Garage Life

Yes, I use that paw-print pillow. Yes, I know it's ugly. But I love it because I love reading in bed. It's so much better than propping up stacks of pillows. See those books on the table waiting for me? Bliss.

I just wanted to document our time in the garage, and show Hailey what her salon looks like these days. And, a big shout-out to the Durfees. Thank you so much for letting us live here!

Garage is a misnomer. We really live in a room within a garage. The room has heat, nice walls that have been painted a lovely shade of red, and carpet.

When we moved in, I told myself I wasn’t going to really decorate because I didn’t want the Durfees to think that we were getting all cozy and making ourselves at home, planning on outstaying our welcome for far too long. But, design got the better of me, and I couldn’t help myself. I had inspiration, and it’s just part of what I do as a person. I can’t not do it. Even if I only owned a mattress and dresser, and had no money, I would make a collage out of recycled newspaper and put it on the wall. I have to make things for the space I’m living in.

So, I made some bird wall decals from butcher paper that Chad’s lovely mother brought home for me from her work. Lindsay has a projector, so I borrowed that too. I traced the birds, cut ‘em out, and taped ‘em up. FREE. Hurrah.

The window in the garage isn’t double-paned, so I made curtains out of fleece blankets to help hold in heat. Hailey, I know these are your blankets. When I’m done, I just have to unstitch one line, and they are back to their old selves. (I used velcro for tiebacks. Tehe. I didn't want to sew anything)

Then I hung Hailey’s lamp. LOL. Hailey, I couldn’t help it. It’s the coolest, and it was just sitting there. I replaced the bulb for you : ) Using lamps changes the ambience in a room SO MUCH. It’s so much more relaxing than one big blaring light.

See that white thing in the bottom left corner? Jet's changing station!

In the real garage area, we have our dressers, pantry, and fridge. Jet loves to play with cans. He also loves to feed the dogs by hand. It’s kinda gross, I know, but he LOVES it. What’s the worst is that he loves to play in their water bowl. I have found him sitting in their water bowl with all his clothes on, or stomping in it with his shoes. He loves to put their food in the water too. He loves to dump their water out. Darn water bowl. I try to put their bowls out of reach when he’s out here, but sometimes I forget and I pay for it later.

After living here, and living in our last place (the single-wide) I have learned that we don’t need much to be comfortable. In fact, I like the simple/cheap life. During most of last year in LaPine, we found a big, new house to rent. But, it was too big. We barely spent time in the living room. We used the guest room a few times to host family. I hated our heating bill, and vacuuming. It was a beautiful house, but we didn’t need it. After that place, we moved to a single-wide trailer with lots of character. LOVED IT. I actually would love to have a murphy bed! Those are the kind that you push up into the wall. I’ve seen murphy beds that the “wall” (the part under the bed when the bed is down, and the wall when the bed is “put away”) has a table you can pull down. Ingenious! It’s a murphy table.

I have liked the smaller and older places we’ve lived in much better. I only want the amount of space I need otherwise it just feels empty. Then you feel like you need to buy more furniture to fill the place. Then you move to a smaller place, and you have all this superfluous crud. I can understand wanting to have a lot of room for the kids to play, but a 1 year old doesn’t need much. Plus, I like being able to spend our money on other things.

I think our society places way too much importance on houses. It doesn’t have to be this gorgeous, immaculate place to be a dream home. I think as long as its clean, kept-up, and designed how you like, then it can feel great and be a dream home for your family.