We have been in this house of ours for 3 months now but we really don't have much to show for it. There is still a garage full of boxes to unpack, empty walls, main rooms without furniture (other than the children's play kitchen, etc.) - it rather looks like no one lives here. Yet our house is bursting at the seams with life! I envy those talented women who make a new house an inviting cozy home right when they first move in, seeing all the potential their new space has. That's just not me, no matter how hard I try. But if you happen to be or know someone like that - could you please come knock on our door?
The movers commented as they moved us in, "You really only have children's furniture, don't you?" Yep, it's true. I have always focused on my little ones' things because it just seemed easier to me. I love all of the beautiful Waldorf kindergarten inspired child sized furniture.We honestly never have had a lot of "real" furniture except for a few hand-me-downs. I might be too picky for my own good. I have a love for vintage furniture and things with history so I tend to find mine at barn sales, thrift stores and occasionally antique shops (if priced right.) It's not very often that I find something that catches my eye or that I think is in our price range so I just wait, and wait until something does come along. Hence our living/family room without a couch. We had a somewhat decent couch and loveseat back in Oregon but our cats and dogs destroyed them so we left them behind. Now we have our beds or kitchen benches to sit on. Not so ideal for daily life. Now that I sit here and contemplate our seat less situation, I might need to make myself get past finding that perfect couch, especially with the prospect of friends traveling to visit us in the near future! Do any of you have any couch recommendations? Ikea?? I have no clue.
Since this house is much smaller than our home back in Oregon (which is a dream for me and I am so very thankful for), we have been donating a lot of our belongings. Things that we don't use, need or have space for. That always feels amazing. Clearing clutter clears my head! I think that in the past I have tried to make up for our lack of furniture with knickknacks and other things that just make our house look cluttered and are a pain to deal with when it comes to cleaning.
But back to that snail's pace progress I mentioned in the title. Kevin has begun hanging the shelves above my desk in our office space. He has been hanging about one a week and at that rate they should be done sometime in March. Once they are all up I can unbox my yarn, fabric and other crafty notions and clear this room up. But hanging these shelves has proven to be quite an endeavor with these drywall walls. Kevin had two (of four) of them up and something didn't seem right with the second one. Then Simpkin jumped up on it for a cat nap and it came crashing down. Thankfully she wasn't harmed at all. That brought about a needed break from the shelf hanging project. I felt badly for Kevin, as he is working so hard on this and really trying to help me out. He knows it's the little things like this that mean so much to me.
We are slowly but surely making progress in this little place of ours. One room, one shelf at a time. Who knows, maybe we'll have it looking like a home before it's time to pick up and move again!
