9 Ways to Appreciate Your House Just as It Is

This is exactly what I needed to read. i am in the depths of the "wants" right now when our budget is tight. i always think my "wants" are affordable but they stack up on each other as in painting kitchen cabinets leads to putting in new countertops (even if its rustic cheap planks) leads to tearing off uppers leads to new backslpash and new open shelving...and suddenly i just feel like I can't have anything cuz i can't have it all. when in reality i have way way more than everything. a big kitchen that is light and open. a view out the kitchen window that is worth paying for. counters flooded with produce from the gardens. a weird cat. a great husband. and i comfort myself that maybe my house with all its decorating shortcomings and need of basic things like trim is to keep it from being that "intimidating" house that make other people go home dissatisfied.

Good topic. Not sure it's that easy for me. Although my house is newly constructed with the kitchen, bathrooms and floors I chose, and not in a neighborhood, which is what I wanted, it is an absolute blank slate including the landscaping. And that's my "first world" dilemma. The slight slope of the yard has made it way more difficult and costly to get the garden I want so inside finishes just aren't able to get done. At my age I don't have time to work on it for 20 years and I just can't be happy with 2 arborvitaes and a birdbath out side or blank walls inside. I'll either have to accept that its not all going to get done and live with it as it is or move into something with a more manageable yard so my $$ goes farther. Who knew 2018 would bring torrential downpours enough to bring me to this point? Thanks climate change! What was supposed to be a dream house and garden won't be now!!

Years ago, I discovered the truth of "happiness is valuing what you have, not hankering for what you haven't got. " Yet I could Not love my old house! The house itself was nice enough, but the area gave me environmental depression - Big Time!

When I finally escaped, I wanted a house with views of the hills. In my first house, I hadn't thought about the view from the window, and realised how I felt boxed in. I've progressed from simply wanting a view, to wanting to see the hills - and I love the changing light on them as much today as | did the day I moved in. What I got, and hadn't expected, was a house that faces the rising sun. The sun goes round the house all day, and at this time of year it sets behind the trees at the bottom of the back garden. In winter it sets in line with the front door, which is on the side of the house. There are other houses in the road, but few times of the year when I can't see both sunrise and sunset over a natural horizon. Many times I've watched the moon shining through the trees my late partner planted - I call them "Edward's Wood".

Downstairs I have a wonderful golden yellow "morning" room, and an "afternoon" room, which is one of the most beautiful kitchens I've ever seen. Both looks were inherited from the previous owners. Too good to change!

It gets even better! For years I read about being in sunlight above the clouds, but I only ever experienced it in the Himalayas. I thought British hills weren't high enough, but I was wrong! When I came here, I realised it's something you mostly see in autumn, otherwise very early in the morning. Other times too, but not when I'd been expecting it. Then - I saw the mist below and the sun just over the horizon from the windows of my own house! The word "breathtaking" is overworked. That was the only time in my life that a view made me gasp.. not even the Himalayas did that!

I'm an outdoor person and the result is the only house I've ever lived in where good weather doesn't make me feel trapped. The house sends out vibes that makes me feel as though it loves me... You won't be surprised to know that I've vowed to stay here for the rest of my life!