Thursday, August 5, 2010

Vacation Home {My Bigger picture Moment}

Head over to Hyacynth's to join in this week! Sarah will be hosting next week, so be sure to keep your eyes and heart open to the bigger picture and come back to share...

Bigger Picture Moment


My husbands family is lucky enough to have a lovely piece of property on a lake in the North Woods of Wisconsin. It has a beach, boating, trees, fields. It also has history and I think that's what I love the best. His great uncle (his paternal grandmother's brother) built the main house after serving in World War II (he refereed to it as 'the war'). There are great pictures of him building the house, I love seeing how much it's changed. There have been several editions to the main house and there are also two smaller cabins and a spot for camping (where uncle's trailer used to sit). The property has been in the family for over 50 years. Well actually it was sold at one point and someone else owned it for 15 years and the owners DIDN"T CHANGE A THING. How amazing is that? There was even still a painting that his aunt had painted hanging in one of the cabins!

We love visiting this place and try to go up two or three times a year. It feels like home. Not in the same way that your actual home feels when you collapse into your comfy chair after a time away and you are like, ahhh home. No it's more like a warm feeling. The warmth left on your body after a loving hug, a worn old sweater embracing and comforting you. It leaves you feeling warm, comforted, and loved. That's how this place makes you feel. 


A large part of it is the people. They are loving and calm, helpful and more adjectives than I can list here. They have filled these homes with love.There are family pictures everywhere, in all the houses. We love looking at them and telling our kids about the family members they will never know. It's so heartwarming to see pictures and think of my husbands dad playing on the same beach and swing set as my son now plays on. I know it brings my husband peace to be able to watch that circle of history. 

Every time we leave I think I want my house to feel like this. It's not about the location, the size (we stay in a very small cabin), the stuff. It's the feeling, the warmth, the comfort, the love. 

I want to, I need to start filling this house. Not just with stuff and furniture (although some furniture would be really nice!) but with history. Reminders that they, my children, are not the first in their family to navigate this big wide world and they won't be the last. To connect them to those that have gone too soon and to show them how they are so loved and connected, that they are part of a family. It's time to get some pictures out of boxes and off my computer and on the walls. 

It's also time to make this home our own. We don't have to spend a ton of money. The vacation house has been furnished through swap meets and thrift stores, not that you would ever know! I am inspired every time I go up there how much you can change something with a little elbow grease and some spray paint. It just adds to the history and charm. History, charm and love, that is what I want my house filled with. So it's time to hit the garage sales and thrift stores, finally unpack some boxes and get the elbow grease ready. It's time to make my house a home.



suzannah | the smitten word said...

my husband's family has a little cottage like this, too. we took our babies there for the first time in july, and it was bliss.

are you new in your home? it does take a while to feel settled. i'm all for vintage furnishing--one of a kind can't be beat:)

to family and history and the comfort of home

Alita said...

What a lovely home! Rich with history. How fortunate for you guys. I get this bigger picture moment.

My great grandfather built their home after world war II with his bare hands down in Arkansas and it was sold off once my grams moved into a home. It is sad. Very sad. So I understand this. I understand the need to make a house a home.

One Photo said...

How wonderful to have a place that your husband and his family have called a home for all those years and see your children play where their grandparents once played. Magical.

Brooke said...

What a nice place to have for the family! We've lived in our house for 2 1/2 years now, I still haven't done a whole lot and sometimes it does feel like its just a temporary place, I too think I need to do more personal touches to make it home

Jamie said...

Having that place you can go to and relax is such an amazing feeling.

Hyacynth said...

My hubby's family {wow! Suzannah's, yours and mine!} has a tiny little cottage on a lake in Michigan. And it's homey and warm and lovely, filled with memories for my hubby and his parents, and now filled with memories of our little family.
Also, I DESPERATELY needed to read this post today as I've been feeling silly discontentment with our furniture situation. It's not the stuff that makes the house a home; it's the feelings within.
Thank you for that.
See you at my garage sale on Saturday. ;)

michelle said...

love and sweat make a home. not pottery barn!
love family is lucky enough to have a lake house too. it doesn't have your kind of history but it is surely a refuge...

Holly said...

WOW!! I would LOVE a place like that!! How lucky to be able to get it BACK in the family, too!! Lovely place and pics! You'll get your home (at home) the way you want it eventually; little by little... I have FAITH in YOU! ;D

Holly said...

OOPS, forgot to tell you that you are amazingly strong, resilient, and amazing writer and an inspiration! I have an award for you on my Fri, Aug 6 post. ;D