A Recycled Home

I'm trying to fall back in love with my home.  Sometime, I only see what I wish were different about it (new flooring in the living room, adding dark stained butcher block counters in the kitchen, etc) instead of seeing how our home reflects our primary values.

So, here's my home and why I love it!

We live in a small, 3 bedroom ranch.  This style and floor plan are pretty common in the midwest.  I share my home with my husband, stepson, daughter and cat.  We have a living room, kitchen with eat in area, bathroom and 3 bedrooms on the main floor.  Our basement is partially finished with a large family room and an area that we've made into a bedroom for The Boy.

This is our living room.  The best part of it is the fireplace.  I love the smell of the wood burning!  The old wooden trunk was purchased at an antique barn when we lived in New Hampshire.  I recently purchased the leather sofas off craigslist.  I gained $50 when I bought them...I sold the old sofa for $250 and bought these for $200. This room is cozy (read small!) but I'm trying to be okay with that.

Next up...the kitchen

 Last year, we had the barstools, table and chairs refinished by a local woman.  The stools were purchased from the Habitat Restore and Target.  They were just blonde wood.  The table was a pedestal table set that we purchased from, you guessed it, Craigslist. 

I think we paid more to have it refinished than we did for the actual tables and chairs.  But it was worth it.  This kitchen/eating area is pretty small, and I think that having the tables and chairs "mimic" the antiqued finish on the cabinet helps to make the space feel more open. 

I like calming effect that the color palette has, however, in looking at these pictures, I think I need a few more pops of color!  I love the hits of orange from the print in the dining area and from the cookbook.  I think I need to extend those pops of orange to the corner near the stove.

 Our basement has a huge finished area.  When we moved here 5 years ago, The Boy wanted a basement bedroom, so we sectioned off a portion of this space for his room.  Somehow over the years, this whole area became his Bachelor Pad!  It was kind of nice to be The Place that his friends chose as their hang out.  We had many a weekend movie night down here.

Now that The Boy is off at college, we are reclaiming this as family space again.  It's a great place for watching our beloved Illini play football and basketball.  We like to lounge down here and watch netflix.  And The Tween recently said that she would like to take on the tradition of Movie Night with her friends.  I believe a Dr Who marathon is in the works.

So that's my recycled, recovered, craigslist home.  It's smaller than what I sometime wish for, but I'm gonna hold on to this thought, "May our home always be too small to hold all our friends."

Are you in love with your less-than-perfect home?