The Living Room

My speech is over and I didn’t die of a heart attack like I thought I might. 🙂 We had a substitute that day and it caused me a lot of stress. Oh me of little faith. The Lord had it all under control. The substitute did things differently and by the time she got to our speeches, class was supposed to be over! We each gave our speech and sat down. There was no time for questions. That was the part I dreaded the most. The Lord was with me and it went pretty well.

I have a lot to share, but no time to upload pictures so it will have to wait. Since I already have some pictures uploaded, I thought I would do another post about organizing my 900 square foot house. We did very little to the living room. We removed a wallpaper border, touched up paint and put down a hard wood floor. This flooring was cheaper than any carpet we could find. It changed the whole look of the room and I love it! Of course, we put in our own furniture and the oriental rug that was given to us by a missionary family returning to the states.

This is the view of the living room from the stairwell leading upstairs. The man in the picture is the missionary who served here before us.

The same view after the work is done and we have our own furniture. My sewing machine is in the right corner. I wanted to leave it set up somewhere. I knew if it was in a closet that I would never get it out. This works fine for small projects. For bigger projects, I can fold the top over in front of the door way for more table space. This only presents a problem if someone wants to go in or out of the front door while I am sewing! It’s a little crowded, but it is cozy and we are content.

The view from the dining area.

The after was shocking to me. My furniture has been collected over the years. Most of it was just something I liked or had sentimental value. For example, the cabinet with the t.v. on it was made by my dad. When he decided to get rid of it, I asked for it. The only thing we bought to ship over here was the couch. Our old one wasn’t worth shipping. When we moved everything in and bought our curtains here in Japan. It looked like we bought everything together or else hired an interior decorator. I never would have picked warm colors and I was trying to avoid gold, put when we put it all together it was perfect and we all liked it. It was decorated by God! He orchestrated everything. There is one difficulty. We do not have central heat or air. I learned the hard way that my couch doesn’t like the kerosene heater. The finish is starting to crack and peel on one of the legs. We had to move the heater.

When we found out we had to scale way, way down, there were some things that I just didn’t want to part with. This was my grandmother’s hutch. There is a table to go with it that we are presently storing at the church. The hutch takes up space, but it has an enormous amount of storage. I have placemats, napkins, tableclothes, 1 set of china and extra dishes, teapots, etc. stored in this one piece of furniture! It also provides a place to display some of my collections. The bottom has some spring village houses displayed. The narrow middle shelf has my cherry blossom Japanese tea set displayed. The shelf above that has some of my teacups from my collection on it. I change this around whenever the mood strikes me.

I don’t follow a lot of rules in my decorating. I know what I like and that’s what I do. I have had a job in the past that involved time and space management. I did some study on interior decorating just for fun. Both of these experiences have proven to be beneficial. I think you need to to live within your means and if there is something (i.e. large furniture) that you don’t want to part with, find a way to use it practically. Then you won’t mind the space it takes.

So much for my opinions. I’ll be back soon!

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