THE HOUSE DOCTOR FINDING YOUR HOME'S PERSONALITY AS AN EXPRESSION OF ART

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Art is expression, and your home can be your canvas.  Mr. Arnold Bennett once said:  "Nobody has the right to be bored in a half-made home.  A home which is not a fair expression of us at our best, a home which lacks what it might have, a home which is in any part more ugly or in any part more uncomfortable than it absolutely need be." 

So, taking his words seriously, I have approached my home as a hobby, not a chore.  It is also a luxury, not a necessity.  I could make a good home anywhere, so I'm not idolizing this particular place; it is simply the place where God has chosen to put me right now.  I have a feeling I could carry on the same hobby if I lived in an alley in the street.  My part of the alley would take on a certain charm of its own, I'm sure!  Perhaps you can identify with these feelings.  I hope so.  

I've seen many living examples of this illustration and they never cease to take my breath away.  Some people have an art form within their soul that just spews and doles out beauty where ever they exist.  I pray for increase of this quality in my life! 

It isn't about collecting things and spending money, but it is about recognizing the souls and spirits of those who live in a space and perform the daily act of coming and going there.  

Like many who love sharing their homes I find myself with this  desire for pure unadulterated hospitality, such as Abraham showed the Holy Trinity when he was first visited at his tent.  Mind you, he was living in a TENT, but Abraham brought forth his best, even when it was inconvenient and unexpected.  He was always prepared to do so, at any moment, at the drop of hat.  I just feel my home must be that way too.

So many of us approach repairing, remodeling and dressing up our homes as a feat that requires too much physical labor, psychological exercise, and financial resources.  I try to reverse that thought.  Instead of making this a chore, I think of my home as a work of art that is continually being pursued from many different angles with a variety of mediums.  

It is a hobby, not a chore.  It is organic and evolving.  Progress is never overnight, and I expect that things will never be finished and tied up like a pretty little package with a bow on top.  A home is a life-long, ever changing project that never ends.  It is a life-process and not something that has to happen all at once or in one day.  It is more like a metamorphosis than a planned event.

The art of making a home is simply a way to enjoy the abundance that God grants to us for the taking.  This abundance is free.  It isn't something that you go out and buy, it is a way for your mind to think about change.  You can resist it, or you can relish the beauty and refreshment of it. This is not about spending money, but this is about having quality.  It is all about caring for what you have been blessed to have.  You can chose to take the easy road and be materialistic in this venture.  You are almost guaranteed in this case to eventually get bored with your choices; or you can chose to be gently caring for your home, and always feel refreshed about the constant process of moving forward.  

For years now I have been cleaning out a building full of accumulated junk.  Just things that have piled up over time, but this building, once empty will help me to keep my house fresh and alive.  

That may sound strange at first, but I must share with you the concept that I've been slowly building over the years.  I have collected decorative items that express the seasons, spring with all it's holiness and bright colors, then the red white and blues of Memorial Day that lead into Pentecost and Independence Day, then summers with patio fun in the sun and times at the beach, then fall with those lovely colors of the changing leaves and expressions of thanksgiving.  Last, but not least the lights of Chanukah, and the splendor of a traditional Christmas that celebrates the conception of Christ and The Incarnation.  I love all of these seasonal expressions of beauty.  

Now, I've finally put each season's expressions into labeled boxes to be stored in their own section of that storage building until it is time to bring them out each year in their own season. This is my main decorating technique, the rest is very basic and simple.  These items rotated every season keep my house fresh, interesting and new feeling year after year, no matter what stage of life we find ourselves living out.  It is that simple.  More than that, I've got those memories from seasons where I have used these things with my family and friends etched over my heart and photographed in all the family scrapbooks.  It is definitely not the things that matter, but it is the excuse that the things present to enjoy time with others and the reasons to develop relationships through times spent together in every season of life.  

If you don't see this, try a little experiment.  Invite some friends over for just an ordinary day.  How many people felt it was really important to show up when you asked?  Now, tell them you are having a seasonal party, spring fling, summer beach party, fall harvest party, and watch their enthusiasm and reactions change.  They will not want to miss it!  When you decorate seasonally and live your life around those seasons, life becomes more of an adventure.

