We are expecting friends to arrive any time now, so we have spent the morning reassembling the house after our sojourn to Queensland. It rained over night. With two loads of washing on the line. Because it wasn’t supposed to rain.
Anyhow, the guest room has had the beds made up with fresh sheets, the house has been vacuumed and dusted, and generally brought into shape. Which is how I like it. Fingers crossed it stays that way for more than five minutes.
One of the things I am struggling with at the moment is keeping our old farm house clean and organised. We have done a lot of little things to make it easier to manage, but it wasn’t designed for modern living. It has lovely big bedrooms, but no wardrobes. A small kitchen which is impractical for our lifestyle, and lots of small rooms that don’t quite fit everyone in.
The house was unlived in for 10 years before we arrived, and is in need of a major renovation. It’s on the horizon, but not coming very soon. Visiting my sister last week, I was loving her renovated, easy to clean, light, bright and airy, organised house. Unfortunately though, coming home only emphasises to me the short comings of our own abode. I can see how our life will be that bit easier, once the renovation and extension has happened.
It is so hard to be patient and wait.
I was thinking how nice and welcoming the picture of your house looks. Pretty garden and beautiful gum trees. Our younger house lacks a little soul I think but I don't look at the outside of it much. I look out of the windows to the paddocks and trees. That's why we're here. Couldn't live in the burbs again, even with a new house 🙂
Oh I'm HEARING you! Unfortunately we don't own our big old limestone farmhouse, nor will we possibly ever own our own home on farm (we manage other peoples land, who can afford to buy a farm these days?!) I have come to terms with this…but still I long for a home where I can do whatever I want, paint a wall, or better yet knock out that wall! We too have big bedrooms, but no wardrobes (albeit it's just us two), but no linen press, things are shoved in corners and under beds, drives me nuts! I don't want to go and buy big wardrobes and then we will probably move and have wardrobes in bedrooms! A kitchen renovation WAS on the cards this financial year but I've been hearing bad murmurings about it being next financial year now grrrrrrrr…. Open plan living is just so EASY for entertaining and family life isn't it? I miss it. My kitchen is original to the house, built in the early 1940's, and whilst it's usable and big, it's clumsy and lack of bench space is frustrating. For such a large room it has such potential 🙁
Go ahead and buy something, doesn't have to be expensive, even a second hand wardrobe? Even small changes make a difference. I was so excited about new taps in the shower! Chrome ones instead of the horrible 1970s plastic ones. And then new cupboard handles in the kitchen – just cheap ones from the local hardware but it freshened things up. Just taps and handles but even that made it look nicer. 🙂
Our house is older than those in the suburbs surrounding but has great bones and is only in need of cosmetic renovations. My husband has suggested we bight the bullet and get evaporative cooling. I'd finally had enough of having my new flooring forgotten (for over ten years) that I rather reasonably said there's no way I could support any major house related purchase until we had sorted out the floors. I've forgone these reno's due to so many other necessary things (which I can accept); what I can't take anymore is the 'little' things that end up costing $000's that get prioritised over something I was promised. We are blessed to be in a home we love and are slightly closer to owning than when I was promised new floors (9 years ago).
Enjoy your visitors 😉