LIVE IN YOUR HOME-THE WAY YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE!

Do you live in your home according to how the builder envisioned each room? If you don't, STOP READING THIS, because you understand that square footage is valuable and you need to get the maximum use out of sometimes minimally sized spaces. For decades architects and builders have decided how we were to use the space in our homes. Formal living room, dining room, family room (great room for you boomers) kitchen...well, you get it. So, what if we want to use the formal living room for a pool table? The formal dining room as an office? What stops us? Nothing should.
It's simple-you should live in EVERY room of your home. For years, when you entered the home we bought new in 1995, you immediately were thrust into our formal living/dining rooms. It was lovely. We used it on holidays, opened our Christmas gifts in front of the tree-centered perfectly on the bay window. The furniture bought with care, drapes painstakingly hung just right and about twenty feet later- you were past all that and into where we REALLY lived.

The kitchen and great room-right? Because in those rooms it was warm, nicely decorated, lived-in and utterly livable. Here was where all the treasures collected from vacations to school art projects lived, amongst snack bowls and homework and of course everything needed to prepare a meal. I do like alot of things around me when I cook, colorful bowls, oils, spices, flowers, ceramic chickens of all colors and sizes- it is all important to the desired mood I am trying to create. I want people to sit and enjoy a glass of wine while watching me prepare a meal or a snack and have something fun to look at. It tells a story about who I am and what makes me happy.

We did pass through the formal areas on the way to our bedrooms, or on our way out the door; but that was the problem- we passed-through and never stopped. Except for holidays! In fact, my grandson calls his dining room table the "Thanksgiving table".

In 2000 we chose the design and built our new home centered around how we USED the space. No formal rooms, a nice large kitchen and great room, a spacious entry hall for greeting guests and plenty of bathrooms and extra bedrooms for family sleep-overs.

Unless you are staging your home to sell, live in it. It is not a "stage" on a day to day basis. When we stage a home to show it we again revert, almost automatically, to the old tried and true designs of our builders. We are taught in design and staging classes to present the home so that potential buyers can see themselves living there. Really? If that was the case wouldn't we have paper plates with left over sandwiches on the family room sofa and a big hairy dog sitting in the recliner?

What we REALLY want to portray is how a sophisticated buyer would WANT to live in the home. Everything in its place, fresh flowers and clean mirrors. But until then, live in your home. Go ahead, get the pool table.

Everyone can sit around it and open Christmas gifts!