A couple of weeks ago, I was able to fly to Cincinnati and visit my daughter, Oona, my son-in-law, Sam, and my adorable grandsons, Owen, and Bennett. The weekend was a blast and it was wonderful to spend time with everyone.
On the way home, however, my plane was delayed. By two hours. And instead of going batshit crazy, as I would have in my younger days, I just shrugged and opened my phone to peruse social media sites.
And in Number One comes Candy Crush!!
And I as I started scrolling through Instagram, it appeared that every other post was either an annoying ad or an even more annoying reel of any given influencer—either young or our demographic showcasing, with a huge smile, their perfect home. The smile, most likely being “I have this and you only wish you did.”
Yeah Gweneth. We get it. You’re wealthy and we are not. Enough with your humblebragging.
MY foyer looks like this: Normal. Shoes on the rug. A rack filled with jackets and dog leashes and little wicker draws stuffed with more shoes. I’m humble. And not bragging!
Watching the reels, I could view elaborate autumn décor not only inside their homes but outside on their porches and entryways. Huge crescent-shaped driveways festooned with pumpkins, mums, corn husks and whatever else autumn brings our way.
Seriously, all those pumpkins would rot on my little porch..
This was MY version of being overly-ambitious. And this morning when I took them out to the trash, they were rotten and moldy–and I had them for less than a week!
Overly ambitious tablescapes that made me think…. where do they place the food and plates? And it isn’t just autumn décor. Some of these people have seasonal décor schemes for their entire homes! It was overwhelming for me to imagine doing this for every season in my own home. Where does one store all that stuff? It must be exhausting to decorate one’s home with a complete overhaul four times a year.
I’m not saying this isn’t great looking. Because it DOES look wonderful. But come on…when one works all day, all one wants is to have less shit on the table because it is less to clean up.
And this? Beautiful but not realistic. Where does the food go?
What. Ever. Happened. To. The. Normal. Home.
I think back to my childhood. When we lived in Queens, we lived in a two-family house. We were on the bottom level and my grandparents on the top level. It was a small home but it was charming. The floors were hardwood. The walls solid plaster. No sheetrock and they were beautiful. As our family grew, my parents turned the dining room into a living room and the old living room became their bedroom. It was nothing unusual. Most families did that. Our kitchen was large enough to eat meals in and there was no question about bigger space.
This is a very old picture of our house in Ozone Park, New York. Queens. The elevated “A” train ran directly behind our home. My grandparents lived on top and we lived on the bottom. To this day, it is my favorite house. I don’t care how plain and basic it is. The inside was beautiful in an old-school way.
When the family grew too big for the house, we moved to Long Island. The house was bigger but not elaborate. My mother kept the house in immaculate condition. We may not have had the most expensive furniture, but it worked for a family with five kids, a stay-at-home mother, and a NYC police officer dad.
My parents and me. Even back then I was prone to the snarky side-eye. Even being cross-eyed!
I grew up in normal houses.
This is the NORMAL house we moved to from Queens. Richland Blvd. in Bay Shore, NY!
It got me to thinking. Does anyone live in a house with a normal interior anymore? Does everyone rip walls down and restructure their dwellings every so often? Are their kitchens remodeled on a regular basis? Am I the only one out there with a bathroom that is not a spa?
We have two bathrooms and a powder room. The closest to a spa that this one is, is that we are having it painted. Notice my sign on the color I prefer. A bathroom serves two purposes. To clean your body and to eliminate waste. Oh yeah. Actually three. To store all the skincare!
It made me take stock of the interior of our own home. We have been here for ten years. We purchased it when it was approximately seven years old. Essentially, our house is 17 years. The bones are great. The walls, we like to keep white because white makes a room look bigger and white looks clean.
What I absolutely despise about our home is the carpeting. I hate it. We almost didn’t purchase it because of my hatred for carpeting. But, in all the homes we looked at, carpeting was the one item that all the homes had. We did replace the carpeting that was in the dining area with hardwood, thankfully because I cannot imagine eating in a room with a carpeted floor.
Good thing I am not a celebrity. I would be deemed “difficult” as I would refuse to walk the red carpet. THAT’S how much I despise carpeting!
