We moved into a fixer upper. I was very hesitant, I’ve heard the horror stories of trying to renovate with your spouse. Then I saw the house… and I was terrified!
Aaron moved into the house a full year before I did with his friend. I remember walking in for the first time & wanting to immediately turn around, go back to my clean apartment & never return.
I do not want to sound over dramatic or ungrateful or rude or really just anything negative, but oh my goodness.. it was so bad. And I was so scared. When we first walked through the house early that April morning, Aaron must have noticed the look of horror on my face. He pulled me to the side & said “you don’t have to do this.” To that point, our plan was to live in this house for the first few years of marriage to save money ( it’s his parents old home that they’ve been renting out for the past few years! ) He had to have known that I was getting cold feet because after years of renters the house wasn’t really how he remembered either. It was really bad. Have I already said that? Anyway, it was really bad.
We moved the boys in & got down to work to just make it “livable.” I went home that day rethinking all of our plans. Literally thinking there was no way that could be my home. We worked little by little throughout that year to improve everything we could. And when the time came that Aaron & I were engaged & we were thinking about our future, the practical side of me took over. So I moved into this place that I thought could never feel cozy or inviting.
Thankfully I was wrong. I freaking love this house. Not even a year after moving in, this is the place I want to run back to day after day. It’s the place I feel most at ease, most like myself. A lot of that has to do with who I’m coming home to obviously ( Aaron & all the little animals ) but it’s also partly that it feels like me. Or really, it feels like Aaron & me.
That’s why it was important to me to add this section to the blog. We are not the next fixer upper stars, but we try. We’re trying to make this little home feel more & more like us & welcoming & inviting to others.
It honestly made sense to just make this house tolerable, to just make minor fixes to make it livable until we can move on. But my goodness, I’m so thankful we didn’t. I’m thankful we didn’t have the attitude of waiting for better. I’m thankful we are choosing to make this place home for however long we are here. I’m thankful we aren’t waiting for the house to look perfect before we invite people over. I think if we did we would be very lonely for a very long time.
So that’s what this section of the blog will be.. little bits of what we’ve done to make this place feel more like home. Like I said, we aren’t experts here. But I hope it encourages you to make wherever you’re at home.. rather it’s an apartment, starter house or your forever home! There’s so much benefit in taking the little time, effort & money to make your house a reflection of you which really turns it into a home.
xx,
ellyn
