Its been almost six years since we bought our little condo in Gardena, but it was time to move on. Joy and I purchased our condo a few months after we married in 2009. For the most part it was a great place for two people to grow together where we learned to live together, do chores together, cook together, and was the starting and ending point for our days.
It was really convenient for our early thirties as it was just the right location between both of our jobs, and gave us easy access to the South Bay Beaches, Santa Monica, Hollywood and Orange County for our running, hiking, and going out at night. At the same time it wasn’t necessarily a place we hung out much inside of.
What we did end up doing a lot of was cooking. It started off with really basic things like bacon and eggs which eventually evolved to more complicated things which required more and more equipment which filled the kitchen to the brim.
In 2013 we kicked up our cooking with an upgrade to our kitchen with Quartz counter tops, subway tiles, and of course the brand new appliances. I never knew how much i loved ice until it started producing itself, but eventually broke which took weeks to fix. The kitchen is probably the thing i’ll miss most about our little place. I joke that it was all to match the KitchenAid Stand Mixer we bought to make macraons with.
Two years ago it became Alice’s first home, and took on a new form as we learned how every corner of the house was a potential death trap to Alice as she first learned to roll, crawl, stumble to finally full on sprinting around all the furniture and corners of the house.
As Alice started to get more mobile it became apparent that our little place was beginning to feel more and more cramped. I know Alice wont remember much, but i hope that the pictures will be enough to bring back at least a feeling or two about what life was like for the first year and a half of her life.
