This is My Temporary Home

I had a conversation today about the difficulties of moving from place to place so much. The conversation focused on furniture, and how much of a hassle moving it can become. Things get broken or misplaced. Furniture that fit perfectly in that town home now is an eyesore in this apartment. Or whatever, use your imagination. Jeff and I have made an agreement that we'll save the permanent and high quality furniture pieces for a permanent home that we own and plan on staying in for a while. Until then, we'll buy things that are flexible and replaceable.

The conversation also got me thinking about how we live in each temporary living situation. One girl said that since she's only here a year, she's not decorating or doing much of anything before she has to move again. The other girl said even though she'll be here another two and a half years, she hasn't put anything up on the walls and doesn't intend to do so.

It got me thinking.

Even though we're not here forever, I want our place to feel like a home. It's our comfort zone and where we live, why shouldn't it feel comfortable and cozy? Some things I'm not doing until the effort is worth it, like painting. Other things I can't actually do until we own our own place, like tearing down walls or replacing cabinets. But there are many things I CAN do while we're living in this apartment. Decorating the walls, filling the place with momentos and family pictures. Things that reflect us and our tastes. I can do that with our mobility in mind, though. I use Command strips to hang pictures on the walls so I don't do as much damage, I prefer knick knacks and things to put on table rather than large wall hangings or structures, and we don't own too many breakable things.

In the 8 months or so that we've been living here, I feel like I've done that. I feel like I'm coming home when I walk in the door at the end of the day, and I think that's how it should be. Would I pick an 8th floor 2 bedroom apartment for a permanent home? Probably not. But for now, it IS home.

So here's how I've made our place a home. Basically by unpacking all our stuff and putting it up.

Here's the living room/great room/main room in January on move-in day.

And here it is today.

(FYI, the TV says "Learning Japanese" in Kanji. It's an AFN commercial that shows simple phrases like 'please say that slower' or 'I don't understand'. Very helpful!)

Here's the office in January.

And here it is today.

Here's the bedroom in January.

Here it is today.

Maybe not the most amazing transformation. Probably not what I'd do with the place if we were staying here for more than a few years. But it helps. Having the space filled with furniture that works for us makes us comfortable. It can be overwhelming living overseas and dealing with the cultural differences. Coming home is a source of comfort and security for me.

Some things are still pretty much the same around here though. The view, for one. The trees may lose or gain their leaves and the water may change from snow to rain, but the lake is gorgeous any day.

January.

October.

The leaves are just starting to change, I can't wait to see how gorgeous fall is in my temporary home here in northern Japan!