For example, think about winter in this respect.  It is not at all about hoarding or storing like a squirrel getting ready for winter; it IS all about sharing and loving the moments that life presents in winter.  Center your decor around a blazing fireplace and invite friends over for hot chocolate and carol singing.  They will love it and admire your home to boot. 

People gather and gravitate towards order and beauty.  The order of the seasons and the beauty of your decorations of the season will make them feel harmony and love.  Is this an illusion?  Not if your heart makes it true.  People will see your heart every time they look around your home.  They will respect this and respond to it in beautiful ways.  Both you and they will be blessed.

I tucked this plan into the back of my mind years ago when I chose the main furnishings for our house, I've kept the colors neutral, creamy white sofas, beige rugs, simple straight lines, wooden floors, white walls with traditional art for the main spaces that do not change.  All of this blends with everything else I chose to add each season.  I've used solid bedspreads, loving and making full use of the effects of the freshness of whites.  Solid black in some furnishings and tabletops make a great backdrop for showing off pops of color.  Grays and beiges make decorating easy and natural.  All of these neutrals make a perfect backdrop for any season.  

So every season I pack up the things from the past season, label appropriately, and store until the next season comes along.  I do this year after year.  It is not a hard thing to do.  I take it in stages to make it easier.  We might have a weekend here and there of transition where the house is partially decorated for one season and partially decorated for the past season.  I don't stress or try to aim for perfection in just one day.  

Each new season I pull out the next season's things and enjoy them for the next several weeks, until the clock of life says "it is time for a change."   It works beautifully.  I feel like I get a whole new house every season. Each time I pull out the seasonal decorations I feel like I'm greeting old friends I haven't talked to for awhile.  When I find some very special new treasure, I introduce it to my old friends.  

For many people all of this packing up and pulling out feels like a dreaded chore and seems to be a lot of extra work.  For me though, it is like Christmas all year round.  The pulling out of new and boxing out of the previous season occurs gradually, a little at a time the old season dissolves away, and the new season appears and we follow the paths of our lives.  The idea is to LIVE in each season and to appreciate it's own unique beauty.  

It really doesn't take a lot of effort when you live through it this way.   I don't have to run to the store every time I want to be seasonal or festive, I simply reuse the same items over and over each year.   The familiarity only makes them become more special.

 Some nails in the wall are good for switching items each season.  My door wreaths and welcome signs in the foyer change with the seasons.  Some tabletops are good for changing decor when the dates change.  Some dishes are perfect for a time, then seasons change too.  (This makes cooking the same old recipes over and over a lot more fun and inspirational.)  Of course, I have my own created cookbook too that (you guessed it) has recipes for each season. of the year.  If you are interested in purchasing one of these, send me a message and I will try to accommodate you.    

Everything always feels fresh and new, and if you follow this process over the years just adding a piece at a time here and there, it is very cost effective.  

You could also have a variation on this idea if you just don't want to be seasonal.  It isn't about copying my ideas, but thinking up your own ideas.  What do you have in your life that would lend to making your home more interesting?  Grab that theme and go with it.  Mine started with observing God's Holy days.  My life was and is constantly evolving around these days.  

You may be a sports fan or an athlete, with your life evolving around whatever sport is happening; go with it!  You may be an outdoors person who is fond of  enjoying all of the natural beauty of nature that God gives to us.  Bring it into your home!  Let your home express your personality.  Give it a reflection of you. 

Maybe instead of going with a typical seasonal decor, you could pick your favorite hobby (horses, art, cooking, gardening) and decorate for the season with those types of items, only change and rotate them every two or three months.  Show how these things evolve in your life.  

Take these ideas any where you want, the jest of it all is to be creative with your home's interior and exterior in a way that keeps it interesting and expresses more of your personal lifestyle.  Find a way to show that you live in and love your home, and let your home say to others that you are not just existing there while you are not at work.  

I know a couple that decorates their home with classic car ideas.  You never know what they will have next, it is likely to be something they found at a recent event and just had to display in their home.  Be creative and reflect the things you enjoy!

