32.

I have found that every house/apartment we've lived in has had its own style. My tastes have changed over the past decade and each move has been a great opportunity to try a little something new. (Though if you ask Ben, he'll tell you that I don't need a move to decide to shake things up a bit decor-wise! I am a homebody and I love to decorate- a combination that sometimes causes me to rearrange the furniture or paint a room on a whim.) Thankfully, I married a great handyman who enjoys projects around the house. If we go too long between projects, he'll start asking for suggestions. I'm a lucky lady.

As I set up this house, I can't help but think back at some of the other homes that Ben and I have shared. This is the fifth place we've lived together in ten years of marriage- two apartments and three houses.

Our first apartment was a 100% fresh-out-of-college/futon-as-a-couch kind of a place. We were newlyweds enjoying playing house together. We didn't really know what we liked yet as far as decor, which was OK because we couldn't afford anything anyway. Thanks to wedding gifts, though, we had no shortage of towels, bedding, dishes, and kitchen appliances. Our look was pretty minimalist, but we did fill the apartment to the brim with wedding photos and souveniers from our trip to Europe the summer prior. I can't think back to that tiny little apartment without smiling.

Our second apartment- and second year of marriage- was just cozy. We saved up for some big pieces of furniture and slowly started decorating a bit more. We bought a dining room table and painted the dining room the best shade of green I've ever seen. We used Christmas money from my parents to buy an entertainment center that I love to this day. We had lots of avacodo green, burnt pumpkin orange, and some ivory in the apartment. I would describe our style at that apartment as eclectic.

I bet I will never love another house as much as I loved our first house- our little brick gingerbread house on Itaska. The stained glass windows, the hardwood floors, the arched doorways, the radiators, the gorgeous trim around the windows, the original 1922 glass tile in the bathroom......the house oozed charm. We did so much work to that house to update it and make it our own. It was the house where we discovered how talented Ben is at building things. It was the house where I fell in love with all things vintage. I also began my obsession with painting at that house. Never before had I had the opportunity to paint the walls any color I wanted. For $40 and a couple of hours of my time, I could change the look of a room...this was a new and exciting concept for me! It was a wonderful house.

Our next home in Zionsville had a different vibe. It was larger and newer and more open. There were tan walls and tan carpet everywhere. Our mission became charming up a cookie cutter house. The color scheme of the house was brown, ivory, slate, and black with splashes of color thrown in all over the place. In that home I continued to decorate with treasures found in antique stores, flea markets, and garage sales- with Pottery Barn thrown in often to complete the look. There were some things I really loved about that house and some things that drove me crazy, but overall it was a great place to live for three years.

And now we're here.......... and I'm slowly figuring out the style of this home. There are some great things going for it- the hardwood floors, the space, the storage, the huge yard, the big mature trees, the neighborhood and location- but it needs a bit of love to make it our own.

Over the past month, I've gotten some requests for pictures of the house. I keep waiting for more of the rooms to feel "done" before posting pictures, but at the rate I'm going, that might take a while. The kids have been keeping me pretty busy and poor Ben has been swamped at work with long hours and lots of travel. We get a lot done together on the weekends, but once the week hits, it's hard to find much time to work on things around the house.

My goal for the week is to try to finally share some pictures of the house- whether done or not. Most of the rooms in the house are not still a "before" and not yet an "after"........I guess we have lots of "in- betweens." I have a feeling that the people who asked for pictures won't mind seeing some works in progress. :)

My first room to share is our kitchen. There wasn't much to do in the room as they had already completely redone the cabinets, floor, countertops, and appliances. It's a really pretty room, but much more dark than I would have chosen. In an attempt to liven things up a bit, I painted the little wall space we have a happy, vibrant shade of green. I made the curtains out of chocolate brown damask fabric and velvet ribbon and I'm pretty happy with the green/brown color combination. There's not much wall space to hang pictures on (it's a long galley of a kitchen), but I did use the small space next to the pantry to hang the "H" hook from my friend Allie along with my apron collection and the space to the right of the door to hang a chalkboard that we like to write messages to each other on.

I would still like to find a nicer place to display my cookbooks rather than in a stack next to the sink. I would also love to put my collection of white mixing bowls above the cupboards, but right now the molding is so much higher than the top of the cupboard that at least half the bowl is hidden from view. I keep thinking I need to find something to stack the bowls on in order to elevate them to the height of the top of the molding, but I just haven't gotten to it yet......

Happy Sunday evening, all! Ben is out of town and Brothers and Sisters on Tivo and a bowl of frozen yogurt is calling my name! :)