Making our House a Home

When Greg and I bought our first house in Vermont in 1999 it was love at first sight.  As soon as I walked through the front door I saw us living in the house.  "This is it"  I said to Greg.  "I love it, we have to have it".  We are both suckers for old houses and this 200 year old colonial had such a sweet charm from the get-go.
When we bought our current house in Maine in 2005, though it is a 125 year old colonial there was no love at first sight for me at all.  We were eager to get into another house and Greg was drawn to the house so we kept going back for another look.  We stayed up late talking about it, what we could do, what we would change,  and before long I was in love with a "vison" of what the house could be.  This wasn't a forever house, the plan was 3-5 years, make some improvements, sell and move into our dream house wherever that may be. We had 6 weeks before we moved into the house and we spent every spare moment at the house doing lot's of this:

We usually brought the kids with us and kept their sweet little hands busy with anything that was safe, and tried to give them one little spot that was theirs in the mess:

kids table in the chaos

Yes we tested for lead, and they were never in any danger, but they were here to see transformation and for sleepy rides home:

Then, we moved in with grand plans to finish all of our projects, but life happens, families are busy, husband's bands get more and more gigs and sheet rock becomes a normal wall. 
This whole time I've thought of our house as "not our forever house" and recently it has occured to me that I treat it as such.  I live in this house like it is a hotel, I think about what i'd do if it was my "forever house" and dreaming about said house.  What has become so apparent is that I am teaching our children the same thing.   When in reality this is our home...not forever, but for right now.  I haven't been on the computer or in blogland much this week because I have been very busy with this realization and trying to make our house our home.  In the process I have made huge messes (Greg has been very supportive reminding me that "you have to break an egg to make an omlet"), but the end result is positive, refreshing and a valuble lesson to myself and my children.  There is much to do and I'm sure there will be many posts to come, but I chose to start with my own creative space.  A space that until now was referred to as the "craffice", a room to store all my crafting and office supplies.  I wanted a space to spend time in, to be inspired and create.

This room has historically been very messy and unorganized, my fabric has been in plastic tubs that needed to be dug through every time I wanted something.

These shelves had an assortment of books for crafting, homeschooling and yes organization, as well as yarn and projects of any sort.  I've turned it all into this (and saved you from photos of the rest of the mess):

All of my fabric in these lovely "fabric cupboards" as I'm calling them.  No need to dig through bins, I can just open the doors for inspiration.  Notice the thread all at my disposal as well as knitting needles, scissors and a few other supplies (the felt board hides wires for the internet and printer).

A permanent sewing station!  This might be the coolest thing ever for me!  My sewing machine is old and heavy so lugging it around can be a bit of a drag.  Not any more, both the machine and the serger have a home when ever I (or Molly) get the urge to sew!

The bookshelves are organized in a way that makes sense and I've got a spot to keep the ironing board up all the time. I will admit that I have no delusions of grandure, I'm sure this ironing board will from time to time become a holding station, but it's there and I am thrilled.

This gorgeous birch hook is from The Vermont Branch Company , if you aren't familiar with these guys you should be.  Tonya blogs over at Plainandjoyfulliving and they also have another etsy shop full of sweet homemade toys that I love.  What a wonderful way to store and display some embroidery hoops.  Now instead of digging around in some box, there they are, who wouldn't feel a little creative.
This has been an important step for me both as an occupant of this house and as a parent.  Children follow our example and learn from everything that we model.  This is our home, and until our home is a different house I will love this home and continue to make it beautiful and warm and full of goodness for them to see and feel.  I'm sure there will be more posts as I continue this transformation, hope you enjoy.
Angie