Making A House A Home

The cats and I have been in our new house for 10 days now.

I've been unpacking boxes and deciding whether the furniture is where I want it. Most of the boxes have been unpacked. The furniture seems to be in the right place, at least for the time being.

Before I moved into this home, I knew that I was going to need more stuff. After all, this house in almost twice the size of my previous one. I need to fill spaces. I have a deck, so I need patio furniture. I have three living spaces - a living room, a family room, and an open downstairs where I have put the TV. I had two couches, so I need a third or some other form of seating. And I need to figure out where to put the art that I have and what new art I might want.

Buying furniture turns out to be more complicated than I had imagined. What kind of patio furniture do I want? Wood, metal, or wicker. I hate wicker, so that much was an easy decision. Wood is harder to maintain. Metal can rust. Ultimately, it came down to taste. Clean lines. Simple lines. I ended up with metal.

Even more complicated have been the decisions about seating. I have discovered that microfiber or faux suede are the best choices for fabric because the cats don't pick at them. Or if they do, it doesn't show. Either way, I will get more life out of the furniture with those fabrics. So that's the first decision. From there, it's a question of what style of seating. Again, I want clean and simple. Almost Asian, but not. Modern. Sleek, but not cold. Functional.

I looked for several weeks before I had even moved. And had found next to nothing that I actually liked. Even given that I had a bigger space to fill, and so could get one of the gi-normous couches that are around these days, nothing seemed quite right. Current styles seem to lean toward ornate furniture. So not me. Clean and simple seemed to be relegated to Ikea, and I was trying to go a little more upscale.

Then I found a sectional and coffee table that I just really liked. But that didn't really fit the space I needed to fill. The room that I really needed seating for was the living room. A sectional, even a really nice one, somehow just doesn't fit with my plans for that space. I need a more traditional couch to go with the two arm chairs I already have. But I really liked this sectional. It was clean and simple, and came in microfiber. Perfect. So I decided to get it and replace the couch that is currently downstairs in front of the TV. Or rather, move that couch to the family room upstairs and get rid of the sofabed that is both ancient (at least 10 years old) and beat up (not microfiber, very much cat-scratched). That still left a couch for the living room. I think I have found a solution there, too, though I haven't seen it in person yet and I need that. Hopefully soon.

Beyond furniture, though, to me, the touches that make a house a home are the accessories, the knickknacks, the tchotchkes. Placing the artwork is proving a more daunting tasks than the furniture. I have found a few homes for my existing pieces, but not many. And while I have quite a bit of artwork and knickknacks, I need more. And I need different types. I need more art, less box-store stuff. I need things with flair, not just the things I bought was I was 20 and that's all I could afford.

But those are not quick finds. It was much easier to walk into a box store and buy decorations at 20. At almost 50, it's much harder to be selective. To take the time to really fall in love with each piece.

So the house will be finished soon. The last of the boxes will be unpacked. The furniture will be bought and put in place. The spaces will be filled.

But the home is going to take a while longer.