a few home declarations

the knowledge that we are soon moving into our own home, a real house, has slowly been sinking in over the past week.  it all happened so FAST.  barring anything crazy happening in the next week, we'll be closing within a month! 

of course this means i've been thinking a lot about how i want the house to look, what i want to do to it and in it, scanning blogs and paying more attention to home and garden magazines.  in my head i'm making a list of things i do and don't want to do, and i have a feeling this is going to turn into some kind of home-owning manifesto for amanda.  after the jump is a short list of things i'm going to try to adhere to.

1. no buying stuff just to fill space.  if we can't find a couch we love, in the price/size/style we want, then we wait to buy one.  no buying "placeholder" furniture, or stuff just to take up space.  i'm okay with things being a bit sparse at first, if it means we pick out pieces that we honestly love and will be able to live with for years to come.
2. i'm going to do my very best to re-use items, re-finish items we have, and buy used furniture when possible.  vintage pieces have a lot of charm, and an old table from the thrift store can be re-worked to look amazing, and i think an eclectic mix of styles looks awesome.  i love ikea, but i don't want to live in an ikea showroom, you know?  being a grown-up shouldn't mean buying a lot of stuff we can't afford to make a point about how grown-up we are!  
3. when possible, i want to build custom made items that fit the space.  lucky for me i have a very crafty partner with a lot of tools.  even luckier: we have our own garage now!  D made our bed, and did a great job.  i'm sad we'll have to stop sleeping in the loft he created, but happy that he can take that wood we used and make something new with it.  with his technical skills and my crafty bent, we should be able to make stuff that works for us.  it might not always work, and i'm sure we'll have a failure or two, but i'm okay with that.  this is actually something D said right off the bat; he's excited about making pieces that fit the space perfectly, and looking forward to getting to use all his woodworking tools! 
4. i'm going to try really hard to not try to force a "look" or theme, and to let things progress naturally.  it's tempting to dive in and paint every wall a different color all at once, but i'm going to limit myself to projects done one at a time, done thoughtfully and done well.  we're going to get to live in this house for a long time (knock on wood) and doing it all at once it like getting your whole body tattooed in a year.  where's the fun in that?  i space out my tattoos, so i'm going to try to do the same with home improvement projects.  :-)