No matter what stage of life you are in, anyone can relate to making your house a home. When I moved into my first apartment in college, I was so excited to have a place of my own. My roommates and I had the bare minimum but it was all ours and it was the best feeling of independence. Years later when my husband and I got our first apartment, we invested in our first pieces of furniture (some IKEA, some swap meet) but it was still all ours and while it didn’t have much design to it, the fact that we bought everything ourselves and it was the place where we could connect and start our lives together made it feel like our first home.
Fast forward to our first condo and what I remember there was not the furniture or the things we had inside but the memories of adopting our first dog from the previous owners and bringing our son home for the first time. Knowing we wanted to expand our family, we made the decision to upgrade to a bigger house in the same area. It was bittersweet leaving our first condo but we painstakingly put so much effort into making our new home feel like ours.
When we bought our home, we knew we were in it for the long haul and likely not planning to move again. Initially, we took some of the money from our condo sale and upgraded and freshened up the house to make it feel like our own. Any homeowner knows owning a home has its ups and downs. We all wish we could magically wave a wand and have the perfectly designed home but that’s just not the reality. Home ownership comes with constant projects and fixes but it’s what lies inside those four walls that matters the most. This is the home where my kids have grown up, where we have made lifelong friendships with neighbors, where we have had so many family holidays and events and created memories we can hold on to forever.
While the list of never ending projects may not go away, the way our home is run and the love within it is what really matters the most. Creating a warm, inviting place where we can enjoy our time and host our family and friends is so important. As we continue on this home improvement journey, I hope to never lose sight of what truly makes our house a home. I hope you will follow along as we not only share our home projects but explore other women in my life who have gifts and talents to transform their homes as well.