a little bit of Manic

Some people get "Baby Fever". You know, that need to have another baby, or touch every newborn they come across. Gross. I get something known in my house as "House Fever". I have a desperate need, want, desire to buy a house and make it my own. Sometimes this "fever" last a few weeks, sometimes months, but regardless of how long it lasts, it's all consuming. I eat, sleep, breathe house hunting. I Google and drive by. I peek into windows (mostly unoccupied) and spend hours on-line doing video tours. My car gets cluttered with those info fliers you pull from the FOR SALE sign. Sometimes I even go so far as to hit up our local Realtor and set up walk throughs. It's bad.
I think, in part, it comes from being chronic renters. As a Military family, you never really know how long you'll be in one spot, so it makes buying a little more involved. You have to think farther into the future of how your potential home will turn into a rental or a sale. In this economy, no one can really afford a 3 year turnover on a home. Plus, I romanticize about the next house we buy being "The One". Our retirement, or at least the place where we settle for quite some time, maybe even pass down to our kids. I LOVE our little town and I would LOVE to buy here.
I think another reason I'm having some Fever is because there is only so much you can do to a rental to make it "yours". The walls stay white (even if several variations), the kitchen or bathrooms keep the same outdated fixtures, there's no remodel in sight. It gets kinda boring and I think you either lose some creativity in the drab, or you spark some creativity to add a little something special to make what is essentially a borrowed space your own.
I think that is where I am at the moment. There is no way we are buying anything anytime soon. We're looking at a PCS in June, we just took on another car payment, and I'm not looking at going back to work anytime soon. Plus, we have a FANTASTIC view of the sound and Olympic mountain range that we could never afford if not for this rental. Soooo... to try to squelch this fever, I have been on an "update" rampage in my house this week. I've updated some decor in our bedroom, completely re-arranged the upstairs great room ,kitchen and downstairs living room, and even done some touch ups to the bathrooms. And since I'm on a budget and believe in reducing commercialism to better our environment, everything has been either second hand (either from thrifts or online)or re-purposed items I already owned.
It's given me some control over my desire to buy a house, and my hectic life, and it feels good to change things up a bit. And at the end of the day, I feel good that I still have those last few dollars in the bank :)
I still have a few projects on the burner, but I'm hoping to settle back down by weeks end; I'm sure much to the delight of my husband. I still might have some house fever, but in the process I've weeded out some things that where clutter, made a few dollars and found a little bit of balance. And even some compliments form the other people who live in my domicile <3 Some tips to spruce up your look: **I am a lover of the Goodwill, but not everyone feels the same way. If you can't even consider using second hand curtains, fine, but you can use the Goodwill for other things. Americana is a very popular look right now, and if you stroll the aisles of your local Thrift, you will find little wooden shelves, metal candle holders and picture frames for super cheap. All you need is a can of matte black spray paint, and you've got yourself some do-it-yourself decor. **Move items from one room into another. If that cute bathroom shelf if just collecting dust, move it into the kitchen and add hooks to hang some teacups or coffee mugs. Does that old dresser have sentimental value but no real purpose? Add some paint or go to www.vinylwallart.com and pick some reusable decals to spruce it up. ** Take a walk through your garage or storage shed. My bet is it is overflowing with random crap that can either be re-purposed (i.e, use some older curtain rods to hang quilts/blankets) or sold on many of the online sales sites for extra cash

in your pocket(one of my favs is www.lewisyardsales.com, look for a bookoo in your area)

*********PICS**********

The framed pictures are actually sheets from an old calendar I found at the Goodwill for a buck. Had the frames already, just switched out the pictures. The shelf was an ugly pinkish color I did a haphazard spray paint on. Another Thrift find for $2.50.

The picture of my dining room shows an old Avon collectibles (Dereks Grandmothers) we display and my grandmothers dresser (which lived through an apartment fire) I use now as a buffet.