In our living room we have two sofas. One is about 16 years old—an Ethan Allen number that was very expensive. The other, a sofa from Raymour and Flanagan. I love both because they are an off white, both are slipcovered and I can remove the covers to clean them. There is an antique dresser in which I house tablecloths and napkins. It is functional as is aesthetically pleasing.
View of the living room. It looks pretty nice. Doesn’t it?
Basic and pragmatic…
And here is what the sofas look like in every-day life. Covered in throws because Chippy lives and loves to lay over both of them…and snack on the throws as well. This, my friends, is our normal!
There is an armoire which houses the small TV set on the top portion and on the bottom games and such. I love that piece so much because it is the first item I purchased while I was going through my divorce. It was not cheap but wasn’t out-of-bounds expensive. It is the first piece of furniture I bought on my own and I am very emotionally attached to it.
After I lose my house in the divorce, I moved into an apartment and purchased this armoire. It cost $700 and I will never get rid of it. It is a symbol of my hard times. But UGH…that effing carpeting. I abhor it!
Our dining room table and chairs is casual farm style that we purchased when we moved here. I like it. I like the normalcy of it. It is large enough for me to use it as my “blogging” office and my husband and I eat all our meals there. And during the holidays, it is just what we need. Nothing fancy. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary. In my eyes, it is fine.
No elaborate tablescapes here. My laptop is my decor. However, on Christmas and on some Thanksgivings, as well as family dinners, I do dress it up a bit!
The autumnal décor in the house consists of autumn-colored flowers, two jack-o-lanterns that I carved yesterday and an autumnal wreath on the front door. That is it.
My autumn decor. A wreath, which, earlier this morning was replaced with a Christmas one. Autumn flowers and the carved pumpkins that rotted within 6 days!
And the day after Halloween, I’ll go full tilt boogie into decorating for Christmas. The bannisters will be festooned with greenery, lights and ribbons as will the two trees. For the first time ever, we purchased a fake tree for the living room. We are both too tired to get the real tree and pick up needles the remainder of the year. As empty-nesters, Santa doesn’t visit us any more nor does that elf who cannot make up it’s mind which shelf to sit upon.
This is on the front door now!
The point is, I love my normal house. I love the big normal bed that welcomes us when we arrive home from our travels.
I love our big comfy bed. I despise that shitty carpeting.
I love my sunroom.
My favorite spot in the house. I LOVE my loveseat. It’s broken in and not perfect.
I love every normal room in our normal house just like I loved the normal kitchen with avocado appliances that we grew up with on Long Island.
My mother was such a fan of the avacado. TBH, it might not be to my taste but I look back at those appliances fondly.
There is something warming, cozy and lovingly familiar with the normalcy of living in a normal house.
Even down to the tin dollhouses of the 1960’s. I love the normal aesthetic!
Tell me dear readers, what’s your take on this? Are you happy to be in a normal house? I can bet you most definitely are!
I live in a 1200 sq. ft. bungalow built in 1915. Hardwood floors, plaster walls. It’s perfect for two people with two huge cats. Twenty years ago we tore down the detached garage and built a single car garage and shop on the first floor with a one bedroom guest house on the second floor. It’s been perfect. In fact, when we had a house fire five years ago, we lived in the guest house for 8 months while restoration work was being done. So, yes – I’d say we like living in a normal house. We also like having visitors.
Some of these Instagram ‘influencers’ are just over-the-top. I only follow a couple of them, mostly for amusement purposes. Two chicks in Utah who do exactly what you are mentioning in your post here. Fifty pumpkins, a 12 foot tall skeleton, and god only knows whatever kakaputzi they pull out. Of course, they live in huge houses with plenty of storage for seasonal decor in massive rooms next to their under ground sports courts!! hahaha. These people have staffs who cook, clean, and babysit for them. These two sisters are also obsessed with designer labels and have both starved themselves using injectibles. I can’t relate to any of it, but I do see the humor in it because they are total snobs and think they are better than the rest of us.
Which brings me to my final thought. Your commentaries are marvelous and that’s why I enjoy reading your posts. Keep up the good work! Have fun with your holiday decorating, too! After Thanksgiving, I might pull out some Christmas stuff — I haven’t done that in a few years and maybe I will this year as a way to celebrate Kamala Harris being our next POTUS.
Take care!
Vava. Your house sounds like my kind of house! Plaster walls. Why don’t they make them like that now. Hardwood floors! I miss them! LOL. I’m wondering if one of the Utah women is one that I follow. It’s like watching an older version of Emily in Paris–only in Utah. Every. Single. Story. Is. Either. A. Showcase. Or. An. Ad!!
