We are in our eighth rental, in as much as 13 years. Dotted in the middle is a brief time in our own home. Now we're back to rental...
Something I've been thinking of lately, or whenever I have "I want to go buy a house tomorrow morning" cravings (which is often), is:
Is your house a home, or have you had houses for your home?
Isn't this house beautiful? I have daydreams about this...
It is so easy to decorate the physical area (house) we occupy with new things every time we move. Too easy. (Even though in this economic (and green) climate, that seems wasteful and unwise.)
Some pieces we buy from trends. Some pieces remind us of some nostalgia. Some pieces are core to our personality and tastes.
This is how I'd design my house too, living spaces around a courtyard.
Through my 13 years of independent living in Australia, I've curated some pieces which I know will remain with me for a very long time. Others I have and will let go in a hurry.
But I'm so aware that while I strive to make every rental we live in a reflection of our home, it is painfully obvious that this isn't my house. But these temporary perches for my family have always been undoubtedly my home.
I look around the few rooms here and it is filled with pieces of furniture that I've either worked hard to get or serendipitously found in garage sales, and things that I've lovingly curated over the years... My expensive-to-me large white china dresser... my $50 hall/dining table... my other $49 provincial-style hall table... my $50 vintage faux bamboo/regency desk, my $650 vintage faux bamboo/regency dining suite... (and more).
Not to mention the hundreds of little bits and pieces.
And I have found that the pieces that resonate with you most are the ones you HAVE TO drag around with you to various houses. These essentials are part of your "home" and they allow you to create "home" in any "house".
Such a simple, but stunning driveway.
So although I long so much to live in our own house again, at least, I have things around me that make up my home.
4 comments:
I really miss owning our own house. I miss painting the walls a bright yellow if I feel like it. I REALLY miss planting flowers and digging in the dirt in the yard. Having a private porch to sit on in the summer evenings. I also really want a garden. Rental living just doesn't give you all of that! We plan to wait a few more years before we buy a home. It will be an exiting time!
Hi jessie :) So appreciative of your constant companionship (blogwise!).
Yes, I miss being able to plant trees! In this rental, I've strived to make it a little better without spending much money... but it's still hard when when I cannot surround myself with two many large-pot plants.
Yes I'm dying to put some happy yellow paint to walls.
I can't wait that "few more years"... blah.
Shortest stint of homeownership 2.5 years. don't really miss homeownership. Beauty of renting, if anything goes wrong it is someone else's problem. :o)
-adeline
Hello
Home for house or house for home..
I loved this blog post, You are very talented & This website is really worth to be checking
Thank You
Post a Comment