Making my House a Home

Okay. I have a confession to make.

When we first moved back to Chicagoland at the end of July, I sounded a bit more optimistic about our "new" house here on the blog than I felt in real life.

Let's just say that downsizing from a big, brand new home that you built yourself into a MUCH smaller, older, more expensive (thanks to the difference in the housing markets between NC and Chicago) home sounds so charming and "can-do" in theory. Since we've moved A LOT before and fixed up several other older homes, I figured it would be a pretty easy transition. It really wasn't as easy as I expected in reality though.

Do you remember that Hubby picked out the house himself? An early 1980's english tudor split-level, to be exact. (SO NOT what I ever pictured myself living in!) All I saw were pictures on the internet until the day we closed on the house. So when I first walked through the house, I was doing pretty good thinking, "Well, this room is smaller, but it will work fine...I can fix this...We can re-do that....",

that is until I quickly reached the kitchen.

Let me tell you, friends, this kitchen is small. As in small. And awkwardly laid out. Not good for a family that cooks and bakes together every day (thanks to my Gluten-Free diet) and entertains frequently. So small that I may have gotten a bit teary when I first saw it. Small enough that visitors have actually said, "Whoa!" upon entering the room. THAT kind of small.

So, after wallowing in a small-kitchen-pity-party for awhile, I determined that no tiny kitchen was gonna stop me! This kitchen might be small and weird, but it's OUR kitchen. Time to make it work for our family!

Then, guess what happened? The more I started embracing my new house's good qualities, the more it felt like home. Things like built-in bookshelves, or an upstairs landing, or a beautifully finished basement with room for a craft studio (!) and playroom, or lots of windows looking out over a backyard just made for entertaining....these were things that I focused on.

Beautiful colors started going up on the walls, pictures were hung, family memories started being made. It felt less like a place we were visiting and more comfortable....more us. Before I knew it.....

....we were HOME.

Is this our "dream home"? Well, maybe not. Then again, maybe. Because whether a house is big and gorgeous, or small and in need of a makeover,

a house is just a house until you CHOOSE to MAKE IT A HOME.

And this girl is definitely having fun now DREAMing about ways to make this house a HOME!!!

{So today we're taking a step to make our house feel more like home by working on our "Kitchen Makeover"! I put together an inspiration board for the kitchen and we're going to visit some home improvement stores today to get an idea for pricing. I'll be sharing more of these steps with you next week!}