Oh god. I’m decorating for Christmas this weekend to get my mind OFF the election. I want Kamala to be our POTUS. My husband does as well. We voted. My children all voted for her. I can’t even print what I think of that Hitler wannabe.
I live in a 1400 square foot condo downtown in one of the largest cities in North America after years in a 3500 square foot house on the ocean, which I loved, and was normal for me. I now also love where I live now. I have still a normal home … for me. Normal is subjective. I truly appreciate your perspective and I think we need more of it. I could easily live in your lovely home, but – and this is not meant as a criticism since we are all different – I could not live with the clutter. My bathroom (and we have only two not three like you do) has almost no items on the counters. My kitchen counters are clear except for the large Mix-Master in one corner. The rest of the small appliances are hidden away in a corner pull-out built for them. Our foyer is has no shoes or boots on display. Everything is in two front closets we had built in a renovation. The bench seat doubles as storage. We look for ways to streamline our home and we no longer own items we don’t use. It’s calm. That’s me. I love your down-to-earth approach. Keep it up.
Hi Patricia,
You’re very lucky to be living in a city. I miss living in NYC dearly. And I will always be a New Yorker. It makes me happy that one of my children lives in NYC. The clutter? Meh. It’s because I don’t have the space but I get where you are coming from. At work, I cannot have an iota of clutter. If you stepped into my office you would swear I had no work to do. I just cannot work with any sort of disorganization. But I can’t do both work and home! LOL! Thank you for your comment. It is greatly appreciated!
You’d possibly die laughing at the size of our house – it’s a dear wee terrace house with a tiny garden in the northwest of England (Carlisle). I love its tiny size and imperfections, never wanted a big house (maybe wanted a big garden but facing facts have to admit I’m too lazy). A house is for living in not showing off – what sad empty lives these perfect people in their huge perfect homes must have, how utterly devoid of anything except the crushing weight of other people’s expectations (and who probably never visit as Instagram is NOT real life)… hate carpets too – gradually replacing them with wooden floors, much better for your lungs than all those dust and carpet mites that live in carpet
Are you kidding me Juliet? I would LOVE your English cottage! NOt to change the subject but are you watching the new season of British Bake Off? If Dylan or Nelly don’t win, I am going to be “gutted”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nelly – she’s superb. And consider yourself welcome at our home any time
I absolutely agree with everything you’ve written. Here in the UK holiday decor is not such a big thing, except for Christmas. How do they all have the time? I’m retired but have neither the time or inclination to waste money and time.
I haven’t been able to get into your instagram for weeks now and wondered if you had stopped or had a problem with it.
On another note, thank you for your recommendation of L’Air du Temps in Theoule. We went for Sunday lunch and it was fabulous, even served by the waiter whose photograph was in your blog. I must recommend you try Bartavelles in La Napoule – excellent – much better than Gaston Gastounette ever was before it was so dreadfully trashed.
Have w wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.
Susan D
Susan I sent you an email. My instagram handle is now “ThisProageStyle”. I received an email from someone who was not happy with my using “atypical” as it has a neurodivergent meaning. And as I’m leaving my 60’s next year, I just changed it. My play on words apparently was offensive. You should be able to get on my feed. Although I have not been posting as much because I’m tired of the constant ads on Instagram and the annoying influencers-LOL!
You home is lovely and I am glad that Chippy gets a free run on where to sleep! This post is so timely with so many “influencers” posting about the “perfect Holiday tablescape” etc etc. Oh, and where do they new words and phrases come from such as tablescape and colorway?!!!
Wait. I have never heard of colorway! That must be a new influencer term! WTF does it even mean?? I think Martha Stewart pegged “tablescape” which I always thought was so pretentious. Chippy is the king of the chateau. It isn’t OUR house–it’s HIS house!!
Your home is beautiful, and it looks like a home where love abounds. Thank you for asking: where does the food go on this damn fancy table?? Stay fabulous, – Patti
Thank you Patti. One rule I’ve always had is that a sofa or any sitting piece of furniture MUST be ploppable. Meaning you can just plop down in it and cozy up with a book and a cup of hot beverage. Yeah. I have to be honest, the only thing my family wants on the table is food!! LOL!
