A Girl Can Dream!

I love houses. I love going to people’s houses. I love seeing how people live in their homes. I love looking at houses online –besides the real estate sites, these are some of my favorites:


http://hookedonhouses.net/

http://www.lookiloos.com/


I love how what you put into your house makes it a home.

I have lived in 13 different places in my life so far and I loved and hated things about all of them. Besides my childhood home the house we live in now is the longest stay I have ever had. We have never owned one of them yet, and I am OK with that because I like the experience of moving and discovering a new home. I have lived in all types of homes from tiny to quite large, from farm house to log cabin. From the late 90’s to 1800’s. I am starting to get a little antsy to move again. Mostly because for me it is a time to change it up – change my style, organize our things and a time to purge- oh how I love to purge!! (The kids run screaming to their toys when they see me with a garbage bag)

My favorite kind of house is one with lots of character and preferably older that has been given some modern updates or at least kept up very well.

Yesterday something very random happened to us- which of course is the best way for things to happen but also makes you think it happens for a reason.

We were driving down my favorite road in the country – I even morbidly love the cemetery on that road and tell my husband that is where he should bury me.

We were going to go for a walk, it was the first sunny day in over a week, when we drive by one of the houses I always look at when I pass and they had AN OPEN HOUSE sign out front!! I made my hubby turn around immediately. Of course this house is not one that would ever be on a list of mine –WAY out of my price range (EVEN IF I WAS DREAMING!) even the driveway we turned around in across the street had a big electric gate, which embarrassingly opened as we pulled in! But even though I like to dream big, don’t worry I realized this was just a dream tour I was about to go on.

This house was amazing, and the couple whose house it is, was even more amazing. It was built in the 1800’s but had been re-done over the years with 1940’s style retro-modern bathrooms of subway tiles, every bedroom had its own bathroom, one with a claw foot tub (a house we lived in once had a red claw foot tub – it was so much fun!) soapstone counter tops in the kitchen with a vintage stove, all wood floors throughout from the trees grown on the land (quirkily uneven and creaky), wood walls, vintage décor, fun nooks and hidden crannies, and lots and lots and lots of gorgeous windows ! It was immaculate and meticulously decorated with such love and care. I told the lady she should have been an interior decorator and she said to me that she was! And sure enough this home has been featured in several country living type magazines, which she lovingly showed us. We spent well over an hour just chatting and looking at the beauty of the home even though they knew that we weren’t looking to buy- just looking to admire. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated this couple for taking their time and telling us the stories of their home, knowing that we were just simply looking out of appreciation.

I couldn’t help but wonder why none of their children are buying this home? It was like a piece of history that you can’t put a price on. There was even a historical cabin in the yard they had moved to their property that she told me they use for holiday parties and summer gatherings. (an upstairs room with 6 single beds all decorated in red/white and blue was a child’s dream getaway place – can you imagine getting together will all of your cousins and being able to all camp out in a room with a sitting area and private bathroom? (used to be where the caretakers lived)

The Cabin in the backyard

Check out that ORIGINAL STOVE!

I could just picture our things in this home – my love for vintage design and how well we would care for it.

Do you ever do that? You see a home you love, know you will never own it, but go to sleep picturing where you would put your things and imagining how you would live there if only?

This is how I fell asleep last night – just decorating and living our lives in this amazing place. I imagined which room would go to each of our kids –of course in my “dream” they left me all of their furniture too!

I know not everything is perfect and things happen for a reason, but you never know – I feel like there was a reason that we decided to go for a walk right then, and that we drove by and saw the sign, went in and had such a warm greeting and were told such a loving tale of history. Maybe we will have a home inspired by this one someday.

Hey – maybe they need a nice care-taker family?! We could live there, care for the home so they can go somewhere warmer and whenever they want to come back for a visit or vacation, we will just go stay somewhere else. (I’m SURE friends/family would LOVE that plan!)

AH! Wishful thinking – but it’s fun to dream anyway….