Hannah Brown says the first year of marriage to Adam Woolard came with a seven-month detour: a renovation that pushed the couple out of their Nashville home. She said the project started as a mini redo and grew into something much larger, turning a newlywed year into a long stretch of temporary living.
“I will say, we recently just ripped out everything in our home, and going through a home renovation in the first year of marriage is probably not the easiest thing to do together,” Brown said. She added, “I thought we were doing a mini reno, but it just starts to snowball.”
Seven Months Away
Brown said, “Now we're out of our house for seven months.” The couple bought a 120-year-old home in Nashville, and the work grew beyond finishes and materials once mold turned up during the process. The move away from the house made the renovation a time issue as much as a design project, with people working inside while they were living elsewhere.
Brown described the experience as “really fun, but also stressful,” and called it “a big investment.” That combination matters because it turned what sounded like a manageable home update into a prolonged disruption in the middle of a new marriage, with the couple having to keep making decisions while not being able to settle into the home they bought.
Marriage and the House
“It's been great. I love being married,” Brown said, putting the renovation in the middle of a year she still describes positively. She also said there is “something more connecting about taking that covenant,” and that vows bring “a little bit more security” to the relationship.
Her read is blunt: the house project strained the year, but it did not define it. Brown said she is glad she is doing it with Woolard, and the disruption seems to have tested the relationship without breaking the rhythm of it.
Family Plans and Timing
Brown said she and Woolard have started the family-planning process, but “I want us to be a little settled before then.” That lines up with the renovation problem itself: they are still making the house usable, and they are not rushing the next big household change on top of it.
Brown also said she had surgery to correct a bicornuate septate uterus, which created a wall within her uterus and raised her risk of miscarriage. She said she was “very lucky to find that before we started” and hopes more women push for proper ultrasounds and imaging. For now, the practical takeaway is simple: the renovation was the immediate pressure point, and the bigger life decision is being held until the house and the marriage feel steadier.