Of course I agree with everything you’ve said. One of the reasons I subscribe is that you always keep things real. Years ago I was married and lived a life of the one percent. When I had to be self-supporting, I spent way too much on housing, in an attempt to maintain something similar to the style in which I was accustomed. Now that I’m retired, I’ve lived 10 years in 700 sq feet and it’s more than fine. It takes a while to get priorities right and I have zero interest in following Instagram influencers who flaunt themselves and what they have.
Hi Frances. Here’s a huge and loving hug. I loved my house but the divorce left me high and dry and I had to make due without a lot of the stuff I had. And that’s ok. TBH, I would be very happy to be back in NYC or the boroughs in a small apartment. But, my husband and I both work in the Philly area and the city of Philly isn’t exactly wonderful to live in!
I too agree with all you have written in this post. There is far too much pressure to create a ‘perfect home’ that changes with the latest design trends…colours, fabrics, styles are all considered ‘out-of-date’ in very short periods of time. Decorating for special occasions and holidays is fun but I use things that are functional as well as pretty…items I have collected and treasured over the years and that have meaning. Contentment is not found in changing for the sake of changing…it is found in using the things we love for the people we love being with.
So enjoy reading your posts…keep them coming! Enjoy the Christmas decorating and may it bring a smile to your face and joy to your heart!
Alayne! You nailed it! Completely nailed it. I just took the Christmas ornaments out of the garage (I’m stress decorating this weekend because I’m petrified over the election on Tuesday) and when I open that tub of ornaments that have been amassed over the decades–they all have a story. I can’t have a themed tree where the decorations coordinate. I need my “storied” tree. It’s homier and lovely! I love your way of thinking!
Cathe your home is beautiful and comfortable looking! Those influencers are mostly a bunch of smoke and mirror operators. They are sponsored by HomeSense or TJ Maxx or Hobby Lobby etc etc go weeks before the holiday, and are allowed to pick out stuff. They decorate the room or home, take their photos and RETURN EVERYTHING to the store. As long as it’s in good condition with tags on and returned before the holiday. They get the pick of all the newest and freshest items in exchange for saying they are sponsored by the store. Same with Amazon. They feature the links in their store front but return what they used because…Prime!
A women I met who was an influencer for years revealed this, confirmed by a HomeSense employee who claimed that returns before a major holiday are epic. The same with clothing for many fashion influencers.
No need to store stuff…or the influencer gets a deep discount and resells what she doesn’t want to keep.
Never let these types make you feel ‘ less than’ because you have a smaller home. The lady at HomeSense told me that one influencer decorates other people’s much bigger homes for the holidays and let’s her viewers think the house is hers…she lives in an apartment lol I checked her out and it’s true. She never actually indicates the house is hers and most of her photos are close ups.
Our own humble old shack was built in 1939 so a pre war gem that came with acres of hard wood ( not in the best shape) it had two beds and two weird little bath rooms. I brought my kids home from the hospital to this house..in 2002 we renovated because it was falling apart. We added on, gutted and rebuilt. We love this house, for all it’s old lady crankiness ( even after her lavish face lift…she’s a diva) it’s home.
Al, there’s something deceitful and borderline sinister with the fact that influencers buy clothing just for social media purposes then return the shit. It’s why I follow less and less and less women–especially of our demographic on the internet. I just can’t be bothered. I’ll bet your house is awesome. a 1939 build is charming and wonderful and better than the sheetrock walls and builder grade cabinets that are installed in new, and quite pricey builds!
I’m looking at King Chippy presently lolling on the throws that are protecting the sofa. He doesn’t have a care in the world and doesn’t care what his home looks like. We should be more like dogs!!!
I love a ‘normal’ home. That is what I grew up in and it makes me happy. If I could have afforded a Cape Cod style after my divorce or had wanted the external upkeep, that is where I would be in spite of small rooms – because to me it is ‘home’, what I grew up in. Like you, I am in a townhome. Here is the thing though. When I moved in it was affordable because not much had been changed since the 1980s. My daughter was still in college so there was no money for updates but I made it crystal clean and a happy place. Once she graduated I had cancer, and then came the pandemic, and then my mom died; life just kept getting in the way of having money for updates. Now, life is settled and I have decided this will be my forever home, hopefully until the end of my life. (I am almost 70.) I decided I wanted to make it my aging sanctuary so I finally put in new floors on the first floor and replaced the kitchen. Next year I will tackle the upstairs bathrooms and replace the carpet. I mean, replace it with new carpet because it gets colder up there in the winter and now at least it will be filled with my germs and not the previous owners. My daughter came to visit – she is very down to earth and I worried she would think it was too fancy. She said, “Mom, it is great. It is artsy and lovely but not at all pretentious.” Phew. Home as sanctuary, no matter how small or humble.
