever really put, like, put an investment into like you know, the build of the studio.

Elsie: The soundproofing…

Jeremy: Yeah.

Elsie: It was like three panels of glass between the rooms, like things like that. We tried to do it very proper studio.

Jeremy: Yeah. And it turned out great. And now it’s a laundry room.

Elsie: (laughs)

Jeremy: But yeah, in that last house, because of the floor plan, it was just really uneven, like it gave half the square footage in the entire house to me for my studio.

Elsie: To clairyf, when we sold the home, we found out later that the new owners made it into a laundry room, which obviously like, fits their needs, like the house had a laundry closet and like it was up in the main living space. Like, I didn’t like that either. And I get it. But it also, from our perspective, since we spent the money making the studio, it was like a slow tear going down our face, you know what I mean?

Jeremy: Yeah, but they don’t need a studio, so there’s no reason for them to, you know, to attempt to use that for anything other than what they need, which would probably be a laundry room. So that’s fine. But yeah, I mean, and you were willing when we moved in here to do the renovation on this connected attic room, but I don’t know, I just felt like uncertain about it, I just wanted to wait and just see if I could get by with just this one room.

Elsie: Yeah, really. Like, my office was kind of an awkward room too — both of ours are like we made these, like, awkwardly shaped, I guess, bedrooms, whatever they could be into offices. And mine had like a very jaggedy ’90s ceiling. It had little wet bar, because it was an in-law suite, we think previously. And that’s what made me want it for my office because I was like, I could put a coffee station here and some snacks for the kids. And anyway, I use my office seven days a week because during the workweek, obviously I’m working in there and then on the weekends my kids like to go in there and make art and watch TV. So it’s been a wonderful, wonderful, very useful, very loved space. And I’m glad that we went office first with this house because it really feels like after 2020 and like just everything we went through, just like giving ourselves a great place to work feels like a big priority.

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We also did a ton of small projects last year, so I’ll just like breeze through them really fast and our show notes will be very robust today. You can find those at abeautifulmess.com/podcast. So Collin and I worked on this house together for almost a year before he moved away this summer, and we did, especially the last, I had about two months before he moved. And I put every little thing on that list I possibly could like. We hung frames that didn’t have pictures in them yet. We hung, you know, like any little like hook I wanted to hang on the back of a door just like anything that I could think of. We did so many things every day and got so much done. So there’s a lot of, you know, like shelving and just like details that weren’t there before. Anyway, a few of my favorite small projects from our first year were the mini kitchen makeover, which we did the removable tile backsplash and the faux marble countertop, which I will link to both of those. So we think maybe that today our faux marble countertop might have gotten its very first stain. We’ll see if it comes out over the next couple of days. But after it’s been in for about six months, I’ll do an update on that post and share any kind of wear and tear. But overall, so far, it’s been great. We spent a lot of time and energy setting up our outdoor space just to make it feel like nice. When we first moved in, we had like kind of, would you say like kind of a bizarre mosquito problem? Like it was intense. (laughs)

Jeremy: Well, because the pool, I guess that mosquitoes breed like in like ponding water and there were little puddles of water everywhere after it would rain and everything.

Elsie: Our gutters were collecting water for a while just because they need to be cleaned out.

Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah. The mosquitoes were definitely a big problem.

Elsie: Yeah. So we took care of that. We put up a safety fence first thing and then overall we just like painted it and decorated it and try to make it feel fresh and nice. Our Valentines like, splurge gift to each other was this pizza oven that we’ve talked about a little bit. And that’s been super fun because now every Friday night we have pizza night and we’re learning, I feel like we finally this past week started getting on the level of like restaurant pizza. Maybe we’ll do a pizza episode someday.

Jeremy: And in case your dad’s listening, we should give him credit for fixing the grill that no plumber could fix. Yeah. So now we can grill there’s a grill next to the pizza oven. So, yeah, it’s like a fully functional space.

Elsie: Our grill was broken for like six months and my dad visited last week and he fixed it and it took two days. Thank you Dad. You’re the best, dad! I was so proud. And then yeah, we had a celebration of grilling food. We had a hot dog celebration. It was so wonderful. A couple more small projects. So our kids’ room is really cozy and magical. Our TV room, we painted it, it is definitely one of our favorite things about the house. And then our closets turned out really cool, like we did mini makeovers on our closets, kind of just like took the shelving that was there and made it a little bit better and added a little bit to it and painted them. And they are so cool. Do you love your closet?

Jeremy: Yeah.

