We Want a House

But we can't have one yet.

And it's kind of disheartening.
Our apartment is crap-tiny-small. We don't have the space to put a kitchen table if we wanted to, I swear. I have two full size and two half-cupboards that count as a pantry in the kitchen. The living room has terrible angles in it, and the one ceiling light is nowhere near the "middle" of the room. The bedroom closet is a nice size, but considering that's the only real dedicated storage space in the house, it's not that awesome (there's a coat/linen closet in the hallway that holds dog food and our vacuum and carpet cleaner, which takes up all the space that is offered).
The neighbors upstairs either have terribly mannered children, they move furniture a lot, or are wrestlers. And if you get home after 8 pm, good luck finding somewhere to park that doesn't require a five-minute walk up a hill to your apartment. The fridge leans backwards (and has done so the whole four or so years the Mister has lived here!). The back porch is a small concrete slab - fenced in, but it collects leaves - oh, and when the leaf-blower people come by, we always end up with more leaves than we had!

I could go on, but really, that's more than enough to get the idea!

Honestly, it's not terrible, but it's certainly not a place we want to spend the rest of our lives in.

We want a garage with power tools! And an actual backyard we can let the dogs out in to run (or at least do smallish laps)! And walls to paint, or tear down, or cut in half, or whatever! And a pantry! And a living room that has only four walls! A coat closet and a linen closet!
Somewhere we can spread out, instead of having to tip toe around each other. Somewhere that has actual counter space in the kitchen and bathroom. Somewhere that we don't have to listen to everyone else's comings and goings.

But right now, that's just not going to happen.

We have less money than we need, and more bills than we would like, for all of that to happen.

So for now, we have to just make this place work.
Which is why its Home Week.
I spent almost all of Monday afternoon going through things on that horrendous shelf I showed you. I schlepped off yesterday, but got back on the horse today, and made decent progress. There are a few areas left - and there always will be - but even as it is now, things are getting better. I can walk into my bedroom without having to check where the laundry basket is. I can set something down on the kitchen bar. I can see the top of the big dresser.

A house is just a place you live. A home is where you're happy to be.

Neither of us are happy to be here. But in the mean time, I feel its my job to make it as bearable as possible.
Obviously, there can't be the addition of furniture, and we can't really do anything physical to the apartment, but we can still shuffle things around. And we can dream of large comfy couches and fully stocked pantries that are more closet like than cupboard like. We can hope for flooring other than cheap carpet, and long for the space to actually have a home for all of our items versus keeping stuff in piles. Basically, for now, we can live in Pinterest land, and hope and save and dream about what will hopefully lie ahead.

What awesome things do you want and/or have gotten for your home?

~ Havok

If you liked this post, be sure and check out these other posts!

Decluttering In Areas That Aren't On The List

Piles and Piles and Running in Circles

File Back-Ups [or, why storing something in only one place is bad]