Who Says You Can't Go Home

I always struggle with the question, "Where are you from?" and settle with the shortest answer, "My parents live in Kutztown." The truth is, I spent the first half of my life in the lovely little town of Hellam, Pennsylvania where I had a really wonderful childhood. Unfortunately, we do not go back often as we should after moving away in 2001 and this weekend we made the trip to Hellam for the worst reason, a funeral of a dear family friend. This was my first funeral and I could not have been prepared for how profoundly it affected me, but it did remind me of where I come from and the people that made my childhood so happy.

Saying goodbye to a good friend

While in Hellam, I took the opportunity to show Andrew our old houses and reminisce about our past life. We stopped at my parent's first house on Market Street, which my parents bought right after having me and completely renovated while living in it for about 8 years.

Our house! 

It was white when we lived in it!

It was a long, sad day but so nice to see so many familiar faces. My family made a promise to get together with our friends we still love and care for so much soon, for a happier occasion. We went home with heavy hearts and spent the weekend in Philadelphia settling into the kitchen.

Almost back to normal! 

View from the kitchen

The finishing piece of our kitchen is the back splash, so we spent Saturday afternoon on Washington Avenue looking for backsplash tiles. I have been doing a lot of Pinteresting and really love the Arabesque tiles, so they were top of my priority list and we found them at Cava Tile!

I love these tiles so so much but they cost $32/sq ft and I just can't do that to our bank account right now. The blue color was really beautiful in real life but we were concerned with the size of them since our space is so small. We decided to continue the search at a seedy little tile store. It was like starting at a Bentley store and then following up at a used car lot. So sad.

dammmmmittt.

I was getting super depressed after the seedy tile store so we headed to a final store, Philly Marble and Tile, where we bought our floors. Again, I was disappointed with the selection, with the exception of the glass arabesque tiles I have posted numerous times.

I really love the size of these tiles but they only come in white and our kitchen is going to be way too bland to have a white backsplash. If they were a bit cheaper (they are $26/sq ft), I would consider them, but I think I need to continue looking at my options. I found some really beautiful Pinterest backsplashes in porcelain, so I am certain I can find something beautiful for a reasonable price!

I would love these tiles in a light blue!

This week we finally get water so this little kitchen will actually be functional. I had a full afternoon of cooking in it this weekend which was fantastic, but I ran up and down the stairs over 25 times to use the sink in the basement and I was over it.

Stay tuned for water and a trip to Chicago next weekend!