Elsie: Jeremy has an awesome sweater collection, so he has like it all on a wall together now, so that’s really cool.

Jeremy: It’s been with covid, it’s just kind of a museum of clothes that I used to wear and someday I hope to wear again.

Elsie: (laughs) That’s true. Yeah. You know, we’ve been sort of trying to go on date nights again, and that is like an exciting new adventure. And yeah, any time we get dressed up right now, I feel like it’s definitely — feels different than it used to. It’s very exciting. So we kind of already talked about like what we got done in the house. A lot of it, you know, you’ve seen it like, you know, so the thing I want to talk about the I don’t think we’ve really even gotten into yet is like the crazy burnout thing that I got into this past year. And since you’re my husband, like, maybe you can add things to it and make sure my story is like authentic and honest. And so I’ll just tell it from my perspective. When we decided we were going to sell the house we had just moved into and moved to this house, we had to get it ready really fast. So we basically flipped it in like a month. It was really, really, really fast. Maybe it was like a month and a half. I still can’t believe we did it. And anyway, I think that the effect of that that I didn’t realize at the time, but I realized over this past year was that we came into this home already feeling like pretty burned out. And then I just like kept pushing and kept pushing while Collin was still working here. I had a kind of a moment where I realized that I needed a break, but I couldn’t take one, obviously, because, like, I wanted him to have his job security. And I was, like, worried about his daily schedule and keeping up the projects. So I just kept going and kept going through the like through the warning signs of a severe burnout. I kept pushing through it. And it did definitely finally catch up to me to the point where I started saying things like…for example, most of this past year, when I would think about like designing our kitchen or designing our bathroom, like main things, things that in the past would have been like, I could have talked about it for hours and the most exciting thing in the world, I just felt like I didn’t care at all. And I couldn’t even — I did — I didn’t even have any imagination for what those rooms could be someday. And it was like that for a long time. And I know it was like affecting Jeremy as well. And we really kind of didn’t know how to fix it at first.

Jeremy: If I’m being honest about it. I have — I’ve kind of had like a slow burnout feeling for like a few years because it’s just like the nature of…you have kind of two thoughts. And one is that like, you know, we have this beautiful house and I love being here. And, you know, I’m married to someone that’s making it incredible and has really, really good ideas and everything. But, you know, you’re kind of always there’s always a project. It felt like it was becoming more the normal, that it was just the house is full of projects and very seldom that it felt like anything was like finished — when the house was finished, we were moving out of it, know.

Elsie: Yeah. And that’s sort of like by design, too, because I know in our first home where we lived for five years, we did kind of finish it after three years. But then we had to keep inventing projects to do because, you know, Collin worked for me and I didn’t want to, like, let him down, you know, and I wanted to be consistent and give him his steady hours. So that’s why I would get into, like, building a dollhouse from scratch and like building two playhouses, you know, and things like that, like just…it kind of became like there’s unlimited time to do unlimited ideas. But the energy and the creative well, where it was coming from was getting very dry. And there are times when, like I’m a seven on the Enneagram, like I love projects. I have a pretty high aptitude for doing more than one thing at a time. But, you know, I think a combination of moving twice in a year and then it being 2020, our kids were home a lot for about a whole year and it changed our lives considerably. You know, just like, you know, we didn’t have…there’s certain little things, you know, like everyone I know experienced something. But, you know, we didn’t have our normal comforts to look forward to, like our weekend routine and a little family trip planned here and there and just like things like that. So anyway, it all kind of came to a head and like what’s really strange and bizarre was like the day before Collin told me he was moving. I told Jeremy if Collin ever left, I would take a year off. I was like, hell, I might take two years off. Like, I really was like, so done. And then the next day he told me he was moving and he was very professional and gave me like a long like ending period. So I had like almost two whole months of notice, which was amazing. And then so we crammed our projects and the whole time I was like, OK, I’m going to cram so that I can take a break. And ever since he left about a month ago now, I really feel like it’s like a different life we’re living like, do you feel it?

Jeremy: I do. And I also feel like, you know, Collin, he’s one of our really good friends. I think that well, I don’t know much about the Enneagram, you know, about all that stuff. But I. I’m assuming he’s a nine, right? Yeah. And I think that it’s — correct me if I’m wrong — it’s like a nine thing that you don’t want to, like, inconvenience people or have a confrontation or be in the way.

Elsie: They can be like, too nice at their own expense.

