March 8th, 2014 
Jessica 
Last year for Christmas (2012) my father-in-law gave Brad and I curtains and curtain rods for our living room, and then helped us install them. It may amuse some of you to know that we’d been living in our house for 1 1/2 years, and still didn’t have curtains anywhere but in the kids’ room. In fact, we still don’t have curtains in our bathroom or office. But, as Dave Ramsey always says, “Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else!” So we were living without curtains. We do have blinds throughout the house, although they did not look nearly as cozy.
Once the living room had curtains, I used some of our Christmas money to buy sheers for the dining room window, curtains for the master bedroom, and rods for both locations. I bought the curtains and sheers at Lowe’s, and bought the rods at JCPenney. I’ve got to tell you, it’s amazing how much more finished a room looks with curtains! Our dining room is still very humble in appearance as you can see below. Eventually we would like to save up for a solid wood dining room set, but for now we’re making due with a folding table and chairs that were a gift from my mother-in-law.
As I look at these pictures, it’s incredible to me how many things we’ve been given over the years. In the photo below, my mother gave us the mirror, and my mother-in-law gave us the wicker cabinet. In the photos above, Brad’s grandfather made our bed-frame and bed-side tables as a wedding gift, and my parents gave us our mattress, box-spring, comforter, and sheets for our wedding. We love to walk around our house remembering all the ways that our family and friends have blessed us over the years, and helped to make our house a home.
What gifts make your house a home?
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