And so it goes with this hobby of mine for always finding inexpensive and creative ways to make a house a home.  I never run out of ideas, and I hope to share some of them with you, step by step and season by season in this blog.

Keep reading "The Home Doctor" section titles of my blog if you are interested and hooked on this hobby as much as I am.  

I'll be posting new ideas about seasonal decorating and articles about ideas and themes that could make a home unique.  It is so much fun!   

I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions too!  I hope to receive many comments with these articles and think it would be wonderful for all of us to share our ideas for making a house a home.

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 103 THE EGYPTIANS BECOME SLAVES OF PHARAOH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

          So Jacob and all of Joseph’s brothers settled in the land of Egypt and Pharaoh gave them choice land in the district of Ramses, just as he had promised.  They prospered and did well there.  They, their children and grandchildren and their herds had food and shelter because of Joseph’s favor with Pharaoh.

          It wasn’t too long until Joseph had collected all the money in the land and placed it inside Pharaoh’s treasury in exchange for food.  Both Canaan and Egypt continued to suffer from drought and produced no crops.  When all of the people ran out of money they cried out to Joseph, “Give us food!  We have given you everything that we have and we are still hungry!”

          Joseph told the people to bring their cattle,sheep, goats, horses and donkeys  in exchange for food from Pharaoh.  They did and everyone came through that year of famine by trading all of their livestock to Pharaoh for food.

          The next year was the same story.  The horrible famine continued. The people came before Joseph needing food.  They said they had nothing left to trade for seed to plant to grow food, so they offered themselves as servants to Pharaoh and their land as collateral for food.  So Joseph bought every citizen and all of their land and put them into service for Pharaoh, except for the priest of the land, because Pharaoh allotted them land and had allotted them seed to grow their own food and they were not in need.  The rest of the Egyptians though, were now Pharaoh’s slaves.  Pharaoh owned all of their land and all of their livestock. 

          Joseph, however, was a fair man.  When all the people became slaves, he gave each of them seed to plant to grow and harvest for food.  He made a new law in the land, which remained in effect throughout time, that all of the people would give one fifth of their produce to Pharaoh.  They were able to keep four fifths of the crops they grew for seed and for food for themselves, and the other portion belonged to Pharaoh.  I guess you could say that Joseph established the first official government tax system.  Only the land that belonged to the priest of the land was not taken or taxed.  That land remained free and was used by the priest for sustaining their households.

          Not only does one begin to see how the first government taxes came about here, one also begins to see that taxation by the government is also a form of slavery.  The people were in bondage to Pharaoh, yet they were able to take what he allowed in order to sustain themselves.  It was only preferable if one had no other choice but death by starvation.  This was the case.  It could be said that Pharaoh gained all of his wealth from the suffering of his people.  They bargained with him in order that they might live.  Joseph brought balance into this equation.  He allowed the people to flourish in spite of their bondage to their leader.

          By this time Jacob's family was well established in the land of Goshen.  They multiplied and grew and were very fruitful in the land.  Their numbers increased greatly. 

          Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years.  He lived to be 147 years old.  When Israel was so old and tired that he could only worship God by leaning on his staff, he requested a promise from Joseph.  “Bury me in the land of my fathers.  Do not forget this!  Do not leave my bones here in the land of Egypt but let me rest with my fathers in the land of my heritage.”

          Joseph made this faithful promise to the father that he loved with all of his heart.

THE HOUSE DOCTOR - EVERYONE MUST START SOMEWHERE

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Do you often get discouraged about your home? 

Do you catch yourself thinking that your home has great possibilities but you never seem to find the time or the energy to bring it up to the full potential you know is there? 

I understand that feeling.  Years ago I found myself wondering what to do with my own home.  We bought the house because it had enough individual bedrooms for all of us.  That is what you do when you are a family of six.  That is usually all you CAN do if you're a middle-class growing family living in America today.   It wasn't about the charm or the beautiful view, no; it was about having enough space for a growing family to spread out and be comfortable. 

