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We built this house in 1999. It is definitely “home”. We have chosen furniture and accessories that we love no matter the style or else they were handed down, so they may be vintage, antique, mid- century or new-ish. I had the different rooms painted in colors the family liked instead of all one color all over the house. I’ve had so many people tell me that our house is so calm and we feel part of that is the soft sky blue we had the living and kitchen areas painted. 

We have favorite recipes, especially for holidays. It isn’t Christmas if we don’t have a certain cake that I make because my mother-in-law always did. My daughter wants homemade chicken and dumplings for her birthday every year. I use my grandmother’s recipe for them. My daughter is reminded of her childhood with these dumplings and I am reminded of mine, of the days when I used to watch my grandmother make dumplings and she would let me help her. Everyone seems to have a particular favorite recipe that brings feelings of home. 

I see some homes that were beautifully decorated by professionals and loved by their owners but I have never wanted that. I prefer living with the mixed up styles that make our home. Also- My yard won’t win any awards but I’m doing it my way. 

I love my home <3. I’m a busy working mom and wife but I take great comfort in caring for our apartment and cooking meals here. It feels like a giant exhale when I come home, unwind from the work day, put on my pajamas and slippers, and putter around the place. I like making dinner (well, most nights). We usually have a simple salad, potato, and a piece of chicken, baked fish, or omelette. But every Friday, I relish having pizza and a movie night in our living room. Sometimes we walk a block away and grab an ice cream cone for dessert. Our daughter can walk to her middle school. I also love watching her from the balcony window returning at the end of the school day. I feel excited that we will pay off our home in the next 18 months too. My husband and I have worked hard for almost 15 years to make that happen. No matter what is happening in the world, we created our own haven. 

That was a very beautiful post. :)

Hi all, thank you for this post Grandma Donna. All your posts are very welcome but this one resonates with me particularly.  My husband and I have become "almost-empty-nesters" recently, and the house has a sense of emptiness without the young people coming and going. 

It's invaluable and timely to be reminded of the basics to make a house a home, so I can re-fashion our place into a home for this new phase of life.

One space in our home that I love now and which works well is this corner in the front entry. You can put your things down for a moment and sit comfortably to take your shoes off. There are places for shoes,  hats, coats and keys within easy reach of the chair. I like to keep a vase of fresh flowers on another cabinet nearby but the flowers there presently need replacing! :)

We built my home in 1981, we were so young and some may say dumb but we knew what we wanted and buckled down and did the work. 2 very young girls and lived in a self-contained camper while building. 

I love my home and it is most definitely my cozy safe haven.  I am so content to be at home, I sometimes dread having to go grocery shopping or errands, would rather be home. I love it when people come and say how cozy and homey it is. Sometimes they say everything is so interesting, I have lots of plants, rocks, fossils, feathers and natural stuff for my grands to look at and learn from.

I guess my signature dishes would be deviled eggs, baked beans and cheesecake.  I get a bit tired of making the baked beans but they always request them.

Have been super busy getting my "to-do" list for outside and garden done, I have  some things left to do but I am doing what I can when I can without wearing myself out. I am trying to work intentionally and enjoy or at least relax in the process. One thing at a time and not multi-tasking.

Today was picking up sticks and I painted the front porch/deck.... pistachio green floor, teal blue uprights and eggplant rails...It's happy and I love color.

I'm working on this.

I'm tired of our house looking like a storage place.

I know being a minimalist is trendy, but it’s not for me. I might be an “enoughist” though.  Home is a very special word <3. (That’s a heart

For me, home is definitely fairly minimalistic - I have my dad when he was alive as an untidy hoarder, my younger daughter lives in a constant jumble of mess, I have neighbours each side of me who live in constant disarray - and by that I mean loads of junk around the houses and in the yards with long unmown grass and weeds - so for me, I have to have it neat and tidy.  Oh I still have my favourite little bits and pieces and it's by no means picture perfect but I hate chaos and untidiness - just my personal take on things.  As well, a few years back we both looked at things through different eyes and asked ourselves two questions - first one, if we have to move, would we take it with us and the second one was would either of our girls or our grandchildren want, need, or even be interested in it - if the answer was no, then that item (and there were many) was donated.   I don't ever want my family to have to spend weeks or even months going through our stuff when we eventually leave our mortal coil - I've been there, it's not pleasant.

When I had two in cloth diapers, I used Borax in the diaper pail and never had any smell.  I usually washed every other day but still with two without the Borax it would have smelled.

I have nothing against a "fancy" decorated house but wouldn't want to live in one.  I want a home that is comfortable to live in and welcoming for visitors.  I discovered many years ago if the kitchen and bathroom are clean and the living room picked up most people won't notice if it's not perfect.  And if someone comes to my home to critique it, well, they're in the wrong place.

All of your posts are wonderful, Grandma Donna, but this one felt like a hug. Thank you.

