#5 Is your living space welcoming to you and to guests in your home?

Admittedly, this isn't something I gave much thought to in the past. In the busy, bordering on frantic days of working and raising two children, I was more concerned about functionality. With the three bedrooms in our home already occupied, we really had no private space for visitors. Company was either relegated to sleeping on the uncomfortable sofa bed in the den, or more often in one of the kids' cluttered bedrooms and the kids got stuck with the sofa bed. I’ve always strived to be clean and tidy (just don’t look in my husband’s garage!), but the concept of our home being welcoming wasn't exactly in the forefront of my mind.

Now that it's basically only my husband and I living there, a welcoming home has suddenly become much more important. I want our home to be our sanctuary. I want it to be a warm place that my children and future grandchildren consider their second home. I want it to be an inviting retreat for visiting friends and relatives. To me, a welcoming home is not about perfection but rather about acquiring a “lived-in cozy” look. Making it that way is often more about attention to detail than it is about having lots of money to spend.

My favorite features of our home are:

·         the sunroom at the back of the house

·         the bay window area of the master bedroom

·         the stone fireplace that takes up almost one full wall of the living room

·         the soft, muted pumpkin shade of paint on our living room walls; love it!

·         the large, wrap-around front porch

My top areas for improvement (and most of these things DO cost money) are:

·    I’m in desperate need of a cozy reading/laptop corner featuring an over-stuffed chair, a table and a lamp. The sunroom would be the most logical place for this, but it would require installation of heat/air and another electrical outlet.

·    Our house has always been on the dark side and needs much better lighting throughout. So far, the only room where we’ve made lighting improvements is the kitchen.

·    I’d love to have either an outside deck or patio area. An inviting place to sit and eat outside. A home for the barbecue, which currently sits in the driveway near the garage door.

·    More curb appeal; much of our front yard has been destroyed by erosion, the driveway is crumbling, and the ugly cinderblock wall that lines the driveway has cracked in several places and has got to go! Big bucks here.

·    Less clutter in general. I’m still dealing with the fallout of receiving half a household of my mom’s stuff. Much has either been incorporated into our own home, sold, donated or trashed, but there’s still a ways to go.  

When all is said and done, the bottom line and most important factor is that a welcoming home has lots of smiles and laughter.