photo credit

When life gets stressful, some people eat too much, spend too much or sleep too much. (or all three)

Me?

I scan the MLS too much.

Not because I am sad or malcontent, just because it is fun!

I could pour over house tours online with glee and imagination for hours. I look at tiny houses, out-of-state houses, big houses and local-maybe-someday houses. I do love a good realty listing. I am the worst looky-lu ever! I have been known to visit open houses for fun, even when I am not looking to buy. I am forever taking the color copy listing promos from the mailboxes on For Sale signs. {tsk, tsk}

As a kid, I read floor plan magazines, while other girlfriends drooled over Leo DiCaprio in Teen Beat. Hey, I drooled too, but I had my priorities. Plus, I don’t think I was aloud to read the “trashy” ones with articles like, 101 ways to kiss your boy toy.

I digress.

I had floor plan computer software, a subscription to House Beautiful and a weekly claim to the Sunday ‘Houses’ section of the classifieds…all before I was sixteen. In fact, during my 8th grade “shop class” business lesson, I created a company called Happy Homes. My company would color coordinate a house into pure happiness, uh…yeah. Reality happened, now what?

House Beautiful magazine circa 1990's-ish

While, I consider myself a product of a happy home, I have been searching for the secret ingredient to happiness in my own home.

What makes a house a home?

• Will a paint color really create joy?
• Can a crock-pot meal define my purpose?
• Is it pearls and aprons I am searching for? Is it high paying career with lots of benefits?
• A floor plan with a mudroom will certainly stitch together a ‘Happy Home’, right?
• How can my personality, faith, resources, dreams, children and glue gun all combine, to create my dream house/life/home/legacy?

Enter in Kimba from A Soft Place to Land. She has a knack for spray paint, family strengthening and keepin’ it real y’all.  Do-It-Yourself projects mixed with fun tips for making your home…what else? A Soft Place to Land! Are you with me? Say, Yes!

Okay, but even Kimba seems to acknowledge the struggle between cute picture frames and meaningful frames of mind. To start keepin’ really real, she has started a new series cleverly named, Building A Soft Place to Land. I am totally hooked!

Join Kimba and get hooked too, as she learns, along with us, how to build the foundation for joyful homes, spray paint and all.

See what other folks are getting hooked on over at Hooked on Houses on Friday.