On the other hand, we did have a feeling that God led us to the place. I've always felt there were things hiding behind all the clutter, just waiting to be discovered.   Over the years I have spotted lots of overlooked charm lurking in the less obvious spaces within the walls of our home.  Over and over through the years I've said those unique things just needed to be polished up and shinned a bit and brought out into the open.  The house had a personality, but it seemed to be hiding behind all the clutter and accumulated junk of a very busy family.   

By the time the kids were grown and living happily out on their own, things really needed organization and freshening up.  The longer you live in a space, the more you know what it needs.  But I was too discouraged to start.  It felt overwhelming.  My life was SO busy with family, a professional career in architecture, developing my writing career into something I could enjoy after retirement, and a growing ministry along side of  my husband.  I could not see a way to find the time for all the things I wanted to do to the house.  Also, the budget was always very tight. Big families require lots of money just to exist and we were in the middle of an economic crunch in this country.  There was no extra cash just laying around for me to be creative with.

After years of raising kids, cooking, washing clothes and cleaning around the clock, I felt the weight of our mortgage wasn't living up to its full potential.  Every time I wrote the check to the mortgage company I caught myself thinking; I could be living somewhere newer and fresher for half the price.  But I knew with just a little fixing up, I could also double the value of my home.  It was a constant dilemma    I looked around myself and noticed that most everything we had in the house seemed outdated and old.  We had not kept things fresh and new as the years had passed by.  There were so many little problems here and there that had not been addressed.  We had simply overlooked them and lived with them, hoping to address them one day.    I knew I could fill a notebook just by writing them down in a list.  I didn't want to.  I felt overwhelmed with the huge list of things that needed to be done. 

Then a magical spark of thought occurred to me.  Suddenly I realized that I was just taking the wrong approach.  I quit dreading the "tasks" and begin to think of my home as an organic, evolving art project.  Art must be savored and it takes time for good art to come forth.  It takes a lot of little sections to make up the whole of a beautiful painting.  This process was the starting place for how my home began coming together after we became empty-nester's.  Once I experienced this method of thinking I wished I had used it all along.  My children would have loved the whole idea when they were growing up, instead they had to feel our "dread" time when we would try to check off a boring list of chores instead of creating a lovely piece of art out of our home.  They had to experience us settling for "what we can do" instead of dreaming of "what we WANT to do."  The old saying "change your attitude; change the world" holds true here.  I would encourage anyone not to let circumstances hold them back from whatever dreams they hold in their hearts for their home.  Forget about the rest of the world, hold on to your own particular dream and don't let it go.

I told myself that every room was an unfinished masterpiece, and I had the opportunity of a lifetime to be a great artist.

I quit worrying about the things that I kept putting off because of the cost.  Instead I tried to think of creative ways to get the effects I wanted without spending a lot.  I considered the things I could do for free and did those things first.  Elbow grease is free.  Giving unneeded items to charity is free and it also gets rid of clutter.  Paint is very inexpensive and easy to do.  A little cleaning, a little less clutter and a fresh coat of paint can totally change a space.  

I also quit thinking of the house as a whole finished project and began to concentrate on one section at a time.  By completing things one step at a time, one space at a time, I allowed myself not to get stressed about the other looming projects that I was not yet able to pay attention to.

During the duration of the whole process, I found a comical comparison.  My house was in the same shape that I had fallen into.  We both needed a work out!  We both needed to go to the gym and get physically fit.  It would take time, diligence and patience.  It would take will-power.  It would take staying power, long-term staying power.  When I started thinking of my own physical fitness and the house's physical fitness at the same time, I was oddly more motivated to follow through on both.    If I needed to eat healthier and lose weight, so did my house.  There were tons of unhealthy junk things laying around that I decided to purge from our home.  As I purged the house of the unhealthy junk, I also started purging my cabinets of unhealthy food items.  The house and I were going to get healthy together.  I loved the whole idea!  It always helps to have a partner, even if it is a house.  A house always listens when you talk and never disagrees with you.  It will let you experiment all you want and allow you the grace to change your mind occasionally.     

