Finally here to share Brooks' birth story! It's hard to believe this was 2 months ago already. Time is flying by, and I cannot believe how big my precious baby has grown in such a short time. Giving birth was the most miraculous, yet difficult experience of my life. It was not at all what I had expected!

We had an unusual travel year, where we traveled to the same places multiple times, and didn't venture on any other trips, except for our baby moon to California. As such, we only hit about 30 coffee shops this year--down from probably around 75 last year! That said, we have a STRONG list of bonafide coffee shops for those local, and those traveling, too. This was also the year we hit our 200th coffee shop! Ironically, it was a mere week or two before having Brooks and we haven't gotten to add more to the list yet. Excited to do so in 2022!

Initially, I thought I would be blogging during my entire pregnancy. Somehow, the time managed to fly by as we were pre-occupied with getting ready for baby, maintaining our jobs, getting prepared for a few weeks off of work, and tackling the cabin project. Today, I am sharing a brief overview of all three trimesters, in addition to the moment (with video!) that I told Ty that I'm pregnant (what I know you are all really here for!), and us finding out the gender!

Merry Christmas all! We have been receiving a lot of questions as to the overall design "theme" of the new home we are building. You have seen us do several design schemes from Mid Century Modern (Ada flip), to coastal cottage (Holland flip), to Floridian beach house (30a project), and more. I had a hard time selecting a theme for the new build...we could do anything and are not limited to any existing design elements! That freedom to design is beyond exciting; yet, it does make it difficult to hone in one particular aesthetic.

We drove down to Georgia to decorate this cabin in a period of about ten days....and what a crazy ten days it was! At just under 2,400 square feet, and with 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, the process of getting the cabin entirely outfitted in such a short time was no easy task (and with all of the furniture delays, no less). Thankfully, we had some help from family who drove down and to unload the moving truck, build furniture, and all sorts of things. At 6 months pregnant, I was so grateful to have some extra hands!

FINALLY! We are so excited to share "what's next" for Hannah Tyler Home! We are officially moving...house #6 in 6 years of marriage. After many renovations, we will be switching gears and tackling new construction, building our next home from the ground up! Today, we're sharing (both here and on the podcast) why we are building instead of renovating, where we are building, and our plans for the Lake Macatawa cottage (which we are currently living in!)

As you know, we are very intentional about consumption and would loosely define ourselves as "minimalists" (I say "loosely" as minimalism is very relative!) The ever-growing baby shopping list definitely overwhelmed us. We did a ton of research to find out what we really need and what we don't. As first time parents, it's impossible to know. I'm sure we over-bought some things and will be Amazon prime-ing some things we should have purchased!

The first cabin room reveal is here!! We are starting with one of the coziest rooms in the house, the main floor primary bedroom. In the short time we have been at the cabin, this room has already welcome a few guests including my brother, parents, and some friends, all who came to help put this place together. Having ample room to host was such a joy. Our guests loved this space, and we think you will, too! We went with a whimsical camp theme and had so much adorning this space with both old and new pieces.

FINALLY we get to share our next project with you all!!! This has been a long, long time coming. Maybe not this cabin in particular, but our very first dedicated short term rental! This cabin, located 30 minutes outside of Chattanooga, TN is going to be a short term rental that we will use periodically! We published a podcast all about it here. In the podcast, we are sharing why we decided to transition from long term rentals to short term rentals, why we landed on this particular area of the country, and our many plans for this home! Oh, and It is actually already available to rent!

SOLD! It's hard to believe that this project is finished! This home, located in East Grand Rapids, had a lot of original charm but needed a complete overhaul. We designed the house striving to embrace the original era of the home, all the while modernizing it and bringing it up to date. This project took about 6 months to complete from purchase to sale. We worked with partners on this home and had an absolute blast. Read more about that here! We were grateful to have accepted an over asking offer, and can't wait for the new family who is going to call this place home!

