How are you guys? Sorry for the crickets. It’s been a crazy week /  two weeks for sure. But we’re back. We made it *home* and now I’m not even sure where to begin… I mean, Colombia was amazing. We all danced, ate, celebrated, explored, and more. I’m really happy that my moms birthday trip, not only came together, but was also wildly successful.

My only complaint was the last part of our trip was spent on a tiny island. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have zero problems with tiny islands– some of the best places on earth are tiny islands, but it’s the getting to the tiny island part that sometimes gets to me. I know I’ve mentioned my (strange) reoccurring shingles thing here before. Well, I’ve mostly had it under control, I haven’t had it for months now. And I know full and well what triggers it. And even though travel can be straining on my body, everything that I can control, has been mostly under control in this past year. Until the boat. Ohhh the boat. I’m not completely terrified of boats– I just cannot handle too much rocking. I mean, maybe silly, but my preferred method of transportation is walking, haha.

Well, the boat was rough for me. Actually– getting to the island was fine. But the day before our flight home we went out on the boat again, and this time the winds were not in my favor. No matter how much I told myself to breath in and out and that everything would be fine, I could not stand the motion. Honestly, when it starts crazily rocking, I often think I’d rather capsize than continue as is. Maybe crazy, but I’d rather swim than rock. But we rocked. And my adrenaline went through the roof and my body lost it. (Sorry, I yelled at you, mom). And well, the next day I woke up with the crawling shingles pain again.

And while it sucked (and sucks) I’m just so very grateful I only experienced this on the vest last day of our eight month journey away. And so, I got on the plane and we flew back to Florida.



my suit you’re curious: top / bottom

It has (not surprisingly) rained every day since our return. But I expected this, since it’s actually rained every single day for the past two months here. And every note from home from friends and family has mentioned rain and storms. It hasn’t been has hot as I thought it would be though, which is nice. And with the exception of today (at the beach), I’ve been hermitting all week. My body just hurt too much. And moving all your personal items that have been stored away for a year back home with shingles pain? Well it’s no joke.

But I was right, Colombia was a good transition trip before coming home. It felt like a vacation party, and not just like life abroad. I would have cried had we left Mexico to come here, but the trip to Colombia softened it all– it was a great distraction. A great, busy, hot, fun, distraction.

I wont lie, I am slightly antsy with the weather here– I don’t do well with so much indoor time, but overall, I am enjoying being home much more than I expected I would. I’m not angry or sad… or really much of anything. I’m just home and doing my best to emotionally enjoy this moment and these stages in my life, no matter how my body physically feels.

On our return home, we were sad to find a bit of a messy overhaul of our home. I didn’t expect to come back to a place turned incredibly upside down. Even with a cleaning crew of three women coming after our last guests, it was still a shock. New stains on the couches, curtains, and rugs, things broken,  and random assortment of leftover items and trash everywhere. (Actually– an entire luggage worth of things left behind if you’re curious).

But at the end of the day, we know the reality is that we were naive to think people would be as neat and tidy as we are. We truly make sure to leave each home we stay in as we found it (with the exception of the sheets) when we leave a place. But that’s us. And we’ve learned that this is not the norm– because we’ve come home to a very messy house a few too many times for our liking.

But this last time we’ve encountered the most damage for sure. And more than anything, it’s been mostly just a let down for sure. Honestly, I don’t think we’ll be using airbnb again. Not to mention, airbnb never even paid us for our last guests– which is crazy to me. I shouldn’t have to hound a multi million (billion?) dollar company for payment. After a month and a half of non-payment, we had to work directly with the guest to get paid. So at the end of the day, we’ve decided it’s kind of silly for us to use a platform for security and insurance–  when the platform/company wont really give you either.

So outside of grocery shopping and todays beach trip we have spent everyday, day in and day out cleaning up our home. On the upside, no matter how many damaged things we came home to,  we still have a home to come back to. And we’ve learned some lessons for sure.

We had planned to renovate our home at some point anyway, so I think this just pushes us even more. I mean, we definitely didn’t plan to replace rugs and couches yet, but that’s life. Honestly, maybe crazy, but I might try to paint the giant floral couch– you know– give it an up-cycle makeover. Maybe a good idea? Maybe a horrible idea? I don’t know. But at this point theres not much to lose since the fabric is so stained (and now torn) anyway.

The first space we worked on was Marlowe’s room. I think it was definitely the hardest shock for her to come home and not find things how we left them. So we woke up the morning after our arrival to clean up and arrange her room. We moved her furniture around, moved her work desk corner space into her room, and we moved a new rug into her room— a rug I had purchased with an intent to put in a baby nursery– but the perfect combination of colors for her room too. So it works, for sure. We definitely want to try to reuse and make use of the things we have (or can make) before anything else.

A photo of our overgrown yard in need of love. Crazy, but I want to be like our yard, a jungle– overgrown, wild and reaching, but still providing fruit.

So yeah, we have a lot to do around here, to say the least. Between continuing to fix up our home, healing, finally meeting back up with friends, Alex starting work soon and more, life will keep moving.

If you’ve never lived in south florida in the summer, it’s a real trip. But I think as long as I can find a few moments of sunshine every few days or so, I should be able to handle it. I want to share more, because this post feels so unfinished, but my thoughts are unfinished now too. We left this house exactly eight months ago. We weren’t supposed to be home yet. And then we planned to come home with a baby. And now, with life taking its own course of action, here we are. Life is crazy, guys. But we are alive, mostly well, and reaching.

Have a great weekend, friends. Thank you for being here. I’ll be back soon.

 

ps. We’ve already moved a lot of our house around. I definitely plan to share our home renovation projects, but le the know if you want to see more of the little details too. 

pps. Sorry for the poor quality. I didn’t even bother to take out my camera this week. All iPhone photos here. And I’m still far behind in the world of an iPhone 6 😉

5 Comments

  1. sorry you had a bad air bnb experience! that’s so frustrating. and that people would leave your house in such a state. i get that accidents occasionally happen but if i broke something, i’d let the owners know.

  2. Mucha suerte Drea! Tiempo para renovarse.
    Marlowe siempre está feliz y eso me pone bien 🙂

    Quiero ver todos sus proyectos de renovación en el hogar!

    besos

  3. I’m so sorry you came home to your lovely home not as lovely as you left it! What a bummer. But that’s a great attitude to have – look forward to the new changes you’ll make to have it be more beautiful and you than ever! 🙂 I’d looove to see any and all tours / details / updates, etc. I absolutely love home design and your place is one of my favorites. All the best to you all in this new exciting chapter!

  4. Welcome home and sorry to hear about your negative experience with Airbnb and your guests — it is just beyond me how/why people wouldn’t leave your home as they found it! Amazing. I have heard nothing but good things about Airbnb’s support when things go wrong so I’m pretty shocked to hear this. I am sure if you reached out to them (esp on Twitter, I highly recommend doing this) they would set the matter straight right away. The last thing they want is for people to read about a bad experience.

  5. I’m so sorry your not feeling well and had to come home to your home, your private space to a mess. I’ll never understand people. Your health is more important right now, get healthy again than get into fixing your home up.

    Alene