When my husband and I decided to sell our house on rural, waterfront property in lieu of moving back into town, it would be the seventeenth permanent residence move since we were wed almost 35 years ago. The longest we lived at any residence was our second home, a turn of the century virtual money pit that we lovingly worked on for eleven years. We would have stayed there but a developer came in to put up high density housing across from us that despite a valid fight against it, the houses went up. We moved from our beloved home where our kids spent a good portion of their younger years. Next came the fours. We bought a house in a nice subdivision selling it four years later, bought our first house on waterfront property selling it four years later and bought the last house on waterfront property to again sell four years later.
The last two houses, both waterfront properties, were strange in many respects. Don't get me wrong as both were gorgeous location specific properties but neither were fully a house turned into a home. They really were pit stops. The second to the last house saw some of our collected paintings from a local artist hung, my various degrees and a couple of decorative pieces but not much more. The paintings, diplomas, family pictures and pretty much anything of the personal nature remained in storage in our last house. It was a home but it was missing the essence of us, what makes us tick and what is important to us as a family.
I've had a long standing tradition of making a knitted or crochet afghan customized to our home. Our last two homes were the only ones I have not made a custom afghan. My very much beloved books remained mainly is storage at our second last home with only a few out at our last. More importantly the copious amount of house plants dwindled to two at our last home. It was a home but it wasn't us!
It's funny how much of a difference a house can make. Within days of moving in to our new home last September, I was already finding spots to hang our paintings. They were hung a couple of weeks after moving in. I started hauling out my books and I do have an extensive collection, to once again be proudly displayed. They are like long lost friends. I still have a lot more books to unpack but it is nice to see them coming out of hiding. Then I started working on replenishing my houseplant collection. It felt wonderful to splurge on plants again! Herbs, geraniums and seed trays are lining both the wide windowsills in the games room. I have to say things are looking rather spiffy. I am working on repainting every room in the house before the end of May. Well, I likely won't repaint the pantry but everything else is fair game. So far, three rooms are repainted and the personal decorating touches are making their way out of storage. We did custom woodworking in the main bathroom and our friend is coming back to do custom woodworking in the kitchen, lower level bathroom and games room. I started a new afghan for this house which is almost the same colour as our freshly painted kitchen, a deep burgundy that was colour matched to our dinner plates. A couple of weeks ago I bought the yarn for a new afghan. It is very close to the kitchen colour, tying in nicely with my colour scheme for the house. All in all, within a six month period our new house has very quickly become a home!
We have a lot of plans for our new home. We bought a central vacuum and replacement garage door opener, both of which have yet to be installed. We still need to buy a solar tube for the main bathroom, kitchen garbage disposal and range hood. We'd like to replace the kitchen sinks and faucet as well and have talked of replacing the tile counter top with granite. Then there's trees to plant, new raised garden beds to put in, replacing the shed, replacing the fence and possibly decks. So, the projects are adding up. All in good time :)
Garden Gnome
©2006-2012
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