Love Brings You Home by Rachelle

Life around here has been pretty crazy! I finally got around to taking the Easter décor down last week.   When it was put away, the house seemed lonely. It was also dusty…seriously, where did all the dust come from on and around everything???!!! The house needed some cheering up, especially since Spring seems to be having a lot of trouble springing this year. My favorite part of decorating is starting over with a clean slate.   After the Easter decorations were out of sight, I dusted, and then consolidated the things I had not packed away, and brought out a few new pieces to use. After consolidating the old and new, I began the fun of accessorizing each area of my house. When I am in the middle of creating, I know I am doing what I am meant to do. The process makes my heart race and gives me this amazing jolt of energy. Even on my worst day, it makes me feel so much better to get my creative juices flowing. The old saying, “Do what you love and you will never work a d...

I had so much fun decorating for Easter this year. I added so many new decorations to the new house, and I was absolutely thrilled with the way everything turned out. I was so excited to host our extended family complete with food and an Easter egg hunt. When we built our home, the entire idea was to have a space big enough to house my large, loud and loveable family. I couldn’t wait to see it all come to fruition. Then, life happened… Two weeks before the Easter, we had a serious family illness, loss of a job, and a death of a friend hit us. It always seems to come in threes, doesn’t it? We were traveling back and forth from to the Cleveland Clinic all the while trying to keep our heads up and regroup. Luckily, my aunt generously offered to host the family. As much as I love the Easter Season, it kind of felt like a blur this year. It was cold, so our Easter outfits were make-shift. We were exhausted from traveling back from the hospital the day before. We were on edge bec...

I love to decorate for different holidays. I think it fun for the entire family to make the house festive. In the past, I have gone all out for Halloween and Christmas, but Easter, not so much! Our other homes have had a more traditional feel with richer colors, so the pastel, cooler tones just haven't blended well with the décor. However, our new home with the neutrality that comes with modern farmhouse design has allowed Easter décor to come alive in our house. Last year, we were still unpacking at Easter, so I found our Easter decoration box and did the best I could to get a little Easter fun into the house. It was minimal, but we had eggs and bunnies scattered about. This year is a different story! Now that furniture is placed and wall decorations are hung, I couldn't wait to bring out the Easter spirit in the new house. My first step was getting out my old Easter stuff! I love the fun of opening up boxes of holiday decorations. I forget from year to year what I have,...

I love Facebook memories. It is always nice to see pictures of the boys from years past and have reminders of events that had completely slipped my mind. Yesterday, I was having my Sunday morning coffee and looking at Facebook on my phone when this showed up on my screen: We spent our first night in the new house...no furniture, no beds, no television and no WiFi...but somehow it still felt like home. One year ago, our house was completed. Well, I use the word completed very loosely. It was inhabitable. We were still missing some doors and carpeting; there were no door handles on any of the interior doors; there was no furniture in the house at all (it was still in storage); there was only one working shower, there was no washer or dryer, only part of our kitchen appliances had been installed and much to my boys' dismay, there was no internet service and not one television in the house. As empty as the house was, it still felt like home. We ...

We are quickly approaching the one year anniversary of moving into our new home. It doesn't seem possible.  As the Facebook memories roll in this month, I am reminded of how trying this time was last year. We were painting in freezing cold temperatures, while running space heaters trying to protect the walls and keep us warm enough to work. Our entire empty garage was filled with trim pieces being painted by my hubby, myself, my mom and dad. The build had taken 3 months longer than expected thanks to torrential down pours that had thrown off the schedule of every builder in our local area. Every contractor was behind schedule, and so was our timeline. There were times we didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but we just kept going! Moving back to my hometown had always been a dream of mine, and when the opportunity presented itself, we jumped on it. We built this house as our forever home, so there was so much thought that went into making everything right. We kn...

In my blog post "Helpful Hints to stay on budget when remodeling or building, ( https://lifeandlovebringsyouhome.blogspot.com/2018/01/helpful-hints-to-stay-on-budget-when.html ), I mentioned that one way we saved money was by purchasing clearance doors from a local home improvement store. By doing this, we were able to save a ton of money and get solid wood doors versus the builders grade that were figured into the budget. We used several different styles of doors throughout the house. They all had similar styles, but each just a little bit different. Many of these doors were less than $10. Most of them were not sold in frames, they were just the door panel itself. We purchased them early in the building process, so we knew the size off each door before framing began. We just changed the frame sizes on the plans to fit the doors. They were all different wood colors, but we just painted them all the same trim white, and the differences in the doors just disappeared. Our master...

Have you ever heard of a Hygge corner? If you haven't, you are not alone. I was completely in the dark about this new found concept, until a few weeks ago when I participated in a webinar. This brief, daily class was to help you kick start your year, and the spunky, brilliant woman hosting it challenged us to do something special for ourselves every day. She gave us a goal to complete after each session ended, and those tasks consisted of things such as setting up a special meal, complete with flowers, a tablecloth and fine china to enjoy our food; organizing a space such as a drawer or closet; and setting up a Hygge corner in some area of our house. Hygge is actually the Danish art of happiness. The idea is to live a simple, healthy, happy, and stress free way of life. I don't know about you, but that sounds amazing and totally unrealistic. I'm a wife and a mom of two teenage boys and two crazy dogs. The truth ...

  My hubby and I were really excited about building our dream home, but we knew that we had to watch costs. We wanted to make sure that our "forever home" was exactly what we wanted, while making sure that we kept our budget in check. We had an arrangement with our builder that allowed us to source our own items. He gave us a budget sheet that laid out the costs of every item. This allowed us to know what our budget was for every category. For instance, the budget for lighting was $2500. The budget for closets was $1000. This gave us a reference to know how much we could spend and still stay within our total budget. We used many of his contractors for framing, siding, concrete, etc., but we were also able to source our own when it came to tile work, electrical, heating and air conditioning, and special carpentry projects. It was important for us to use our small town contractors whenever possible, so we always had them bid. Sourcing our own items was not always easy. T...

In my last post, I mentioned that I couldn't find the perfect floor plan for our family, so I finally created one myself. Each family is different, so it is very difficult for a floor plan created from someone else's imagination to fit every one's needs. In my experience, these are some important things to consider when finding or creating the perfect floor plan for you and your family:  1. Bedrooms Of course, the number one decisions about bedrooms how many you need? For resale purposes, three is always a good number, but what works for your family? Will you use all bedrooms for members of your family or do you also need to use one as an office or a guest room? Do you want a split design or all the bedrooms together? For me, it was very important to have all of our bedrooms together when the boys were small in case they needed us. In case of a fire, it was important that we be able to get to them. If they were sick or scared, I wanted to be able...

I love Christmas decorations. The lights from the tree and the warmth of the decorations are good for my soul. I could sit by the  tree for hours with a cup of hot tea and a book. My favorite time to enjoy the decorations is the week between Christmas and New Years. By then, the hustle and bustle are over. I love this time. I go into hibernation mode. I reflect on the past year and make resolutions for the new. In the meantime, my home normally goes into disaster mode. The decorations are on their last leg, and hosting family at the house has taken its toll. This would normally be a recipes for this mom losing her stuff and going on a cleaning rampage, but not this week. Every year this one week is my time to let it all go and reflect on the new, calmer me. Fast forward to January 2...mom is losing her shit! The house looks like a tornado hit it. "Am I the only one who cleans around here??!!" I can't wait for the Christmas decorations to be down; my house to be ...