seminolewind, moving is hard. Moving doesn't end when you get all your belongings to their destination. I went from a medium sized kitchen to a huge kitchen. Make no mistake about it, I LOVE my huge kitchen, BUT unlike my other kitchens, getting things put up, so I didn't have to work myself to death walking from one side to another to get a meal, was a challenge. Do I put this here, or would it save me some steps on a regular basis by putting it over there? I studied it a bit, then began getting things organized in a way it would be efficient. There are always things that fall into the "where the heck should I put you", category. When you finally get it sorted out, and most of your things put away, there are always the "A this would be perfect for there, or a that would pull it all together better". That's when you get into the "nesting" phase of the move, and begin adding the touches that work better for THIS home. It takes time, but eventually it will start feeling like home.
We had been living here for awhile, but Dh sort of felt like it was "a very nice house, that we owned, with our stuff in it", but he didn't really feel like it was home. Maybe the fact that we owned it, and weren't renting made it feel a bit surreal. I don't know. One evening we went to his friend's home, that lives fairly close by. They had been bragging about their newly built home, in the country. It was on a 1 acre lot. There had been some mention of them building a coop, and keeping a few chickens early on, but no more mention of it later.
When we pulled in, we discovered it looked like a subdivision. The only difference was that the lots were bigger than the standard lots in a subdivision. It has streets, sidewalks, and all the yards have chain link fencing around them. Yes, there is an HOA. No, they can't have chickens, or anything like that. Eventually, we got the 50 cent tour of their new home. The layout is sort of strange. When you enter the front door, you're in the dining room. When you walk through the dining room one way, you go into the family room. There is a hallway off the dining room on one side. That goes to the laundry area, and garage. The family room is long, and narrow, because the kitchen is on one side, separated by a breakfast bar. Square footage on their home is very slightly larger than ours, however, that includes a 3 car garage, and ours is only 2. They put a laundry area inside, while mine is in the garage. Those 2 factors take up enough room that all the other rooms are much smaller than in our home.
When we got back home from visiting them, I "felt like I was home". I commented that I liked the layout of our home, and the size of our rooms much better. Dh replied that he liked our whole layout better than theirs. Everything from the size of our property, to not being in a subdivision with neighbors on top of us, so our place has the feeling of privacy, and living in the country,
You could chase me with one of those neighborhoods like that-and what does my daughter buy? Into a neighborhood like that.
My old house is not everyone's cup of tea but it is in the country and 100 years old. And that feels comfy. With subdivisions come HOA's and rules and before ya know it it feels like it's right out of the Stepford Wives!
