A Rant on Furnishings.

First, let me say that I am still loving the winter weather, but I'm also anticipating the spring time when I can put in a nice big garden.  We got another 7 inches of snow last week.

 

 

 

 

Dan plows out the church and a few neighbors in the area.  He asked me to come with him this time, so I did.  One of the neighbors gave me this blanket she had just finished making.  She said it was for the baby.  Our baby will be VERY warm next winter, because it is made out of very nice fleece!

 

 

 

Last week, I had a strong urge to clean the house. 

I usually clean once a week, but sometimes I do a half-hearted job, or skip dusting the heaters...forget to bother with the rooms we don't use downstairs, ect.

 

Well this time was different.  I literally tore the house apart.  And it felt SO good.  I changed out our bedspread (which I like to do occasionally) and dusted everything.  I noticed something which I never have noticed before.  In every room, our furniture doesn't match. 

 

I love it that way...

I grew up in a home where my mom had mis-matched wooden furniture all through the house.  Something about it says "homey" to me. 

I know that everyone is different about styles and what they like, but really? The telling factor as to whether or not I'll like a piece of furniture is how much it costs. 

 

I love that our bedroom furniture cost a total of $25. Only the bedframe cost that...everything else we got for free! :) 

 

 

 

In our living room and dining room, the only things that cost money were the sofa, table and chairs, serving table, and trunk.  And they total roughly $100.  It's really quite easy to come across things being tossed that are really in very nice condition. 

 

By the way, if these pictures look strangely stretched, its because they were taken using the panoramic setting on my phone.  Our house isn't really oddly-shaped.  

 

This is my music room, which is where most of the clutter is.  I have shelves of music as you can see.  Everything in this room was free, including the piano, which actually holds its tune quite well!

 

 

And the spare bedroom, we splurged while living in Baltimore and bought a used rocking chair for $15 (it probably wasn't worth that because it has a massive crack in it on the seat), the tv stand for $5 and the bed frame for $15.  Even the two TV's were free...

 

 

I think one of the biggest things that cause people to spend money frivolously is thinking that they have to have the item right away, after moving into a place.  Most of this furniture in our house we acquired slowly, not right after getting our house and getting married.  If we had been in a rush to furnish our house, we would have ended up paying a lot more to do so.  

 

As it is, I am very happy with our mis-matched furniture.  We recently re-modeled the lobby of our church (which I'll have to post pictures of next time!), so we were visiting lots of furniture stores, thrift stores, antique stores...you name it, looking for deals.  I was shocked at the amount of money people regularly spend on low-quality furniture that matches, but isn't even real wood. 

 

 

 I like to think that my house looks nice and like a home.  I don't need to feel like I'm walking into IKEA each time I walk into my home. 

Wow, enough of my rant.  Hope you all are having a great week.  Dan went to preach for a nearby Bible college for two days and he'll be back any moment.  I'm happy, because since being together for nearly two years now, being apart for even two days feels like FOREVER. 

 

Until next time!