Welcome to my Redecorating Journal
I’m one of those people that constantly moves, rearranges, and renovates. I’ve relocated/moved 44 times in my life (and I’m sure there’s still more moves in my future). My husband has worked as a contractor specializing in home repair and remodel. He also built amazing storage sheds. We’ve moved a lot, both locally and cross country.
My husband and I have entered into 19 home purchase contracts over the years, including a tiny home, a condo, a home with an HOA, homes abutting green spaces, and homes on acreage. We’ve owned homes in big cities, and homes in rural towns. Bought homes in need of repairs and new construction homes. We’ve had sales fail. We went to court over a sale fail. We’ve sold FSBO. We’ve been landlords. We’ve had to evict a tenant (they trashed our house). I’ve served on two homeowner associations. All that to say, with my husband’s help, I’ve made a lot of places (even if it was a rental) into homes over the years.
I love to turn spaces into special places. I can make any place feel like home. I don’t need a bunch of expensive stuff to do it. I can use what I already have. My husband and I love to visit thrift shops, garage sales, 2nd hand stores, discount stores, sales…. I see potential in other people’s junk, and even my own! (I’ve been known to shop my own stuff and reuse or repurpose it!)
My husband and I have traveled a lot. We love to camp/RV. We have a 5th wheel toy hauler and a 2 seat RZR. We’ve traveled from coast to coast; into Canada, Mexico and across the oceans to Hawaii and Europe. If you’d like to follow our traveling adventures, visit Taste & See Travelog. This site is a work in progress. Sometimes we move so much, we don’t have time to post.
Post employment “plans“. I retired from working full time for the federal government in real property leasing/contracting. My post employment goals are for self employment as a blogger, and for my husband and I to start a new business. We also hope to travel with our RV. We have contemplated to one day host guests in our home.
UPDATE 2023: My husband and I have spent the last 3 years renovating our retirement home and we moved my mother in to live with us, so hosting guests in our home has been put on hold. We’ve hardly traveled because the cost to travel is extremely expensive these days. Instead, we’ve focused on home and local recreation.
UPDATE 2024: We launched Rustic Country Market, a farmers/artisan style market; specializing in local, small batch coffee roasting, our nest run eggs, a variety of artisan rustic decor, including: cabinets/shelves, caddies, signs, birdhouses, benches, cups/mugs, unique gift items, plus seasonal items like dried Russian Sage bunches (looks like lavender), dried spices, mixed spices, and vegetables. We added coffee accessories and homemade marshmallows to our market, and we plan to create gourmet s’more kits.
In 2024 we launched Handyman Services by Jon serving our local communities.
My hope is to inspire others that no matter how much or how little you have, whether you rent or own, any space can be your special place when you put your own touch on it. It’s really not as hard as it sounds. I also plan to share topics that are related to increasing your quality of life at home, including home cooking, cleaning, organizing, de-cluttering, juggling family & work….
If a topic relates to home life; I might write about it!
Inspiring Home Life,