The House Always Wins

That is the name of the book I started reading last week. Recently my dear Husband and I moved into our newly bought home. Its an old house, or trailer to be exact. I will be honest living in a trailer is not what I had in mind for our first home. However, our budget is tight and we were tired of renting. Plus everyone has to start somewhere! I thought to myself, the location is wonderful, the yard has potential. This will be a wonderful crafty test, I thought to myself! I will get to be so ingenious and crafty. I will finally get to put all those home decor mags I have to use. All those hours of watching HGTV saving for this very moment will finally all come together. I had one thing right. It was going to be a test. I got into the house. did a little of painting before the furniture moved in. After that pff any creativity seemed to go out the window. I partially blame life. Suddenly I had to get the kitchen unpacked so it was useable so we could eat. The idea of just having take out forever crossed my mind, but Dear Husband knocked that idea right out. Then the bedroom needed to resemble some order so we could find our clothes and sleep. Now I am battling with the office, and the craft room/ guest room.  We need an office set up so we can stop misplacing bills, so we can find where we laid that important receipt and the list goes on and on. you know what I mean! Never mind that Tax season is upon us and Dear Husband needs a work place, plus did I mention the paperwork we can't find! So yes I blame life and her ability to  not slow down therefore forcing us to conform!

Now that we are mostly settled(except for the office and guestroom/craft room of course) I have taken a look at our home and been trying to decide what I want to do with it. I would be flipping thru my magazines and standing in the middle of the rooms pondering on it. Nothing I could get nothing. I was a blank slate. Perhaps I am expecting to much. All along I have been envisioning my home like this:

  When in reality I have this(this is a picture for sure worthy of a before and after shot I am still working on the after part but soon I will get to that). I am all for dreaming big, but perhaps I am being a little over the top! Something just can not be reached. I mean if I want my home to look like a Country Victorian home I will have to move or completely rebuild the one I am in. Which sorta defeats the whole point of getting this place, which was to stay in budget!  But I want my home to be cute and beautiful and comfortable! So now what do I do? Well that is were Marni Jameson is here to save the day. I stumbled upon her by pure accident. I was in the library just perusing the isle in the home and art and craft section when the title of her book grabbed my attention. Then her writing sucked me fully in. First off I was happy to find I am not the only person who finds herself into this kind of predicament.  There are many of us out there who are afflicted! I discovered a problem I didn't know I had. The problem of "I like so many looks I don't have a look" I have a hard time committing to one look. Shoot half the time I am not sure what look I even want to go for. Am I Modern, Old World, Contemporary?? Its a little confusing. I am no professional that is for sure!
Well Marni hit it on the head. She said that there are three things for good home design:

• your home needs to function and absorb your lifestyle
• your home needs to reflect you-but beautifully
• your home needs to your haven, a calm port where you come to relax and recharge

That sounds simple enough. Oh but there is more don't you know? She then poses a question. What are you planning to do in your home? And be brutally honest. YIKES! I don't think I have seriously considered this thought. That really changes things about how I look at my house and what I was thinking of doing. Because lets be honest I am NOT going to become a Sculptor or musical composer like Mozart! However I do have other questions that come to mind.  Like Do we plan to have a lot of company? Are there going to be kids in the future? How big DO I REALLY WANT that craft room to be? How important is a craft room to me?  I like how Marni is thinking. She is not your average Home decorator interior writer, in my opinion. I am going to go back to reading now, I must learn what else she has to say. And in the mean time ponder on what exactly I am planning to do in my home. I will keep you posted on the progress of this.
Till next time,
Amanda
P.S. Heehee I think only a book lover could take a topic they want to talk about and turn it into a book review all at the same time!