I took a "before" photo of myself, then I went through the house taking "before" photos of each area of our home.  I figured by the time I was thinner and healthier, the house would be too!  It was nice having a partner to walk this journey with. This house has always been there for me! I realized it had been waiting patiently for years for me to get with the program.  It felt as if the house had a soul of its own and we had become best friends simply because of the memories we had made together.  We even loved each other's flaws; nothing had been hidden in our relationship, everything was out on the table.  We were now ready to help each other correct the little flaws that were not so charming.

SUMMARY FOR STARTING TO PUT YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER:

1.  Think of your home as an evolving organic art project.  Each room is an unfinished masterpiece and you have the opportunity of a lifetime to be a very creative artist.

2.  Don't look at the whole picture.  Pick a starting place and focus on one section at a time.

3,  Great art takes time.  Savor the process.  Don't allow yourself to get stressed about what you are leaving undone.  Keep reminding yourself of what you ARE getting done and stay with that until you finish.

4.  No matter where you are working in your home there will always be two basic first steps:  clear the clutter and clean.  Just completing these two steps will work wonders for your willingness to go on.

5.  Take "before" photos before you start to do anything.  Study these and imagine you are a visitor coming to your home for the first time.  Open your eyes to the little details that you automatically block out because you are so familiar with the space.  Jot down notes and ideas and number them in the order that you think they should be accomplished.  Just do one section of your spaces at a time.  

6.  Schedule a few hours a week to do the work you have decided to do.  Block that off on your personal calendar and do not let anyone else eat up your time.  You have a right and a responsibility to care for your own home.   This is not selfish - but it is NECESSARY.  Think of your home as your biggest investment.  Tell everyone else you're busy during that time.  Look over the list that you have mapped out and begin!



So where to begin anyway?  

For me, it seems logical to begin at the beginning.  Look around and see where that is for you.  Go for it!

In the meantime - Happy Creating!

THE HOUSE DOCTOR MAKING EVERYONE FEEL COMFORTABLE AND AT HOME

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Any season is a good time to consider the needs of overnight and weekend guests.

Khalil Gibran once said; “If it were not for guests all houses would be graves.”  That is a pretty frightening way of reminding us we need to consider how to entertain guests in our home. 

One important thing to keep in mind as you are letting your house evolve into a work of art that totally expresses your own thoughts, dreams and missions in life; would be the consideration of who your overnight and long-stay guests might turn out to be.

People are the most important part of life, so we need to be prepared to make them feel loved and welcomed.   Of course until YOU are comfortable in your home; no one will be comfortable, but once you have done the basics for making your home a haven and refuge for yourself and your family, why not consider what you have to work with that would make your long-term guests feel happy, relaxed and welcomed during their stays?  This will make your life richer too.  Anything that you ever do to show hospitality to someone else, increases the joy in your day.

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here!  The first thought that most people have is this could turn into an expensive decorating project! Absolutely not!  If your friends don’t love you enough to come to see you in what you can afford to offer, they are not really your friends.  

Don’t go out and buy furniture and paint and decorative items to put into a room that looks like it should be a show case for Interior Design Magazine.  Work with what you have and what you can afford. 

Maybe you live in a one bedroom apartment and this whole concept seems far-fetched to you.  Not at all!  Any amount of space will do just fine.   You would simply have to scale your desires for decorating for guest down to a smaller, more practical, more workable scale. 

If you are still uncomfortable with dealing with overnight company after you read these suggestions, you can keep most of your guest invitations down to just day visits by utilizing your television, dining and patio spaces.  These are areas that you could tailor to your special guests’ taste.  Just change it all around when you have different guest coming for different reasons.  With a little thought, any space works here!  If you are paranoid about how well overnight would work for you - start with day visit and when you see how that turns out work up to overnight guests.  

Do you have a friend who loves classic movies?  Keep a stash just for him/her in a little basket next to your other movies.  Put a ribbon or special tie around that particular stack that speaks of their personality, or make the basket have some sentimental value that relates to some place you two have shared in the past.  See if they don’t pick up on this.  You will probably be surprised at how delighted just one little thing like this can make a guest feel.  If they have given you decorative gifts - make sure they are prominently displayed in a pretty and appropriate way.   Do you have photos of things you and your guest have done together in the past?  Share the memories in a frame here and there for their visit.

