Make my home warm and inviting, a haven for all who enter it

I would absolutely love for people to feel totally at ease and happy when they enter my humble abode! I will aim to do this by letting everyone I love know they are welcomed anytime and keeping it clean and fresh all the time…

You know the old saying, “Fish, like company, begins to go bad after three days?” I’m actively working to make my home so welcoming that people who enter my door are too comfortable to ever make me unhappy… and to make sure all people here feel welcome and cozy.

Following the saga of completing this goal, this Spring, we moved to a more urban place in a bigger city…

Whether or not I can take credit for this good fortune or I can “blame” our smiles on my mad furniture arranging skills, I have had non-stop company for more than six weeks now without complaints from me or anybody. That, my friends (coming from the typically reclusive and anti-social wonderbunny who except by small dose is never wild about long staying company) is simply amazing.

Proof one we are on the right track: Everyone has been relaxed and enjoyed the house immensely—so much so that nobody wants to leave.

Proof two everything here is working: I can even say with both surprise and delight that not only has everyone enjoyed their stay, nobody has managed to be rotten or stinky… and all have reported the home both warm and inviting.

Proof three is really rooted in the reports of family.

Being an empirical girl, I have not checked the goal off too quickly. I’ve waited for feedback, and here’s the review of our homefront from the troops: May went by too fast. June went by deliciously slow. Celebrating our independent right to free thinking and to choose the sort of lifestyle we live (by our habits, manners, and moods), the Fourth of July weekend went off without a hitch. Now we are into planning the rest of the summer, and everyone just seems to want to keep spending time together.

As such, I think I can relax into checking off this ambitous yet attainable goal pretty easily. However, I can’t take credit for it all, only the address picking. This sort of “havenly” success leads me to think that this new residence might just be blessed—because we are all having so much fun and are certainly feeling lucky! I think everything gelling is a mix of the right address, the best location, the right colors, an absurd amount of happy windows and colorful scenery, and bringing all the right family history and trail of antiques with me.

Here is my housewarming theory: Maybe it’s the walls, maybe its the family, but a house that is arranged in theory, practice, and in its physical essence to create a feeling of home in its space is always good and definately makes the place sacred. God blesses those who work diligently to create happy.

My house right now is welcomed proof against the fish and company theory, and I’m starting to think this has been the most homey home I have created. Everything here just feels right, for the most part, and we all seem to love the place. So, the time has come to breathe a big sigh of relief and to name this virtuously intentioned deed done. To quote Barbara Hall from Northern Exposure on Northern Hospitality, “That’s the secret of entertaining. You make your guests feel welcome and at home. If you do that honestly, the rest takes care of itself.” Beyond all house guests and most importantly, my family can’t wait to relax and be home.

Thanks, 43, for cheering me along through the process of making sure the loves of my life all feel honored, relaxed, and totally welcome.

I have had this on the top of my list for some time now and I have yet to write an entry. I have been busy with other things like getting my garden in. It will be a slow process but I will start with the entry way and then see what else is needed. I don’t think I need all new furniture but some of the rooms need an update on painting and maybe some flooring situations can be addressed.
But, I think to make my home warm and inviting it should have a relaxed atmosphere, be clean, and generally quiet, which for the most part my home already is…. Alaythia took about 9 months to complete her transition I think I will take about the same time and will try to update every couple of weeks or so.. Peace.

While our home still isn’t perfect, I think it’s a much more welcoming environment than it used to be. Our new apartment is more spacious than our old one and our guests won’t feel like they have to squeeze past things when they want to walk around. We eliminated a lot of clutter and we’ve put some organizational systems in place to help hide what remains. We replaced our hodge-podge of bookshelves with ones that match and our new seating is comfortable and inviting too. When we know we’re going to have people over, I try to make sure they’re greeted with pleasing aromas (either food cooking on the stove or a nice candle) and I strive to make them feel at home. There are some areas that could stand improvement, but I feel confident enough to mark this one as done. Woohoo!

Here’s an “after” picture of our living room. (I used it in another entry so it may look familiar.) I just wish I’d had the sense to take a “before” one! Lol.

One of the projects we’re beginning to undertake in preparation for our move is a vast de-cluttering. I see no sense in hauling things we no longer like or use across 1200 miles of bumpy roads over snowy, mountainous terrain into the desert on the back of a very large truck. Now, we regularly go through our belongings and cull the things we no longer find useful or beautiful. We’re just being a bit more ruthless about it now.

I really have a difficult time relaxing in a cluttered environment. I like my countertops and other flat surfaces to be clean and clear of all but one or two essential or decorative items. I’m not a minimalist (I don’t take it to quite that extreme) I just prefer the peace and tranquility I find in organized spaces. Hopefully the “Great De-Cluttering of 2007” will save us some money in moving expenses as well as a little peace of mind.

advancement in this area today, as far as I’m concerned. We finally got some new couches! (They were our combined wedding anniversary, birthday, and Christmas gifts. lol.) Our old couch had many problems. For one thing, we only had one. It didn’t facilitate conversation very well since the only other seats we had were dining room chairs and those make your butt go numb after only a short length of time. The old couch was also an “early married” piece—which means it didn’t match a single other thing we owned. lol. Its final, perhaps most insidious flaw was that the springs were well-worn. If two people sat on it at the same time, the middle section would cave in and they would instantly be sucked into the “brown hole”. lol. We’ve lost many friends this way.

Slowly but surely we are winnowing out our hodge-podge of hand-me-downs and starting to cultivate our own style. Hopefully the addition of these two pieces will provide a more cozy and inviting environment for our friends and family to relax in.

I have a bit of extra incentive to work on this. We’re going to be out of state for about 5 weeks this summer and we decided to sublease our apartment while we’re gone. As of right now, there’ll be 4 different people living here (at different times). I’d really like for them to be comfortable and “at home” while they’re in our abode. I plan to superclean the place before we leave and I’d like to come up with some other ideas on what we can do to make our living space more hospitable.

Ooh! I think I’ll make a “neighborhood guide” for those who will be staying here (none of them will be from this area) detailing where the closest grocery store is, how to get from our place through the tangle of roads to the major highways, the best time to do laundry in our building, local attractions, etc. etc. I’m excited now! : )

on this but I just haven’t had much of a chance lately. We’ve been making more of a concerted effort to keep our apartment clean and we’ve been ruthlessly eliminating clutter. I want to get some new living room furniture (so that our seating is comfortable) but it’s not really in our budget right now. I guess for now I will make a list of things I want to change and then work on changing them when the resources present themselves.