Jeremy: Yeah. And I think that. You know, him being that way and never — it’s like he basically it was almost like he lived with us for years and was always working on projects. And I think that there are probably times where everyone could sense that, you know, I was kind of over it and I just wanted, you know, I just wanted everything to stay the same for a while and not have rooms shifting, changing furniture gone, you know, and he was always so great about it. But I think that I think that it was becoming more and more obvious that. Yeah. Did I think that we were both kind of just wanting, you know, a break?

Elsie: That’s true. He was burned out, too, and I knew it and he knew it. But he wasn’t saying it. And I wasn’t saying, you know, we’re being professional and like, well, I always think, like with Collin, I think we said this in his episode, like six years is a really long time for someone in their 20s to keep the same job. So I always respected that about him and was honestly surprised and shocked that he stayed for that long. And we got so much done, you know, like amazing projects.

Jeremy: I think that I guess what I’m saying is, that it probably had to be exhausting and just difficult for him to be in someone’s house every day, you know, being the really kind and considerate person that he is, just like up in our space.

Elsie: Yeah. All right. Let’s just take a quick break.

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So yeah, I guess that’s all I want to say about the burnout. I was going to do a whole episode about it, but now I’m kind of glad that we did it because, like, I kind of I want to acknowledge it and like I do, I did want to talk about it, but I also like kind of don’t want to, like, dwell on it and dramatize it, like it was really bad. But now we have a plan. We are taking a break from major renovations. Maybe by the end of this year, I’ll start planning our next renovation and maybe it’ll even be next year before we start planning it. So we do have a big renovation, in our future still, but I feel like we have a long break ahead of that to just like refresh and get inspired. And I can already feel it. After a month of just like going on to this break, I feel a huge difference and sort of like a recharging happening. So I was wondering if we could each say the thing that were the most proud of and the thing that we’re the most excited about for the future. So I’ll say my most proud of first, my most proud of is definitely the arched shelf in the dining room because it was a problem-solving solution, because we had our stone shelf that the scale was off. And I just — I just didn’t love it. And so I thought for months about like, what can we do to this to make it feel good, and when we finally had this arched idea and then Collin built his first inset cabinets and we got the little counter installed, and the shelves, it just feels great. Like I love it now and I’m really proud of it. Is there anything you’re proud of or just like haven’t done anything you really love? What about your thing that you love the most about our house so far? What are you really happy with how it came out so far?

Jeremy: I think that the outdoor space is really, really nice. And I think that you and I both…there was like a Palm Springs trip we did like, you know, probably a decade ago now where we visited this house that had a really nice indoor to outdoor transition where, you know…

Elsie: I know exactly what you’re talking about, it was one of the Modernism Week houses.

Jeremy: Yeah. And it was one of the main things that. Definitely drew me to this house is all the doors that kind of opened up into the outdoor spaces that you could just, like, leave open. You know, now that we have a fence around the pool and everything. I’ve always really wanted that and, you know, repainting the surface out there by the pool and redoing the landscaping and everything and then just cleaning up the pool, you know, it was kind of neglected, you know, for a while. And now it’s looking really good. And it’s also something that was one of the most important things for the kids over the last year. They absolutely love swimming.

Elsie: It’s something that for our — so both our daughters are legally blind. And for our older daughter, it’s something that she’s found that she’s really, really good at. It’s kind of her first athletic thing that she’s really, really good at. And our swim teacher has been encouraging us to sign up for a swim team. And it’s just been like…

Jeremy: Nova like wants to be athletic. She really…well, I mean, she’s kind of interested in everything, to be honest.

Elsie: Yeah.

Jeremy: But she seems like she’s really like, she wants to play baseball and stuff. And I’ve tried and it’s like, it’s just not — I bought like a tee-ball set and honestly, like even that would be — it is kind of a struggle. But swimming, she’s good. And she, you know, her teacher has told us and told her that, like, she’s really just learned really fast and it’s been a confidence booster.

Elsie: It’s just like, it’s the first sport we found that she loves doing and that her disability holds her back in no ways, which is a wonderful feeling as a parent and wonderful feeling for her for a confidence booster. So, yeah, the pool has been amazing. I’m just really thankful. Yeah. That…I’m thankful for it every day. And the next question is, what are you most excited for? For future home projects? Mine is for sure the main bedroom. So our main bedroom is really large. It has a beautiful herringbone floor, like has great bones, but it has some very big like challenges still. And it just feels like a room that’s like big and bare and weird. And we put up a beautiful light fixture. But I really want to have the ceiling paneled or have — in some way have like beams or details added. And then there is this like ’90s window issue where we have to get someone to, like, frame and drywall it. But basically, we have like a regular window with a tiny window on top of it where it makes it like impossible to put curtains. And it’s just it’s like it just doesn’t need to be there. And I thought about — I’ll post a picture of it so you can just see how strange it is. But yeah, once that is fixed, then I’ll feel like we can either paint or wallpaper the room and it’ll truly be done. It’s just, you know, we’re just really like a few contractor sessions away from being able to complete it. So I’m hoping we can complete it by the end of the year. That would be amazing. And if not, whenever it’s done, I know that it’ll be so wonderful. But I’ll post pictures in the show notes of where it’s at right now so you can see, because I don’t show it a lot, because it’s in a really awkward phase. Anyway, what are you most excited for?

