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!