Around the House

Aaron painted our bedroom last weekend, and I love it. It was my birthday present, a bit delayed. It turned out better than I expected, and every time I walk past it, I say,”Wow, I love this so much.” This room is like an electric blanket now, warm and cozy. The color is SW Mulberry Silk. I got a little bit nervous about the color right beforehand, but it’s perfect. Everything matches in my room now, unintentionally. I don’t usually buy things to match other things. I buy with a vibe in mind (cozy, it must be cozy), but mostly just buy what I really like. In the end it all matches. 

When we walked thru the house the first time, we were blown away by the pantry. It’s huge! We tried to imagine what we would store in there, but it seemed like so much wasted space. The kitchen already had triple the cabinets we were accustomed to, and there are three storage closets throughout the house. Every bedroom has larger closets than we were used to and the garage is double in size. So much space! So we decided to turn it into an office/library/music room, which Luna has named The Parlor. I don’t have before pictures so just imagine a bright white room filled with lots of white wire shelves. I had so much fun putting all of our books on these shelves!

We removed the door, painted the ceiling, walls, and trim SW Waterloo, and replaced the light fixture. Aaron made and installed the shelves and built the desk with a friend. In spite of being the size of a small bedroom, the parlor doesn’t have even one electrical outlet so that’s still on our to-do list for this room (everything is powered by extension cords for now), along with buying a piano for the kids to learn. Aaron has all of his music recording equipment in here, and hopes to add sound panels to the walls (even though I hope he doesn’t because they’re ugly). This little room has given our family so much fun and enjoyment! I’ll cry if we ever move into a house that doesn’t have space for a parlor.

 There are a lot of things about our house that aren’t really my style. Everything is very white and light and bright which I like a lot, but it just isn’t me at all. I want warm, dark, close spaces, and would likely live in a hobbit hole if I could. I genuinely ask myself whether or not things would suit Bilbo Baggins’ house when I shop for my home. My style is somewhere between the Shire, Hogwarts, the library, my grandmother’s house, and Devol Kitchens with a dash of Studio Ghibli. But when we moved to this house, I realized that style preferences don’t matter as much as I always thought, and what I love most is privacy and space. This house is considered a small starter home, and it has a tiny backyard. But it’s double the sq footage of our old house and has a privacy fence. I didn’t realize how much of a difference those things would make to me. I feel like I can breathe easily. Things aren’t falling out of overstuffed closets and cabinets. No one can see directly into my back door when the curtains are open. And since it’s new, this house feels so clean and fresh whereas our old house had mold and weird smells. Sometimes we walk in from church or shopping and still faintly smell new paint and carpet  even though I’ve burned probably 47 grilled cheese sandwiches over the past year so you’d think this house would have a very different smell, haha. 

I still have a dream house on acreage living in my imagination! But I really love this imperfect, not my style, little house. And when we make changes here, like painting our bedroom, it feels like added joy or practicality vs a pinch of discontentment driving us to make the changes. The other day I was making cookie dough, Daphne was playing with her plushie babies on the floor nearby, the dog just stank to heaven from a recent run, Luna was putting an old Roger Whittaker vinyl on the record player, Aaron was playing a game on the PC in the parlor, the cat had been banished to the garage for eating a stick of butter off the counter, the table was covered in watercolor supplies, and the washing machine was losing its mind over a big blanket I crammed into it. I thought, “I never imagined this life for me.” I didn’t even know how to imagine this life in this giant to us, little house with this family I have. I had no idea what I was missing.

“That house was a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep, or storytelling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness.” J.R.R. Tolkien