I’m back today with some ‘after’ pictures of our little old house. In the spirit of keeping things cheap thrifty, I decorated using mostly things I already had or hand-me-downs from others, or things I got from flea markets/yardsales/Goodwill. In fact, the only ‘new’ furniture we actually bought for the house was a small kitchen island I got at Walmart and refinished, a computer desk, and a small buffet I got at TJ Maxx. Everything else was a hand-me-down, or came from our old rooms in college and at our parents’ houses.
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| Our tiny back porch, aka, Ben’s room. |
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| After. We added ‘winders’! |
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| After. I don’t know how I talked Ben into letting me use a pink Shabby Chic shower curtain. With 2 boys in the house, its gotta go 🙁 |
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| After. Pssst, the only ‘new’ or ungifted things in this room are the curtains and the lamps. And that’s the original front door. Love! |
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| After. Psst, we dug our kitchen table out of an old, abandoned house and gave her a slap of paint and antique stain. |
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| After. Notice the ever-curious little bald guy eating a bookmark. |
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| After. Totally need to make this a family pic to match the ‘before’ pic. Also, please note our luxury pool. |
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| Landscaping a la cheap. Rocks from the mountain on our farm. |
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| By the way, THIS is what the wiring in our house looked like before. Looks a little sketchy, eh? |
So there it is, most of our ‘updated’ little old house. It’s totally not the Ritz, but it’s home. We’ve lived in this little old house for 2 1/2 years now. I laugh when I think about that, because I originally thought we’d be here a year and then we’d magically have enough money to build our dream house. Rookie. When we first moved in I was hestitant to spend any more money doing anything to the house because I had my eyes focused on building. I don’t know how many times I’d catch myself saying “I can’t wait until we build our house”. Or how many times I’d complain about the size of the house, or the age of the cabinets.
Level floors, new cabinets, and solid walls don’t make a home. A home is made by the people living in it and the attitudes they have about their situation. Sure, there are many days that I find myself wanting to hurry and build. But in reality, I know that one day Ben and I will look back on this time we spent in this little old house and say it was some of the best times of our lives. It’s where my great-grandparents started out as newlyweds and lived until the day they died. It’s where Ben and I began our new lives as husband and wife. It’s where we first brought PB home from the hospital. It’s where he’s learned to crawl and where he’s working on taking his first steps. This is priceless. No dream home can ever give me this.
This is my home now. I can choose to wish my life away, waiting for a day for us to build our dream house, or I can choose to bloom where I’m planted and enjoy every little thing about this little old house, unlevel floors and all.
