2012 House

As my most avid readers know, our story began in a house built in 1895.  A charming, Victorian, pink brink house.  We spent the first 8 years of our marriage there, restoring it and beginning our family.  When we outgrew it, reluctantly we moved.  Our new house was large and spacious!  And we'd moved forward a whole century, to 1999.  But it was almost entirely lacking in interest and character.  Well, we recently moved again.  This time we're in a smaller house than our last, bigger than the first, newer than the last and almost as charming as the first.  We like it a lot.  It suits us.  It's comfortable and fun and light and NEW.   But it's temporary.  We're going to build our dreamhouse soon.  This is just a jumping off point to OUR house. 

Moving sucks.  Packing takes FOREVER.  Trying to pack while taking care of three kids is maddening.  And then there's all the lifting and carrying and sneezing from the dust and trying to sort through stuff and decide if you really really need it or not and then giving up and just throwing it all in a box so you can ponder over it again as you UNpack it.  It takes over your life. 

Most definitely the best part about moving, though, is unpacking.  I totally LOVE unpacking.  Getting into a new house and deciding where everything will go, making order out of chaos, getting a fresh start with your drawers and cupboards...it's very very appealing to me.  I actually might, hypothetically, let someone help me pack, although the control freak in me would have a very hard time with it.  But I would be downright FURIOUS if someone tried to unpack my house for me.  It's just one of my favorite things.

The other best part about moving is re-decorating.  I didn't do much redecorating on our last move.  We did buy some new furniture since we went from one common area (a living room) to three (living room, family room, media room).  This time, Big Daddy told me I could keep the money we made from our garage sale for redecorating.  We didn't sell 1/10 of what we had.  I was very disappointed at how much stuff we ended up giving to good will or taking with us.  But I still got $420 out of it, and I have had a BLAST spending it! 

Back when we first got married, we were too poor to afford anything nice.  All our furniture was hand-me-downs and thrift sore finds.  Slowly we replaced all that junk, a thing at a time.  But the things we did buy didn't always speak to me.  I don't know if I was trying to please my husband by picking things I thought he would like or if I just didn't know what I liked.  But we ended up with a lot of grey and black and beige.  And I don't know if I was ever crazy about it, but I know I'm not now. Looking at my living room decor is just depressing. So moving offered me the chance at a fresh start.  The chance to find something I really really liked.  And I have!  I la-la-la-LOVE my new living room!

Tune in soon to see what I've found!