It was bittersweet to say goodbye to our apartment unit of two years. This was my longest stay due to lockdown, as we had made plans to find a house and move out in early 2020. Before this place, I was moving pretty often, and all of my belongings could fit into a few car trips. I had lived in 4 different locations and moved almost every 6-8months. Why did I move so often? I moved to the Bay area for graduate school in 2016, and it was a challenge at the time to find a place while factoring in the cost of rent, being able to cook in the kitchen, commute, roommate compatibility, and safety. I would spend more time at the library than back at my rented space, so my room was merely a place for me to sleep. As I graduated and landed a new job, each move gave me a place that felt a bit more comfortable – I didn’t have to park my car two blocks away, I didn’t have to sleep with earplugs, I had my own bathroom, and fortunately, I had a roommate to go out with for dinner together. It is a privilege to live in a safe neighborhood, and a luxury to be able to choose where you live, and I’d never take any of these moves for granted.
This move was such a stark difference from all of my previous ones, and I felt overwhelmingly mixed emotions. We have a place that we can start calling our own.
The house originally had popcorn ceilings, which tested positive for asbestos. E wanted to remove that layer, so this was the first project we got on right away. It took longer than we’d thought, and we were still putting on the dry compound right up through the move-in day.
The move-in day was hectic with E working on the ceilings at the house while I packed and move back at the apartment. We are so grateful that our families came to help, and we wouldn’t have been able to finish everything without them. We celebrated our first night at the new house by sleeping in the garage. What an experience and one that we’ll remember.
Physically settling in was easy. It meant unpacking our boxes and organizing our things, but mentally settling in took me a bit longer. I think when I was moving often during those years, the continual change and transition was something that I’ve gotten used to and was prepared for. I didn’t stay at a single place long enough to grow an attachment. When I think about how long we may live here, I felt oddly sentimental about all the places where I found bits and pieces of home. Places where I felt safe, comforted, familiar, and belong and those places were found in multiple spaces, locations, cities, countries, and even in new friendships.
It is a gradual process to furnish our space, one that I felt impatient about but had to keep reminding myself to take our time. Most of the existing furniture was acquired from previous roommates, so yes, it was exciting for us to slowly replace and assemble new ones that we handpicked.
With every new places, we are making new memories by exploring our neighborhood. E and I are able to incorporate morning walks into our daily routine. We would make trips to the local farmer’s market on the weekends to see what is in season. Our families would come to visit, and we even already celebrated a few birthdays here!
We want to say thank you to our friends who celebrated each step of the way with us. Game nights were something that we love to host, so we were happy to be able to have our friends over for dinner to celebrate. Thank you so much to our friends for the kind gifts and for thinking of us during this time.
If you were wondering, my vegetable plants grew very well last season. I lost many seedlings due to the move and the change in weather, but I had a big harvest of tomatoes and sunflower seeds. It is much windier and cooler here. My taller plants would get knocked over and the windburn was a new set of challenges. I am getting acquainted with the microclimates, and I’ll definitely share more about my garden another time.
The house is much more spacious than what we are both used to with lots of space for us to grow, and sometimes that extra space can feel empty. There is a corner that has not yet been furnished, a wall that is not yet touched up with paint, and the list goes on. We made last Christmas a memorable one with our very first real tree. We didn’t have one while living in the apartment. The smell of fresh pine needles filled the room and we finally got to hang our personal ornaments.
The personality of a home is usually in the photos and decorations. I’ve always had this perception that nailing and hanging something on the wall seem official and permanent. For now, most of our walls are pretty bare, but we’re working on it, and pictures and artwork will go up eventually. We did order packs of fairy lights to set the mood in the living room. 😊
In celebration of the Lunar New Year this year, I want to start incorporating traditions into our home, with lucky fruits and fresh flowers. In Vietnamese traditional, having a platter of fruits is lucky. The five fruits to include are cherimoya, figs, coconut, papaya, and mango because the homonymous phenomenon to set meaning in the fruits. The phrase “Cầu sung vừa đủ sài” means wishing to earn enough to spend and live in good condition. There are many other fruits that have auspicious symbolism like a box of mandarins (success), bananas (reunion), pomelo (good health and prosperity), and peach (hope for the future). Adding bright colors makes the space feel festive and joyful.
Every year, my parents would make Banh Tet or sticky rice cakes. This is my first time making them myself, so I am experimenting, actually. My mom later told me that I was supposed to boil the mung beans so that they would be soft and easy to shape. I’ll try it again next year!
Banh Tet is usually boiled in a large pot for hours and hours, often for the whole day. My parents still cook them that way, but a faster way to cook them now is with a pressure cooker.
We hope your home is filled with warmth and joy, and I would love to hear you share what makes your space feel like home. Our house is a work in progress and will be for some time, but it is a place we that can call home.
With warmth and love,
Huong
