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Home Lifestyle

ANGELA GARWOOD: Making a house a home

by Angela Garwood
December 2, 2019
in Lifestyle, Opinion, People
Packing boxes

Picture: Nina Garman from Pixabay

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Well we did it. We moved house. It was just as messy and tiring as we expected, but also the most wonderful adventure.

After hours of unpacking and deciding where to put absolutely everything, I can say with a very weary yet gleeful smile, I really do love our new home.

It’s bright, cosy, and far beyond what I ever expected my first house to resemble, I’m still in disbelief that I live here.

There’s both an unfamiliarity and a familiarity to it all already, as we find our flow going about the day.

I dip in and out of giddiness, just toddling about the place, constantly discovering new things.

Like a small child really.

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Part of me feels like we’re in an Air BnB, and at some point in the next few days we’ll have to pack up our things and leave. It would take a while, as we’ve unpacked most of our belongings now.

Objects are starting to find their homes. The fridge is filled with food.

And of course The Bocks People now reside in Maia’s new bedroom. Well, some of them do.

Sadly I felt the need to restrict her precious cargo to just five Bocks People, as, even she would admit, they’re not exactly compact. (I am all for creativity and self-expression, but we will be encouraging more paper-based activities for a few months, just to keep Bocks People population levels in check, last time we counted we were on 17.)

Speaking of growing populations, we seem to have collected a vast selection of towels. As in, we can’t stop finding them in bags.

My Mum purchased a few as a “new home, new towels” line of thought.

 Then I bought a couple of bright ones I was strongly attracted to and felt would liven up the bathrooms.

And of course my partner has enough towels for half the road. So if ever we have a spillage…

Which brings me onto my next point, paint selection. After about nine minutes of testing several colours for a feature wall in the bedroom, we decided to plunge in and go for the one colour Homebase did not have a tester pot for: “Lido Blue”.

Friends and family members seem to think it looks black but we are assured by both our own better judgment and the name on the tin that it is in fact a very very dark shade of blue.

Who paints a wall black?

I like having a feature wall, it does feel somewhat sophisticated.

I feel more and more like a grown-up with every day that goes by in this process, mainly because of all the ever-so-fun money-related pillow talk.

We received our council tax bill the other day and I just thought “remember the feature wall, it’s a clear sign you are becoming your best self, you have a feature wall, I mean, you have walls!”.

With every bill comes the awareness that yes, living is an expensive business, and we might have to cut back on chopped mangoes for a bit, but being on this adventure is worth every penny and we do get a lot of joy making a house a home.

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