Maryellen I am so glad you are okay and able to fix the townhouse up. Sometimes my husband complains about all the cars in our development but I have to remind him that we are in a townhouse and in a development you need to live with it. I’m just grateful to have a roof over my head after losing my home in my divorce. I’m so happy that we are both in normal dwellings!!
I love reading all the comments. Real people live in real homes.
Eneanor–the comments here are making me happier than a speckled-earred puppy!!!!!!!!
Opening this email this morning was very timely – love it. At this stage of our life my husband and I are struggling to keep up with the daily stuff never mind any kind of decorating extras. We have friends coming to visit tomorrow and I wasn’t able to secure a cleaner until next week (haven’t had one for years but going to make room in the budget and see if it helps). So this morning I do the basic quick clean of common spaces our friends will ‘see’ lol! and open a delicious bottle of wine by the fire. I think we all need to remember that photo’s on the internet are for inspiration – not reflections of how ‘everyone else’ is actually living. The past few years with a small house containing four busy people (2 teenage/young adult sons) and an aging body that must get regular exercise attention just to stay able to lift grocery bags (haha but for real) I’ve let a lot of the cleaning /tidying go. And remind myself of reality and the wonderful trade off of enjoying my people and my life while they are around 🙂
Sylvia, I love that you mentioned the trade off of cleaning to enjoy people. When the kids were young I was incredibly fastidious and vacuumed twice a day due to the dogs. These days I arrive home from work and almost veg out! I do love when the kids come to visit though–never a dull moment! Enjoy your guests and have a glass of wine on …my husband! The surgeon (he had surgery today) told my husband “No aperitif tonight” and he is behaving like a spoiled child right now. I went out bought caffiene-free diet pepsi and told him that would be our aperitif!!!
I to live in a normal home, a ranch that was built in the mid 60s. Before we bought it, it was redone some so I have all hardwood floors, which I love. I hate carpet! With a passion! It’s so much easier to keep a wood floor clean. Even so, this house and its acre yard are getting to be a little much for these two mid 70s people. So we are thinking of downsizing and moving, but it will again be to a normal house. Sometimes I see influencer sites where the S$&@ is piled up so much around the door you could not even get in if you tried. And a pet peeve of mine is that no one has a handrail outside. What do you do when it’s cold or wet? One site I saw yesterday, had stuff on the door that stuck out so far you’d have to put your face in it to get to the door knob. It was ridiculous. I rotate stuff I already have every year, all around the house, and also have a fake tree now. It’s fine by me!
Hi Susan, Oh if I could get rid of all the disgusting carpeting I would. I priced how much it would cost just for the stairs alone–13K. I am ready to rip the stuff off myself and sand the steps down and pay someone to varnish them.
So true on the handrail. What? They aren’t aesthetically pleasing? I don’t care when ice and rain come around!!
Funny, I was just thinking about this yesterday. I Think sometimes people tend to go on social media and think how they are doing better than someone else, or doing worse than someone else. Lol I think everyone can tend to think that way sometimes. But yes I definitely love my normal house, my appliances are not brand new but they work just fine and I do not need brand new ones. I would rather save my money on travel. It’s fun to watch interior decorating stuff on YouTube, but I am not a big consumer when it comes to household interiors, I would rather have minimalistic really nice things that are dear to me. I like my broken in sofas and normal house too! Love that Christmas wreath.
Hi Liz, It’s so nice to come back from the hospital to positive comments. My husband had minor surgery today and now he is out like a burnt out lightbulb. That’s a good thing because he never has a good sleep!
Anyway, I’m glad to see that we all love our normal houses. Like you, I would much rather spend the money on travel!
