House Envy.
I only stepped foot inside the front door for a moment…
I was just dropping a child off for a birthday party…
That’s all it took for me to be infected with a serious case of house envy.
We have a nice house, a great house in fact. Okay, so it’s a half renovated house, and none of my dining chairs match, and several of my curtains are just sheets nailed to the window frames, but it’s our house, and I love it.
I do love our house, but…
Every now and then, when I get to peak into a beautiful home, a finished home, a home with nice furniture, and paintings on the walls, and something other than weeds in the front garden, or even just a tidy home… I find myself falling head over heels into a deep dark pit of envy.
My rational brain can come up with many many reasons why these ‘perfect homes’ are not something I’d really like to live in… they are not big enough for our family, not my style, too much of this, not enough of that.
My rational brain can come with many many reasons why our home is not quite ‘perfect’ yet… we have four wild and messy children, we don’t have a big budget for fancy house stuff, we are still renovating, and doing it all ourselves, our lives are busy.
My rational brain is right, but it’s not enough to cure me of the envy disease.
I find myself wishing things were different. I find myself wishing the painting was done, or that I could buy that expensive rug, or maybe if I got rid of all the kid’s stuff then at least our house would tidy if not ‘beautiful’… or maybe we should just move.
Then I get mad with myself for not being content with what we have, for not being grateful for how lucky we are, for not appreciating our house and all the hard work and love that has gone into it.
The fever will fade eventually and I’ll fall back in love with our house, in all it’s unfinished imperfect glory, but I’m sure if I’ll ever really git rid of the house envy disease.
Tell me I am not the only one!
Do you get house envy too?
How do you deal with it?
Yes nodding profusely! But I kinda enjoy the possibilities it plants in your head so then you can come up with lots of hair brained ideas that hubby ignores. And I’m looking at you pinterest! I’m pretty sure those beautiful homes have very tidy habits, of which I don’t. I want to know why you didn’t take any photos of the beautiful house!!! For research purposes for your readers! Another cure is to go camping/visit parents, totally makes you appreciate your house again!
You are right… I’ve wasted plenty of time since getting the house envy, thinking of how I could make our house more awesome. What should I do or buy first, how could this or that work… of course I haven’t actually done anything to make our house more awesome, because well, that would require actual effort! LOL
Lots of house envy here too but I do love coming back to our house every time we go out and remembering the memories we’ve made here and the love that fills it :)
House envy…..but you have a home. Very different things a house and a home!
Yip, totally get that. I remind myself that I don’t want to be cleaning a huge house with heaps of bathrooms! And also, would I am doing it for my family or jus to impress others? What’s the point of that?! I amiss not minimalist, but I really like this blog http://www.becomingminimalist.com because it reminds me to be grateful and happy with less.
First of all i am envy of your large courtyard space ;-)
secondly i love to be in midst of lovely and artistic things; but i stick to one principle no purchasing …so if i got time i’ll always prefer to decorate my house with my crochetin,art and craft or something like that…..or the easiest way to peek into others home internet ;-) my style is bohemien… ivina you are doing great
Oh yes! We rent and sometimes I HATE this house. It’s old, ugly (everything is BROWN and poorly painted), has no insulation, is just ODDLY built, and has the most impractically small kitchen sink (I seriously think it’s meant for a cabin or camper van) and we have little money for decorations. Also, toddlers are not what you want around to have a pinterest-perfect home (but are what you want if you enjoy laughing nearly all the time because toddlers are awesome creatures!)
So I concentrate instead on making it feel comfortable (in spite of the lack of insulation). And I clean. My house may be messy with clothes and toys and crayons thrown everywhere, but floors are vacuumed and swept, and things are dusted.
It’s funny that when I read your description of 10 acres of weeds and an overgrown veggie garden, I immediately felt a little house/yard envy!! I can’t seem to get over that longing for something simple and cozy with lots of green space. I have been getting over it by slowly naturalizing my little suburban plot with native grasses, trees and shrubs for my little one to play in (with a little trepidation that in 5 years I may live in a jungle lot that will dismay my neighbours!). The plantings are also slowly bringing in birds, bees, butterflies and other insects. I am trying to bring the country to me, and have told myself it might not be as fun if I didn’t get to plan it all myself. :)
Btw I am new to your site and I love your printables!