I’m probably going to write each of these posts and state that this room was my favorite room in hindsight. (If you want to catch up on what these posts are about, start here first.) Of course the dining room was special to us for many reasons. We ate all of our meals here. I watched my boys go from their bouncer to their high chair and learn how to eat finger foods here. Our evening conversations where we would catch up on our day happened here. It is a sentimental spot for sure.  It became the home of one of my most prized craigslist finds – the $600 top and bottom hutch – a Kent Coffey Perspecta (similar) from the 60s – and of course my first statement lighting purchase, our Jonathan Adler chandelier (that we luckily got for a steal from one of Tom’s clients and actually wrote into our contract that we would be keeping). I don’t really have any regrets on this room. It was minimally decorated (team no-rug-under-tables), lived in, and well loved. (Side note. If you are a thrifter and want to have a little fun, check out chairish.com and whenever you come home with a great piece from a yard sale. You will blow your own mind.)

Here’s the original MLS listing from 2014 (and we saved that chandelier too – I might have a bit of a love for lighting). Back when this was basically a separate room. We took down the wall to the kitchen, widened the opening to the living room, and made the two windows into french doors to no where for about two years before we finally added a deck.

Pre-hutch. Bookcases as place holders. Nothing on the walls. French doors to about a 2 foot drop into our yard. Our oldest wasn’t even in a real high chair yet!

Here is the MLS listing photos from our sell in 2018.   The expandable dining table is a classic mid-century reproduction from West Elm, and the chairs are from an auction that my parents picked up in the 90s. Getting them upholstered for my Brooklyn apartment back in 2008 was my first big expense on furniture. The double doors on the left lead to the office, the french doors finally lead to a deck and the backyard. The prints are from either Korea or Japan that my grandfather picked up during the Korean War that I inherited from my grandmother. Fun fact, they were matted and framed in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, a few blocks from where I ended up living for about 7 years in my late 20s & early 30s!

Removing the chandelier to take with us to the new house.

And finally, the day we moved out (which classically took 4 more hours than expected because we thought we were “95%” packed). We literally had to go to home depot twice that day to buy more boxes, and had 4 movers filling up a shipping container. We were technically homeless for almost a week in between our sell and our buy so we had to store our belongings in the interim. It was our oldest sons 4th birthday and he woke up sick with Coxsackie virus (getting that upstate NY immune system ready, I guess?). Our shipping container ran out of room, and we had to actually throw stuff out last minute (things like a cooler and the food from our fridge, and some random home improvement stuff like paint cans from the basement). A great moving day memory for sure!!!

Even though that moving day and the empty house was my last view of this room, this is how I’ll really remember it:

I’m not crying, you’re crying.