Maybe you have a friend who loves gourmet cooking.  Why not prepare a special meal for them on your own dining room table in some dishes or with some place mats that only that person would relate to?  Or better yet, offer to buy the groceries for them to cook their special dish in your home.  Keep the spices they like to use stocked on your shelves.  Candlelight at the table and a good bottle of wine goes a long way with these folks.

Do you have a friend who loves the outdoors?  Make your apartment patio into an oasis that will make them feel like they are in a tropical jungle or an African rain forest.  Scatter twinkling lights among the plants and have a special beverage handy for serving while you sit on the deck at night and watch the stars.  Do you have a telescope?  Bring it out for the occasion.  

Do you have friends who are into literary things who love to read and write?  Dedicate a section of your bookcases to their favorite authors (buy them at second hand book stores, the older the better) and use interesting coffee mugs and different styled old spectacles around the room as if old Hemingway himself had just had coffee in your overstuffed recliner.   Leave one book open to some favorite passage you have shared with them on your coffee table. 

These are all things that are simple yet “do-able” on a budget, a little at a time.  Most of the stuff I'm speaking of can be found cheap in junk stores or at your local supermarket.  Just come up with some thoughtful little themes and ideas according to the people you are entertaining.  Also plan activities for going out according to their personal styles.  

Take the outdoors personality to your favorite local park, plan hikes and trips to local scenery.  Take an artsy person to a local art event.  If your friend loves music, plan for them to come during a time when one of your favorite musicians is in town.  Take your gourmet personality to one of the local upscale restaurants or an interesting and unusual little community grocery store.

If you find yourself limited on sleeping space, wall beds are great whenever you feel you can afford one.  They can line a wall and look just like book shelves and storage. Use one wall to hide a wall bed and put a sleeper sofa in front of it and you now have TWO double beds in one room if you have several people sleeping over.   Your living room could instantly become a guest room in a matter of minutes simply by rearranging a few pieces of furniture.  If you feel your guest needs more privacy, give them your room and YOU take the sofa or the wall bed.  You want to rise earlier than them the in the morning anyway, so you can prepare a nice leisurely breakfast to start the visit off on a pleasant note.  Just give them the luxury of sleeping late and you get up a little early and clean up and clear the living room before they wake up.  So you see; not having a guest room should not interfere with your ability to ask people to sleep over or stay for a weekend!

For children, keep an extra sleeping bag around and make them a small tent on the floor.  They will feel like they are on a camping trip and consider it a great adventure!  Toys are cheap at the dollar store.  You would be surprised how far some crayons and a coloring book will go.  Puzzles are good for older kids.  

Maybe you have a house with one, two or three extra bedrooms.  All of the above applies just the same.  Consider the guest that come and go most often and think of them as you prepare these extra rooms.  Choose neutral colors in your bedclothes so that you can decorate with splashes of color in throws and pillows and accessories in different ways according to who is coming when.  Stock up on good sheets and comfortable pillows and blankets.  

Just remember to let your house grow and change and expand and breathe as you do.  Live where you are in the moment and take your home there too.  Invite your guests to know who you are, not some stranger who is putting on a show.  This will involve constantly changing with life and evolving with the size and interests of your family.  Lean on the side of simple and uncomplicated whenever possible. Try to keep up-to-date with where you are in life and share where you are with your company.  Don't stay stuck in yesterday forever, but don't let your best memories ever be wasted.  It is lots of fun to pull out scrapbooks and look at old home movies where you all were together.  Not every visit, mind you, but at least every other year.  Add to these as you go and keep them fresh, yet don't cull the best oldies.

If I let it remodeling would be a problem for me with our guests.  We live in an older home that we have been remodeling for years as we have had the time.  This has evolved into a hobby and the remodeling simply never ends, especially now, after raising four kids.  Sometimes it gives us interesting puzzles to figure out when we have house guests.  We just take a deep breath and live through it being as creative as we can and hoping our guest know that we want to care for them from where we are and not let anything interfere with our friendships.     

