Making a House a Home
A Millennial’s Perspective on Flying the Coup
As a twenty-four-year-old, who just nested into my own house, I will say that it isn’t easy making a house into a home, especially on a budget. I’m sure I’m not the only person who thought that it can’t be that hard to make their house look like a Chip and Joanna Gaines original fixer-upper, but boy was I wrong!
After moving in, my husband and I, quickly realized that our house just wasn’t going to be Pinterest-worthy any time soon. Fast forward to being homeowners for two years now and here’s what I’ve learned so far as I have slowly, but surely made our house into a home:
1.You have to pick your house projects because you can’t possibly do all the things you really want to do and have a life!
2.The most enjoyable things come from the least likely sources…
3.Being a homeowner can make you feel nostalgic
Setting up a Bird Feeder is a lot easier than setting up Ikea furniture
After moving into our new house, my husband and I, came up with a list of house projects we’d like to do right away. While we thought our list was realistic, we quickly realized that the weekends just weren’t long enough to accomplish everything we wanted to get done and even if they were, we didn’t have an endless budget to get everything we wanted to be done on our list. That being said, we did finish projects that absolutely needed to happen like fixing that hole in our fence so our two dogs wouldn’t get out for the millionth time. However, installing a kitchen backsplash is still on our list two years later and probably will be for another year or so.
What we have learned as homeowners is that you quickly realize the projects that you need to get done versus the ones that you want to get done. For example, another project on our list was to create an outdoor patio space to entertain when our friends came over. During the first few months after moving in, we were able to quickly install the patio stones to where it actually looked like a patio! We also were able to get the landscaping in around the patio and install a bird feeder before winter set in so we would have something to look at outside. We ended up not getting patio furniture though until that next spring because we weighed the costs and benefits and decided that at the time that made the most sense. It wasn’t like we would be sitting out on our patio in a snowstorm, but we could still see birds at our bird feeder while it was snowing. Conveniently for us, it also helped that a bird feeder was also way less expensive and less labor-intensive to install than patio furniture as well. Check out Mr. Canary’s Bird & Breakfast for a bird feeder that is so easy to maintain and what’s better yet is that the company offers subscription services so you can get refill birdseed delivered right to your door when you need it…no more lugging around a bag of birdseed.
Bird Feeding isn’t just for your grandparents, who knew?
Don’t get me wrong, I love the kitchen island that I bought from Target that gets me one step closer to being on the level as Joanna Gaines and I get a lot of compliments on my rug from Wayfair that makes my living room feel cozy, but I’ve found that what I enjoy most about my house isn’t the things that I buy to make it look more like I own a house off of HGTV. What really makes my house a home is what I am doing in it. It is coming home and watering my flowers in the backyard. It is taking my dogs on a walk around the neighborhood. It is eating dinner with my husband on the patio and waiting for the next bird or squirrel (because let’s be honest, this is REAL life) to come to our bird feeder. It is about being unplugged and enjoying every moment connected to nature.
I had a bird feeder growing up, which is why I originally bought one because I could now that I had my own house and not an apartment. When I was younger, I didn’t pay too much attention to the bird feeder or not near as much as my grandma did. However, now that I have my own bird feeder and it doesn’t just magically refill itself, I have had to pay closer attention to it. My husband thinks he knows all; every dog breed, every tree or flower species, he can name it; so, naturally, he knows more about birds than I ever care to know, yet we still find bird watching as something we both can enjoy in the evening after work. While he sees bird watching as a challenge to know which type of bird is coming to our feeder, I just like to see the color variations of the birds that come. We also both get enjoyment out of watching squirrels come to our feeder, as this makes our dogs go crazy. Who said you need squirrel proof bird feeders? Just get a dog and that should take care of that problem. I’m not saying that we spend our date nights watching birds, but it has been something that we both find relaxing for five minutes out of our day, that we never thought we would enjoy.
Bird Feeding Makes You Feel Good
As I’ve mentioned, I originally purchased a bird feeder because I had one growing up. My husband and I were creating our outdoor oasis when I thought that adding a bird feeder to our backyard would make it feel more “homey”. I never really gave it much thought, but now I realize that the reason that I thought a bird feeder would make my house feel more like a home was because a bird feeder makes me think of how my grandma would go outside on our back deck every evening in her nightgown to watch the birds. Now I have no intention of going outside in the evening in my nightgown to watch the birds like my grandma, but it has been an unexpected thrill to watch the birds in my backyard while I’m out having drinks on the patio. I’ve even found my bird feeder to be enjoyable in the winter as it reminds me that spring is right around the corner, or in the case of Indiana spring could be tomorrow…who really knows. The point is that what started out as buying something that made me feel close to my family, turned out to actually make me be in a better mood whenever I look out in the backyard and see it.
Discover more benefits to bird feeding by learning about the company that makes bird feeding cool…ish, Mr. Canary. Mr. Canary isn’t like other wild bird companies, as this company puts people first, then birds…seriously. The bird feeders are sustainably-sourced and recyclable, so you don’t have to feel bad about refilling your bird feeder. An added bonus is that Mr. Canary partners with the Arc of Greater Boone County to make and distribute all its products, so you too can do your part to help the greater good in the community and in your own home.