Such a beautiful and heart warming post thank you. Lovely photos

I'm grateful for our home. It's the simple things like having a family base, a pretty mug, a vase of flowers, vintage china and linen collected from the op shop, hanging washing outside on a sunny day etc. I like a clean and uncluttered home. 

For me a home is a personal space to be myself and safe.

I wish everyone could have that.

I believe I'm a post behind, however, I'll add my two cents worth.

What I do with an abundance of eggs---- I make and freeze breakfast burritos. I'm a little uneasy with dehydrating raw eggs.

I beat a number of eggs, add cooked turkey sausage, diced potatoes, bell peppers. cheese and green chilies, use what you prefer.  I then ladle a large scoop of this mixture into my nonstick skillet and make something similar to a thick quiche, flipping to cook completely.  I lay the flour tortilla on the thick quiche, after flipping, for a few seconds to soften the tortilla. (We don't own a microwave}, then lay the tortilla down, slid the cooked quiche on it, roll it up, cool, package and freeze. To reheat, I thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then you can bake them in the oven, they can get a little crunchy, the way we like the best is to reheat in our steamer.  Great time saving breakfast and I used the eggs.

Grandma Donna, thank you so much for your inspiration, the morale boosts I always receive and your beautiful home and gardens.  I love reading the blog uneasy times.  What an blessing!

We are planning our "Victory Garden".

Home is where I save money. :D I have analyzed our solar generator capacity, and we have made our plans to expand it. I bought the updated version of our smaller generator plus an adjustable solar panel so I can move it with the sun that has a larger charge than our other panels, and it cost less than what we paid for the original small generator. This means faster charging and more capacity. My other inflation buster this week was buying fabric on sale, enough for two dresses and a nightgown and a simple nightgown pattern, and that cost 56% less than the one dress and nightgown I bought earlier this year. I am diligently working through my mending pile so that I will free to do some sewing. 

Whenever we have been somewhere,  even just to the grocery store, when the car is turned towards home, I always feel happy. :) 

Home is where our carpenter bee is. He showed up last spring and is back again this year. We think he lives in our woodpile. He always flies over to say hello when we are in the yard. 

Oh, I love this post. Home is so important. I couldn't believe while homeschooling all the homes I've been to that only looked like a place to sleep until they left it to the next thing. I always thought the poor children who don't have that homey connection.   I'm a huge homebody.  Having said that, I don't have that perfect spot. With a bad back, and a very old cat that was part feral, I've never had a nice chair he didn't destroy. My bucket list is to finally have a comfortable chair when he goes (he's 16, sigh). But I like smaller homes and ours is just so large. I dream of cutting it in half and simply barring a portion off as storage, but my dh says no (who doesn't clean it.) lol.  Removing our carpet last year, the flooring while pretty, is very hard on our feet and constantly dusty. I miss carpet. It added warmth. No more barefoot or plopping on the floor. Seems more sterile and rugs are a trip hazard.  

Joan S, I was just looking up sky blue for my kitchen! It's now green and I could use a change. 

Lady L, I am also an "enoughist". I did get rid of things hard to clean around and trip hazards but I know if my house was smaller, I'd have more cozy items around.  

I absolutely love to rearrange, but Mr. Grumpy hates it. Makes me feel dead. But still with all that said, I'm always working on home. I love open windows, lace anything, folded clothes in drawers, doing laundry, cleaning (if it was smaller), rearranging, etc. I have a neighbor that I visited through another friend and would love to get in contact with her.  I absolutely LOVE her style.  "It's only paint!" she says.  She has the most fun house to go into - not crazy but totally reflects her, interesting and crafty without quirky, and color without too much color.  She does fun things with plates to decorate her garden - she's just so crafty which is reflected in her home.  I LOVE her attitude about it.  She could be good for me since I can be little anal with my own stuff ;).  I wish I could just be more go with the flow. I love your home Gr. Donna and loved when you just painted your kitchen backsplash area (love that panelling) but when I try to try to add color or ideas, it just doesn't convey. Why is that? There are so many things I love, eclectic, vintage, matchy - and I can never make it work. 

What a wonderful post!  I love your cozy home and gardens.  My mother gave me a chenille bedspread much like yours, white with pink flowers.  I gave it up when I moved out of state, how I wish I hadn't!!  Our home was built in 1940, not very old by architectural standards, but we love bringing her back to her era with thrifted and family furniture and decor.  It's our sanctuary and happy place.  I rarely post, but I love reading everyone's thoughts and feel very much among friends.  Enjoy your weekends.  Another Donna :)

Ann E, I am trying to convince my husband to get rid of the carpet! After 30 years I'm tired of cleaning carpet because of spills, pets, children and now grandchildren.  So I stopped doing it and leave it to my husband. I think he's getting tired of hauling out the carpet cleaner every time my daughter's dog has an accident. I mentioned a rag and a spray would be much easier on us.

I have to wear shoes in the house so not having carpet wouldn't bother me. I'm not a throw rug kind of person so trip hazards wouldn't be a concern for me. 

My husband has a lot harder with change than I do.