We were not through with all of our on-going other remodeling projects when our children suddenly all grew wings of their own and left us for their own homes!  Turning the empty rooms into guest rooms could have been a whole different story full of major complications, but when we actually took the time to stop and think it through and put our thoughts in order, they were actually pretty easy.   

At first we simply deep cleaned and reorganized, then we used our imaginations and made the furniture on hand work for the rooms.  That isn't to say that I don’t dream of a completely new more-modern bathroom and new carpets and paint and furniture in these bedrooms – it is just to say that I’ve done the very best with what I have to offer my guests in the place of life that I am living from right now.   I also keep in mind that half the world lives in a space as small as my living room alone, and that keeps a balance in what I do. I’ll let you in on another secret; our guests don’t even notice that we don’t have all of those shinny new  things.  They love staying in these rooms and are very comfortable there.  After all, we are saving them a bundle on hotel costs and providing a very comfortable change of scenery for their little mini-vacation stay at our castle!    

If you can afford to go overboard, go ahead and have your fun!  If you are a normal person on a budget like me, take every update one step at a time.  Think it all through and work carefully and slowly with what you REALLY need and not some picture that a magazine put into  your head that will not be at all practical for you or your guests and most likely will not look the same in your spaces.

Any moment now that door bell will ring.  Who will be your house guest?  .

 Make a list of your “regular” guests that will probably come often and think of the things that would help them relax in your house.  A blend of tea, a type of soap, a particular song in the background, a certain wine, a favorite flower, a special dish, a candle scent; whatever that person likes and relates to.  

Make two list, one for day guests and one for those who will come in from out of town and stay awhile, days, weeks, hopefully not months!  Don’t make them THAT comfortable, just add in some flair that will tell them you are thinking about them, respect their taste and want them around. Keep it simple and comfortable.  Imagine them staying in your rooms and roaming the local community.  What would you enjoy if you were them?

It was Robert Brault that made that profound observation “We labor to make a house a home, then every time we’re expecting visitors, we rush to turn it back into a house!”  Be careful to keep a balance and not make this mistake by being too extreme.  Then, don’t be surprised if you find your house full of happy people all the time!

Once you make your list of possible guests and imagine each of them spending a night in your home; I suggest you think about who your most “regular” guests are and begin to incorporate certain elements into your space that will make them smile and feel welcomed, comfortable and relaxed.  This is especially true if you find yourself in any type of transition in your family or career.  Change your home to fit your current situation in life and share that with your guests.  Have a box labeled just for each of your favorite guests and keep them stored away until needed.  You can pull out and scatter in a mater of minutes and already have a plan in order when they call on Friday night to tell you they are dropping in on Saturday morning.  Keep clean sheets ON your beds so you don't have to pull out for unexpected guest.  Keep your guest rooms clean and vacuumed.  Keep toiletries stocked and have extras on hand for use at any moment.

Other than that......don't go crazy with major changes.

For instance, we suddenly found ourselves empty nesters.  We had this big house full of empty bedrooms.   We had spent our whole lives concentrating on putting a roof over the heads of four active kids, then they suddenly developed into wonderful young adults with homes and ideas of their own and left!  If this happens at your house just be sure to realize this is progress!  Don’t be sad, the successful mission has been accomplished!

Set the basic themes that will be constant in your guest rooms around the personalities of  your most frequent guests.  At our house, that would be our two grandchildren.  

When we first became empty nesters  and decided to turn our children's old rooms into guest rooms, I did not have the heart to tear out the original artwork that our twins had so carefully chosen for their bedrooms; so I just decorated around them.   One of our twin daughters had painted a whole wall to be Vincent Van Gough's Starry Starry Night, and the other twin daughter had used New York at Night on a wall.   It was decided, at least for awhile, that our guests would either stay in The Van Gough Room, or The New York Room.  The kids all laughed at my sentimental attitude, but they loved it too! (They actually were often our most frequent house guests.)   I played up both themes in both rooms and even had one of the twins to use her art skills to paint signs for me to set on the night stands in each room that said “New York Room” and “Van Gough Room.”

Sweet, comfortable little reading nook I set up for our guests with only things I had on hand.

