Remembering What Makes A Home Beautiful

Hi there!  I love going on vacation and coming back refreshed.  It's like hitting the reset button for me and I come back with a new appreciation for all my many blessings.  When I read this post by Seleta, I felt like she took the thoughts straight from my head and I wanted to share what those thoughts are.  Throughout our 9 month home search, I learned a lot.  With all the picture perfect houses all around us on Pinterest, Instagram, blogs, magazines it's really easy to feel the pressure to want the perfect house.  I am guilty of having thoughts of wanting the perfect Pinterest worthy home too, but I'm learning to let those thoughts go.

When we set out on our house hunt, I had a vision in my mind of us living out on a few acreages in a cute white house that I would design and decorate in a modern farmhouse style.  I feel like anything farmhouse is so idealized right now.  But in reality for us, with our jobs (which we are blessed to have) and other reasons which you can read about here, living farther out is just not for us.  So staying in our suburban neighborhood meant a different style of house for us.  And it bummed me out for a bit, but finding another home style I loved (a brick colonial) I felt excited and satisfied because everything else was right.  Sure, our new old home needs updating and long list of "to dos" and it's not a white house (although I think it is a great candidate to be a white painted brick colonial, but not sure our HOA would allow it :) but it's perfect for us.  Not only a classic, timeless style, but comfy and cozy and we've already had some great memories here this summer.

And one day when our kids are graduated and schools and jobs don't dictate where we live, maybe those home plans will come.  But if not, I'm okay with that too.  I really tried to chill this summer with major house projects and enjoy the time with my kids and we've had a really great summer!  There was a time when I would have hesitated to have people over until a certain project was done or the house was cleaned, but I let that go too.  We've had friends and family over this summer with things just as is and no one seemed to mind at all.  I know that those memories my kids will have are way more important then my kitchen looking picture perfect.

I find lately the people I enjoy following most on Instagram and who's blogs I read are those that share pictures of their family and the not so perfect house, but the beautiful life surrounding it.  I really enjoy seeing how people create a beautiful home on a budget or a DIY project.  Sure I still love looking at the really beautiful homes and getting ideas, but I try to remember that the most people don't have perfect looking homes.

This quote sums it up perfectly.  It's not the perfectly style home that makes it beautiful, but the love, joy and memories that fill it.

Happy Weekend!