Cheeky in Blue: Home sweet home...

I love my house and truly feel blessed to be able to wake up and walk barefoot on the espresso wood floors covered in wisps of the never-ending dog fur that only three scruffy dogs can produce, and no matter the amount of swiffering I do, never seem to disappear.

We have owned different houses in different cities, but this was the first one that felt like home from the very first moment, even before I ripped down the really awful dining room wall paper that made me feel like I was in a Brontë novel which was promptly replaced with something much lighter and brighter. So I started thinking what is it about a home that makes us feel that way? The truth is I could live in a dilapidated shack as long as I am with my family because they are the essence of home for sure, but sometimes there is a feel to a place that says...I'm home...

Source: etsy.com via katie on Pinterest

Our first home was a Craftsman bungalow, built in 1924 with a screened in front porch and swing. There were giant lilacs that were more trees than bushes towering over us with their lavender superiority, old peony bushes that produced fluffs of color every summer, and giant elms that effortlessly filtered the most perfect sunlight over our house. I was in heaven. This was the home I had always wanted! I grew up in a typical split level 1970's orange shag carpet, wood paneling situation, but I was always longing for those places that were old and had a story. The ones that felt as though they actually breathed from the sounds they made on a daily basis. The ones where you ran upstairs from the damp basement because some ghostly thing might be lurking! I will never forget that home because we had our first two little ones there and it was amazing.

Houses that just feel like homes...a farm house, I love this!