Couldn’t agree more Cathe. My UK semi detached is compact with one bathroom and small front and back gardens. I’ve just installed à new kitchen, the previous one was 20 years old and very tired. I don’t update for ‘show’ I dont have the finances for that. As for seasonal decor it’s not really done over here except influencers. The exception being Hallowe’en which seems to get bigger and bigger here every year. I loathe it. The plastic tat and pumpkin mania is ridiculous.
Your home is lovely btw, very similar decor to mine. 😉
I lived in my 1969, 1700sf. ranch home (San Francisco Bay Area) for 37 years. Over the years, my husband and I have done the regular normal improvements, painting, flooring, roof, windows, new appliances etc. I used to be very interested in interior design and decor. I spent way too much on decorator magazines and books. I’d sometimes fantasize about doing costly kitchen and bath renovations. But lately, I’m just kind of ho hum about all of that. I don’t have the same enthusiasm that I once did. Life changes, my perspective has too. Actually, I’m pretty content with my house the way that it is now and also, very grateful for it! With that being said, at this point in my life, I’d rather leave the house and use the money on travel and entertainment, rather than spend more on it, lol! Anyway, it’s been fun reading the other comments, too!
Have a great weekend!
Popping in to say I loved this post, and I thank you for diverting my attention away from the Orange Menace for the time it took to read it. We are living in fear of the results and believe there will be violence no matter what the outcome.
My last house I did the seasonal thing and lasted about 2 years. What was I thinking?!? When we rightsized to the current home we moved in and then moved out for 2 weeks to have wood floors put everywhere there was carpet. Glory! All wood floors and wood shutters painted to match the painted trim wood are my two necessities. Timeless. I encourage you to save up your $5 bills and treat yourself to new floors when you can. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Try some heavy duty stairs carpet instead of wood and save yourself a bundle. My sister inherited LVP with her normal home and loves it.
Your posts are a highlight of my day when I see a new email! Two years ago, we downsized from a very large house to a much smaller house. Nine years ago, we left our perfect home to move closer to our kids. We actually were going to build a small home in the same neighborhood as our daughter. We were living in her loft area because our house had already sold. Well, long story short, the house we were going to build couldn’t be built so the builder offered us the “Big House” (that’s what I always called it) for a bargain. We now had a four bedroom house with a finished basement, a formal dining room, and an office. But, it was that or live with our daughter and her family for another two years! Eventually, I fell in love with the house as we did all kinds of DIY to it. The problem with it was all the bedrooms were on the second floor. My husband ended up breaking not one, but both of his ankles in separate accidents…one during Covid and had to have surgery. We decided to downsize to a condo, and I hate it. I lost my basement for storage of all things Christmas (luggage and other crap). We now have a crawl space where the Christmas stuff is stored in labeled boxes (I even have a spreadsheet to tell me what’s in them). But, I don’t have any place to escape to…I had that “office” where I could sip some tea, read a book, knit a sweater…just get away. Now, we have this open concept (which I detest) home. The only good thing about it is my husband just had his right hip replaced (left one will be done in March or thereabouts) so he could never have made it up those 16 steps. But, all of my houses have been ordinary houses because I don’t have the money for all the tchotchkes and throws and pillows, let alone pumpkins that either get eaten by wildlife or rot!
Man, I really went off on a tangent. Sorry. As for the influencers and their decorations, I have always wondered what happened to all that stuff since they seem to always have new stuff every year (I did read one of the comments where they apparently return lots of it). The same goes for clothing, though, when you think about it. There are a couple of style blogs I read, and they are always sporting new clothes. I’m sure they get most of it for free, but what happens to it when the next bunch comes in? We have become a nation of over consumers in every aspect of life. While I think I would love to live in a little converted cottage, I know I wouldn’t like it because I need that escape space.
I’ve always admired your home and life for so long. It feels so real to me. On the other hand the so called perfect houses and lifestyles on Instagram feel so fake. I don’t know if they are or not but I do know what can be created artificially. Sadly I have a friend who was caught up in the so called reality of Instagram and it almost destroyed her. Let’s live the life we have and embrace it! Thank you for being right on point once again.
Good post. So relevant these days with so many mega mansion homes everywhere. Thank you. I remember discussing — I was complaining truth be told — with my dad about the size of the closets in the 1400 sg. ft mid-century house where we were raising our family. Honestly, the closets were one step above the 7 hooks system. You know, one hook for each day of the week? With a twinkle in his eye, he feigned confusion and asked if suddenly there were more days of the week now than before! Like you, I enjoy the coziness of smaller homes. I simply wish they came with larger closets!
