Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Perfectly Good Home

I am enjoying the benefits of grand motherhood. Once a week I travel 30 miles to the west to visit the most beautiful and intelligent baby in the world. Sigh. Life is good.

Sometimes you have to look around to find a place to call home.

For a few weeks Mr. J&C and I toyed with the idea of moving to the other side of town. It was a good time to look around and see what is out there because after a year of retirement we want to make a few changes in our home (the kitchen). Why put the money into this house when there might be a perfect house just down the road?

Sometimes all it takes to make a place your home is adding a few touches of your own.

There is no perfect house. 

I really hate that. 

On the other hand, getting out and looking at a few houses has given me new appreciation for what I've got. So this weekend I will happily weed in my garden in the morning and in the afternoon I'll continue to look for clever ideas and inspiration for our kitchen remodel.

Sometimes we realize our house has become our home because of who shares it with us.

We are keeping the same 'footprint' just changing the wallpaper, moving the fridge, changing out the cabinets, getting a new sink, knocking out a wall between the kitchen and family room... Shouldn't be too hard, right? 


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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Sweet Smell of Home

When we arrived home we joked that the house smelled like the Previous Owners were back.  This is not a bad smell, just the smell of the house when we walked through back in the summer of 2005.  There were also dust bunnies gathering around my ankles in hope of protection from the large spider webs that have given the place an "Adams Family" / early Halloween feeling - but housework and housework stories are for another day.

This morning I'm just enjoying being in my house.  Our home.  Have you noticed that part of what makes houses homes is their unique perfume, odor, fragrance?  We had only been home long enough to shower and start a load of clothes when I noticed the Previous Owners had left and once again I had the feeling that I was in my home. 

Our house fragrance varies slightly from day to day.  These days it is a blend of cinnamon, ginger (I've discovered fresh grated ginger and use it whenever I can), garlic - fresh & powdered (we're not snobs), coffee, Tide, charcoal smoke (from the wonderful grilling/barbecuing my husband is almost famous for), cookies (yesterday I made Oatmeal Raisin) and roses (fresh cut and my favorite hand lotion).


Our china hutch has the most comforting aroma.  My husband inherited it from his parents and when you open up the top and lean in a bit you can smell their home.  It's amazing, we have had it since 1993, this is the fourth house it's lived in with us (including three years in Germany) and still I think of them when I open those doors.



We sometimes have weeks of 'new paint smell' floating around the place. We used to have scented candles but have decided unscented candles work best for us (I still keep a few small scented candles on hand just in case home isn't as lovely as I want it to be, usually vanilla or lavender).  When my children were young there was that wet puppy smell they seem to get on warm afternoons - happy sigh.  Note to moms with young children:  The memory is probably better than the real thing.  Also, keep smelling your babies' hair, trust me. 

I'm pretty sure some of my enjoyment of antique malls and shops is their smell.  The same thing with BBQ joints, WhatABurgers, Pizza Huts and (my all time favorite) florist shops - isn't that the most wonderful smell?! 


What fragrance memories are you making?  What does your home smell like today?