Jeremy: I think I’m most excited about just like using the house. And I think that entertaining is something that has always been something that we get pretty into. Elsie is a really good host and this house has a really good layout like we were talking about to host parties. And we just we just have been kind of here, you know, alone. And yeah, I’m very excited about that. Just having people over and having parties again.

Elsie: Yeah, me too. So we have one more big topic of discussion, and that is our big recent pivot. So actually, only like two days ago, we made a decision that is so unexpected I, I never would have expected it in a million years. (laughs) So I’ve been talking since we moved in about how we’re going to make this room with eight bunk beds where it’s like, you know, the beautiful Pinterest bunk bedroom and we can have parties and cousins and all of that, but we weren’t going to be able to do that. It’s kind of like the last priority on our remodel schedule. And we probably weren’t going to do it for several years and this past week Jeremy was shopping to try to find a new gym, you want to talk about a little bit about the struggles?

Jeremy: Yeah, you know, running is like a big part of my life. I usually run, like, five days a week. It’s just kind of become like a big part of my life. And I really, really enjoy it. And it helps me to unwind. And I used to, I guess it hasn’t really been since we were in Springfield, and we had like there was a hospital right across the street from our house that had a gym on the top floor that was always empty.

Elsie: Yeah, that was like the coolest perk ever is we had a gym we could walk to from our house. It was so cool.

Jeremy: Yeah. But I’m a really, really private person and I’ve tried since we moved away from Springfield to find, you know, other gyms to go to. And I kind of just phased it out of my life and just did running only. But I’ve wanted to rejoin a gym. But we looked at the, you know, the YMCA here in town. And it’s always like every parking space is taken. And I just know that in the gym, it’s going to be like people waiting on machines and like just really crowded. And whenever that would happen to other gyms that I’ve joined, I just usually end up like leaving and go run instead. So I just looked on Craigslist to see if, you know, if there was any gym equipment, you know, that that would work for us. Anyway, I just kind of got on a tangent, like looking up that stuff and we actually found some stuff that…

Elsie: Yeah, I think the light bulb moment was when he found like this like pretty nice set up that kind of had, like all of the weightlifting things he would normally use is like, you know, like the machines that you see at the gym, one of those for like a price that was way lower than I thought it would be. And then I was like, well, OK, where would we put it? Because it looked big. And then we started going through our house, like, really thinking about it. And then we had sort of this little like moment where he was like, I really think this would like be a solution. And I was like, OK, OK, we can do it in the bunk bedroom. And we just like we won’t even worry about the bunk bedroom right now. Maybe we’ll do it someday. But right now we decided we’re making a home gym and we’re going to make it, you know, nice. And we’re going to make it feel like a nice space that’s meant for only working out. I mean, and there, there was a room available for that. And yeah, it’s like it’s a solution to a problem that, you know, and just with the way that the pandemic is, like, I don’t know how we’ll feel a year from now, I have no idea anymore if we’ll feel like this, this was like an excessive move or that it was the best thing we could have done. But, you know, we’re just like taking it one day at a time, just like everyone else and doing the best we can one season at a time. OK, well, I’m excited. We will post some pictures when we get a little bit deeper into it and let us know if it’s something you’re interested in learning more about it or if you’re like…pass! So, yeah. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate every single one of you sharing the podcast in Instagram stories each week. It’s really encouraging for us to see those pop up. So please tag us if you share the podcast on Instagram, and great news, this is our last episode for Emma’s maternity leave. So we will be taking the next two weeks off and we will return after Labor Day to start our fall season. We have a lot of fun episodes planned for fall. Now is a great time for you to send us questions if you have either an episode request or a question that you want us to answer at the end. When we do listener questions, you can email us at Podcast@abeautifulmess.com or you can call our hotline and leave us a voicemail question. And that number is 417-893-0011. So we will be back in a few weeks.