Van Gough Room as a simple guest room - before grandchildren came along.  Simple, clean, first attempt to make a child's room into a workable living space for our guests.  We did zero remodeling - just cleaned and furnished with what we had on hand,

New York Room converted to a clean, comfortable space for guests to sleep.  Again, I used what i had and added nothing - just cleaned and tried to make as comfortable as possible.

Our daughter in her New York Room a few months before she left home to live on her own.  It stayed basically the same for our house guests, until our grandson came along and we made "little boy" changes for his stays.

New York Room - We DID add the ceiling fan - but other than that - just cleaned and arranged what we had.

Our guests thought all this crazy decorating was cute and they related these "themed rooms" to such as many international hotels are famous for.  I was so glad I did not go with my first inclination to prime and paint over their original and creative artwork.  A piece of each of their lives can still reside in our home, and yet our guest think they have stumbled upon some original decorating idea done just for them!

 Then grandchildren came along and needed to stay overnight often.........  

  The Van Gough Room lent itself naturally to the little girl things for our granddaughter.  
We added her doll house and her books and some feminine artwork above the bed.  We scattered some photos of her Mommie and Daddy.

It became a perfect room for a little girl visiting her grandparents; plus she had the history of sleeping in the room where her own Mommy grew up and  Mommy's artwork was still on the walls!

  She loves it!

 

When our oldest daughter got married and we added a five year old grandson to the

family.  

 He loved staying in the New York Room on his first few visits with his parents; so we just incorporated this room into more themes that a little boy would enjoy.  

Now there is a toy box full of his toys.  An old Christmas cookie jar that he is partial to keeping around, a desk that is old, worn and kid proof where he can do his own artwork (which he LOVES to do), a collection of photos of him with our daughter and our son-in-law over the desk, and elements of the beach are scattered here and there (shells and starfish and beach photos) because he loves the beach. 

I’m also thinking of adding a live turtle one day – haven’t done that yet.  That would be a fun surprise for him.  I'll let him name the little turtle.  

I've considered painting some of the furniture an aqua color to give it an even more beachy/cottage type of look, but haven't done that yet either.  Since he lives in another state but visits often, I always try to have some little surprise on his desk when he comes and something decorative for the season we are in that a young boy would relate to.  He has his own little tree at Christmas.  He has a basket full of goodies at Passover/Easter, and he finds lots of other little seasonal surprises on his visits.    

This all sounds and IS a bit eclectic; but he loves it, and so do the other people who stay in that room from time to time when he isn’t with us.
  

The two guest rooms are not so childish that an adult would not feel comfortable in them, so they have duel purposes.  There is a bathroom between these two Jack and Jill bedrooms that I am hoping to update one day, but for now I have just made it as shiny clean and comfortable as possible for any guests who come and go.  I try to have clean pretty towels and a fresh shower curtain hanging.  I like to use guest soaps that relate to the season we are in, and I keep the bath area and the sink area well stocked with good soaps, shampoos, cream rinse paper goods and lotions. 

Cost for remodeling guest rooms and bath - (except for one fan fixture) -  zero!

I have taken an old wardrobe and put it into the Van Gough room.  It is the one you see in the photos with the doll house on top.   I use it for nothing but fresh sheets and extra pillows and blankets.  I’m a sucker for a beautiful quilt.  I have a few that my grandmother pieced together by hand!   I reserve these for our guest  and store them in this wardrobe that now holds the doll house my parents gave my granddaughter and a statue of Ruth gleaning wheat that belonged to my grandmother.  Don’t worry; the statue is high enough that she can’t grab it and break it.  Somehow I think my grandmother and my granddaughter would have loved knowing each other, so this is my way of making them connect.  One day I will tell my granddaughter all I know of the grandmother that died not long after my birth.   I've been told I'm a lot like her in many ways.

I'll bet this plain old ordinary stuff isn't what you were expecting, but you know what - it all works so well!  It is the little things that make a guest feel loved, not the big things.  You will never regret the thought you put into making your company feel loved and at home.  

Any moment now that door bell will ring.  Who will be your next house guest?  .

Remember that there is a chance you might be entertaining angels unaware.....put your heart into it and all will be well!