Contentment

I’ve been stewing on the word contentment for a while now, particularly in terms of my house.  A little backstory: we moved into a new house 1 ½ years ago.  We love the layout, we love the neighborhood, we love the lot, we loved the general care and upkeep that was put into the home, but the finishings are very far from our style.  This past year, our money has gone into projects that are necessary, but not quite as satisfying to the eye.  We will be living with teal and pink carpet, purple countertops and the general ‘70’s vibe for a while longer.

I love house projects.  We ran out of projects in our last house…it was time to move.  I’ve been going to town on the new one, but mostly elbow grease style, you know, the much-work-little-money sort of things: painting ceilings, removing wallpaper, skim coating, sanding and lots of cleaning.  It’s done wonders and we’re enjoying the transformation.  However, when you’re working around bright teal carpeting etc., there’s only so much that can be done.

This brings me to my processing.  I have that future vision for our home.  I see the fat white trim work, I see the wainscoting, I see the bright kitchen, I see wood floors, I see the landscaped backyard.  Ok, dreaming is good, creative thinking is good, hard work is good, your house as your hobby is good, but when does it cross the line and instill feelings of discontentment, entitlement, and lack of patience?  I sometimes catch myself shooing my kids away so I can get “just one more layer” of mud on the sheetrock before dinner.

This is ridiculous.  I’ve been working on this specifically this month.  I’m starting to simply own what I have and enjoy it.  No more waiting around until…or decorating in spite of…I’m going to hang what I love and use the colors I love despite some changes that I hope to make in the future.  First world problems.  Seriously, when writing this it all sounds so petty (and it IS), however, there will always be a chance for discontent in life, whatever the circumstances.

We hope to be in this home long-term.  We hope to have many years ahead of us. We are renovating with a long-term mindset, so why do I feel like it needs to be completed by tomorrow?  I’m overflowing with thankfulness for so many things in my life.  As cliché as it sounds, I need to re-focus continually on being thankful and grateful and content in the moment.  We love living in our house.  The kids will never be at this stage again, our marriage will never be at this point again, my friendships need nourishing, I need to soak up nature and the great outdoors, and I need to learn to simply relax.  Honestly, no one else notices or cares about the state of my woodwork or the peeling purple countertops in the kitchen.  I want our home to be welcoming and warm to family and friends.  I want it to be a refuge from the harsh world and a safe haven for my kids and their friends.  This has everything to do with our HOME and nothing to do with our HOUSE.  I’m choosing to be thankful, grateful and content today.

Here is a little glimpse of our master bathroom.  Unplanned, it has become my own inspiration wall, or what I’ve nicknamed my “real life Pinterest.”  It has been fun because Husband sees this as much as I do.  It gives us a chance to vision together.  To plan the future look.  He laughs sometimes, jokingly rolls his eyes when I tape up wacky ideas, and often quotes the magazine articles just to taunt me.  But we have enjoyed many conversations throwing ideas back and forth.  And honestly, I have no problem covering the olive green sponge-painted walls for the time being.