Riot and Frolic

06 Home

My house is special.  No no, not the cheesy, "home is where the heart is" or "home is where ever I'm with you" sort of special.  I mean, special.  I think the perfect word to describe the space I live in with my fam is "wabi-sabi."

Wabi-sabi is not only a fun word to say, but has a great meaning.  It's the acceptance of transience, of seeing the beauty in something that is imperfect, impermanent, or incomplete.  That is my house.

When we moved in four years ago, our house looked like junk: 70s decorating, nasty carpet, overly-divided junk.  My bro-in-law and the G took to demo work like me to popsicles and ripped out paneling, carpeting, doorways, bathrooms, and walls.  Then we had some kids and got busy with our jobs.  So…

This is our kitchen.

So is this…

From left to right:

There's the old doorway to the old bathroom that reminded me of an outhouse, even though it was very much indoors.  

There's our awesome new back door which lets in lots of light to our unfinished back entry area, showcasing the many wallpapers that hid behind the removed paneling.

There's the future pass-through that will have a great little bar/eating counter over the stove and be shared with the dining room.  It needs a header beam so the ceiling doesn't fall down.

Here's our front entry.

I love lamp.

I also love our pull-down screen for our projector.  It hides in the doorway's molding.  Oh, wait. It doesn't.  I love our leaded window, but it might be missing a pane.  Duct tape totally works.

This is a corner of our bedroom.  

This strangely bugs me the most.  WHY IS THIS PAINTED BROWN?  All of the trim in the house is painted brown, but that is not an explanation for this beauty.  We have these slanted corners in all the second story rooms and it baffles me as to why someone would point out these architectural marvels with ugly brown paint.  

This is the light switch in the bathroom.  

It makes me laugh every time I see it because I could easily fix it, but I don't.  I always wonder if whoever screwed it in in the first place thought it was right-side-up.

In a huff one afternoon, I ripped down the silly floral wallpaper in the hallway to find this:

Oh Lord, how I laughed.  Really?  Wallpaper here?  

Visitors often ask us if we're planning to wallpaper the hallway and I have to think for a second why they would ask.  I'm pretty sure I would remember where it would go without having to label it, but thanks for asking if I'm an idiot.

Even with all the magnificent absurdities in my house, I still throw big parties, have anyone who wants to come over visit, and clean it like it's a McMansion and I'm in the hired help.  I think living in this lovely abode has helped me let go of [some of] my perfectionist streak and wade into the awesomeness of wabi-sabi.

Peace, yo.