#50 Evaluate your home {52 bites}

I’ve been spring cleaning my home all week, going through room-by-room and cleaning, evaluating, de-cluttering. I’m also writing Chapter 6 of Sacred Mundane which is about our homes. Tonight we’re having dinner with some friends who just sold their home. They’ll be moving into a Grandmother’s home until they find their next space. This morning some dear friends move in (temporarily) to our daylight basement downstairs. They are living part-time at a parent’s home and part-time in our home.

Homes are on my mind.

Jeff and I have lived in 13 homes since getting married almost nine years ago.  A 2,000 square-foot-home a friend let us rent for $600, our first townhome, a windowless fire-hazard cave in San Jose, the creepy Acropolis Apartments with Aaron & Candi, another townhome in McMinnville, a bigger home in McMinnville, my parents’ home, my brother’s home, the Dombrow’s home, a West Linn apartment, our “dream home”, and now our beloved rental, affectionately called The-mobilehome-on-stilts.

Though I still care about “home,” it’s a bit of a four-letter-word for me. You see, I think the notion of “home” became an idol for me. Ever since I can remember I dreamed of homes, drew drawings of homes, looked at pictures homes, equated that “perfect” home with that “perfect” life. A cotton-candy dream, to be sure.

Now, I’m a recovering home-a-holic.

God extracted my idol like a bloody tooth from a jaw. Many of you followed our downsizing adventure of selling our dream home and moving into our precious 70s rental. It truly was one the best decisions we’ve ever made, and every time I drive by our old house I thank God we’re free from that mortgage. But this past week, I’ll confess, I caught a case of the Rental Blues.  House prices are so low, and interest rates are so low, and if we snagged a Foreclosure-Fixer we could pay it off in no-time.  So earlier this week I peeked, and quickly developed a crush on a foreclosure nearby. That night I asked God if He’d make it clear whether I was supposed to continue my crush. The next day it sold. We’re staying put.

And happily staying put, I might add. The friends who are surrounding me today remind me that home is wherever you hang your hat, where you laugh with friends, where you can just be, even if you don’t know how long you’ll be there at all.

The essence of this step, then, is to objectively evaluate your current home and determine if you can make it work or if you need to find a new spot. 

Here are some questions Tsh suggests:

1. Is the central living area of our home usable for our
family?
2. Does the kitchen function effectively as a place to cook?
3. Are we able to sit down together as a family for meals?
4. Is everyone in the family able to pursue their interests
because of our home?
5. Does the layout of our home provide us the right balance
of togetherness and alone time?
6. Do we like the amount of light in our home?
7. How do the colors in our home make us feel?
8. Is our home in a location that works for our family?
9. Does our home fit our budget? (Dave Ramsey and
others recommend your rent or mortgage not be
more than one quarter of your take-home pay.)
10. Are we at peace in our home?

Our current home satisfies all these requirements. Of course I would still love to own a home outright someday and be free to give and travel more, but this is our home for now and The Nester offers some great words on embracing the home you have now:

My next house is going to be beautiful.  It might not be bigger but, my next house is the one I’ll really make into a home.  This house we are in now is just a holding room for us until we get to our next house. It’s ok that it doesn’t represent our family.  I’m renting, it’s a waste to make it pretty right now.  I don’t know how long we’ll be here.  I long to have a much loved haven for my family but, I don’t have the funds and those pictures in the magazines assure me that it’s impossible to even attempt to make a change where I am.  Yeah, I’m gonna love my next house. You’ll see.

How many of those lines have you repeated to yourself?  I’ve said them all.  And then I finally realized that there might not be a next house.

Love where you are.  Beautify where you are. Your next house will be great too but, wherever you are right now, today, has enormous potential.

Compared to your last house, this IS your next house.

Another great way to start fresh without starting over comes from this post on Resetting a room through a fresh pair of eyes. Love this idea; I’m going to do it!

Consider evaluating your home this weekend and determining if you need to make it work or find a new spot. Here are some great links to more thoughts as well:

• When your house-attitude needs a paint job
• Cool of house-fever with a long-term financial plan
• Confessions of a Reluctant Renter

{May you be blessed this weekend as you evaluate and enjoy the home you have now… thanks for reading.}