How does one decorate and furnish an entire beach house in only a week? And maybe more challenging...how to fit it all into one blog post!? This project was a literal whirlwind! Long story short (seriously - there's a long, crazy story of how our close friends happened upon this house. It all started 10 years ago when my husband met this couple at a clothing store in Seaside, FL. Then 2 months ago, the four of us spent a weekend visiting this neighborhood...a bunch of other crazy circumstances, and we found ourselves "speed-decorating" this house just a few weeks later. We will have to share the whole story in a podcast!). Keith and Jen, our close friends, closed on this home one day before we arrived in Florida (30a area). From purchase to closing, we spent hours creating design boards for each room, sourcing furniture online, and sending links via text/email everyday. We had just over one week to get this place ready for Airbnb renters. We shipped as much as we could, scheduling delivery the week after closing. We spent the first weekend designing, planning, shopping, managing deliveries, and gathering furniture and decor. We filled the SUV to the brim MANY times (see photos below) to and from Target, World Market, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and local shops. Painters arrived and painted the entire home Mon-Thurs. The following weekend, we built furniture, mounted TVs, hung artwork, and accessorized every nook and cranny of this beautiful Floridian home.

This post is long overdue! We have an affinity for shelving, and have incorporated shelving in each of our 5 kitchens. Shelving adds character to a kitchen and offers a space to display pretty dishes, plants, and even artwork! It's one way to make a kitchen feel personal. We're excited to finally share all about our kitchen floating shelf DIY...including our first ever tutorial video! We built this shelf for $77 and could not be happier with it.

When we moved to the Holland lake house, we downsized from a king to a queen due to the size of the bedroom. At first, we didn't mind the switch...well, that feeling has worn off and we are itching to go back to a king! Hey, we tried! It's hard to downsize after the king life! We will have to replace our nightstands with a narrower version, but we have decided that a good night's sleep is more than worth it! We still have our king mattress from our previous home and are simply waiting to purchase a new bed!

In a year with an insane amount of unpredictability, one thing remained: we drank a lot of coffee. We compiled our top 10 list of best coffee shops in America for 2020. While we weren't able to "dine in" many of these establishments, we still accounted for the vibe in our scoring method. That said, as it should, the actual coffee took precedent! We did a majority of our travel this year in January and February with hopes of escaping winter. Thank goodness we did! Additionally, in the spirit of never double dipping, coffee shops listed in our 2019 and 2018 top 10 coffee shop posts have not been included.

HERE WE GO AGAIN!!! We closed on our next project, the #EGRBungalow in East Grand Rapids, and are so excited to restore every inch of this beauty. This flip is going to be totally different than anything we've done.....and here's why

Black Friday has arrived early this year at many places..including at West Elm! We were in the market for a new sofa for the living room. If you've been following along on instagram, you may remember that our new sofa was shipped with only half the legs....long story short, the legs never arrived (after 5 months) so we returned the sofa altogether. The defective sofa got picked up today, so we had to order one quickly as we are couch-less! We were relieved to learn that West Elm started Black Friday early!

Finally, we're sharing all of the details from our bathroom renovation! This room got a COMPLETE gut! We removed the paneling, the tub, the subfloor, and even the ceiling! This bathroom is quite narrow, so we had to get creative to we add interest and make the space feel larger!

I've been a cooking machine in this house...I can't figure out if it's the sun-filled kitchen, the new appliances, or simply the fact that we moved outside of the city. Since moving to Holland, we have been much less likely to go out for dinner or grab takeout. We have been embracing and loving this homebody life for the first time!

We'd always heard the fall colors in the northeast were unparalleled; especially in Vermont. We added this trip to our bucket list a few years back, and when the opportunity came, we jumped at it! We didn't have an abundant amount of time, so we had to be strategic in our planning of this road trip. The fall colors exceeded both of our expectations and made for an incredible fall foliage excursion out east!