Home

What makes a house a home? The people of course! As a pinterest and magazine addict, it's easy to believe perfection defines beauty. With our old home, we're finding that the imperfections are what we love most.

To embrace the idea of loving imperfection, how about a family swimsuit photo?
When I think of home, I think of these two fellas. 

So what did the people bring to our 100+ year old house we call our home? Not a whole lot. When we moved from Minnesota to Illinois, we sold everything we had. Every single piece of furniture. Only my kitchen aid mixer, a few boxes of precious books, our clothes and camping gear survived. For perspective, we fit it all - and ourselves and our dogs - into a minivan. We spent the next three years living in my parents' basement, starting a business and a family.

January 1, 2013. The day we moved into our house. We brought a dresser we had purchased on Craigslist and used at my parents' house and a mattress Paul got for his birthday and a beautiful nursery set given to us by sweet friends. We purchased a couch, two chairs and a coffee table on Craigslist. In addition, friends and friends of friends pitched in and gave us a kitchen table, a dresser and nightstand, an entry table, and curtains. My parents gave us a set of white dishes. We were ready to roll. Sparse, but functional.

Our upstairs hallway that has been patched but unpainted for roughly 5 months. 

Caleb's room was painted Timberwolf Gray - sorry, the pink stripes had to go. The living room was a massive painting project and went from green to Litchfield Gray (which is really a light tan). And the blue striped room became Grizzly Bear brown, with Litchfield Gray in the closets. Our mattress sits on the floor and we haven't painted our bedroom. Paul gutted the upstairs bathroom, which was already non-functional. Window coverings are patched together, an extra showed curtain, goodwill fabric. 

Caleb's room before. It was cool, but we didn't have a princess to put in here. 

Caleb's room after. Everything except the rug was gifted to us. Thank you! 

The empty guest room in grizzly bear brown.

But we're already starting to feel a bit more settled. Really big projects remain. A new bathroom, jacking up the porch to fix the footings, tearing off the entire roof and seven layers of shingles (which are so heavy we can't open the windows in the attic), removing or repairing a crumbling chimney, regrading the yard, putting in a new bathroom, fixing the deck . . . and the list goes on an on. 

This is our project for the next twenty years. We are so very grateful.