Your post really resonated with me. I am so tired of seeing such ‘perfection’ online. I don’t understand the total seasonal decorating that people do. It drives me insane. I think maybe the fall decorating is more American than Canadian, but I could be wrong. I’ve been married to my husband for 25 years, a second marriage for both of us. Our furniture now is mostly vintage teak in the living room and dining room. We bought it off Kijiji and marketplace along with a couple of vintage stores. It’s what I had when I was married to my first husband and I wish I had kept. My house was built in 1968, a very ordinary bungalow that was built actually when I was in high school. When I was a kid in high school I would have loved to have lived in a house like this. My parents rented for years and we didn’t have any money. Only after I had left home, dd they buy a house. My house does have hardwood floors, they were the original hardwood floors and the good thing about them is that when they’re old like that you’re not terribly careful with them all the time. Good thing as we are not careful with a lot of things. I think your house looks wonderful. And like I said your post just hit me the right way. Thank you. By the way, my seasonal decorating for fall is a wreath on the front door. I did no Halloween decorating but I’m not a Halloween fan. I used to decorate more for Christmas but it’s just my husband and me so I don’t knock myself out. My tree is really pretty though with lots of old ornaments that I’ve had for decades. And we treated ourselves this year to a new fake tree with the lights already on it. Hopefully they will work!
I love my normal house, with my normal slipcovered furniture so my normal pug who makes copious quantities of pug glitter, aka as pug hair, can be on the sofa with me at the end of my long day and cuddle. I love being normal in an abnormal world. Thank you for being normal in a normal house and making me smile.
Normal, normal, normal. Lived in. Not aspirational but real. Not OMG to die for but nice. Workable, livable,affordable. Thank you for your refreshingly healthy antidote to the modern influences.
I am checking back today to see if I missed a post about the election. But I see I haven’t. I am still depressed about it (and even more so with all these crazy appointments he is making) and was hoping to commiserate with some like minded people! You are lucky, perhaps because of your husband, you can move to France!
Oh and I never commented on this post which I loved. I have lived in both types of homes and am much happier back in our reasonably sized and normally decorated condo that my husband and I moved back to, after being in a large architectural show stopper type house. Much cozier and homier and we are happier in it.
OMG, I can’t describe how depressed myself and husband are. We came back to vote, we have been in London (where I was born for 4 months) even though we live in Florida, and knew our two measly votes for Kamala wouldn’t make a difference, it was the principle. Well, 2 days after our 10 hr + plane journey, just after voting by ballot box, we came down with COVID!! First timers, obviously caught on the plane, it was chock a block full of sneezing coughing morons!! Not ONE mask, just us, and we got sick. So, in a way, I fell punished for voting, we felt fine, a bit jetlagged but well, that very evening we started the ordeal (heck I would vote again 1000 times if I could, and know it made a difference) We are still testing positive (we tried yesterday again, after our initial test) 14 days later! This new XEC covid is a beast, it lingers on and on. Be careful out there.
Then to have T win, and covid too, it’s a cruel destiny.
To answer you about moving away, we have considered this, we have a house in London, that I have had since I was a child. It’s not easy, we have lived all our adult lives here in the US (we were sent to NYC in the mid 70’s (!!) with my husband’s job) He then decided to retire here to Florida after he took an early retirement from Rome Italy, he worked for an Italian company. Our entire life is here, we became citizens decades ago, we believed in America, it’s such a heartbreak. Maybe we will be forced to sell all our belongings (my husband is a collector of books etc., so much stuff) and do it, but it won’t easy. How could so many people have been so superficial, and misinformed, they voted on the economy, the economy is booming, T will see to destroy and squander that as he did the last time, it won’t last long. Anyway, let’s all stay strong and united.
Thank you Bridget. Thank you for your vote and for your husband’s vote. My husband is also a US Citizen and French citizen and he is STILL in shock!!!!
Oh I’m so sorry about your Covid, especially after doing the honorable thing, and coming back to vote. Who wouldn’t be depressed!!? Feel better soon.
Honestly, moving to France isn’t an option because we both work–but I would miss my children and grands terribly. I’m no longer watching the news because the news is partly to blame for sanewashing trump while throwing Biden under the bus and holding the bar for Harris so high. We’re in this fight together!!