It’s the Little Things – Mommy Blogger

04/07/2021

We moved into our first house during the summer of 2016, our first home together; we were young and excited to start this new journey together. Immediately I started to envision everything this house could be, the purpose of every room and most importantly how I wanted this house to feel. I was excited for the challenge of making this house a home.

I knew it would be challenging sense it was build in the 80s and not much about the interior had changed sense it was built. The basement consisted of a dingy carpet that went half way up the wall, the window treatments were also original to the era it was built and among other characteristics there was a pointless wall that had been built between the living area and the kitchen. Despite the house not quite meeting our taste, I knew this house would be it and underneath the dingy carpet and retro curtains was our dream home.

It was taking longer than I anticipated. After two and a half years countless hours of internet searching for inspiration, rifling through furniture sales and many DIY and renovation projects—completed by ourselves with the assistance of my handy family—it still did not feel like home. At the time I didn’t understand why no matter how much work or time I put into this house it still felt like something was missing, it never felt quite whole. For a long time I really thought maybe this was because in the chaos of life our house wasn’t always spotless or squeaky-clean. So I made a weekly cleaning schedule to stick by and I admit that having a cleaner house helped clear my mind, but unfortunately it still did not quite feel like home.

Looking back I realize now that I still didn’t fully understand that this feeling I was trying to achieve wasn’t going to be achieved by paint colors or manual labour, it was going to take something else to fill the gap. What confused me even more was how I could feel so at home in others homes, everyone else seemed to be able to achieve this sense of home with such ease, so why couldn’t I?

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We found out we were expecting on April 6^th 2019; it was one of the most exciting and memorable days of my life, filled with both pure joy and panic. Were we really ready for this? Yes we had been trying, but there was so much to prepare for, would nine months be enough time? I hit the ground running—cautiously of course—planning and preparing our lives and our house for the newest member of our family.

Three months after we brought our beautiful baby girl home from the hospital we laid on the couch to watch a movie together—this was a triumph of its own—we had a solid bedtime routine now and we were left to enjoy the rest of the evening together. To have a better view of the television we moved the vibrant colored rain forest bouncer off the ottoman. Once we did though my spouse turned to me and said “it actually looks odd with that chair gone.” I paused for a minute before agreeing with him; it really did look strange without it even though this chair didn’t match anything in the room.

With that in mind I looked around and noticed all the little things that were “out of place.” The ottoman is now home to two different types of pacifiers—because our daughter changes her mind over which one she prefers—multiple bright colored tiny wash clothes, a teething ring and most impotently that rain forest themed vibrating bouncy chair.

It hit me all at once that this bright vibrant chair made this house feel more like a home than my previously perfectly arranged wooden tray ever did. I looked up to see a security blanket that had been left on the dinning room table, the bottle scrub brush that’s placed above the sink on the window seal and realized it was all these wonderful little things that made this house really feel like a home. It wasn’t the designer labels, antiques or the perfectly organized drawers. It was ten little toes, ten little fingers, and one tiny little nose that made this house whole, she was the blessing we needed and had been waiting for. She was the missing piece to our puzzle.

It’s the little things that make this house a home.

It’s the little things that make us feel whole.