The Reason Behind my Obsession for Project Dream Home

4/02/2014 05:22:00 AM

Why do I want to have my own home? Okay, that's quite a stupid question since I'm sure everyone wants their own house and I don't need to elaborate the reasons for that. BUT stupid as may seem, I just feel like ranting a bit today so please bear with me. 

I'm not sure if I've shared this before, but when I was little, I have this day dreaming going on every once in a while that my parents would take us out and then surprise us by bringing us to our brand new house. In which I would run upstairs and choose which room I wanted. Yep I'm weird. I don't dream of them giving me a barbie collection or whatever, I wanted a house. 
That would probably what I do when I get to my day dreaming scenario, but definitely with shoes on.

Of course that didn't happen and now I know why, it's freaking expensive! Haha... Don't get me wrong, we have a decent house, it's old, my guess is 1950s-60s, but spacious. I've got my own room at 10 years old, but I don't wanna sleep alone so that didn't last long. Then they enlarged the living space which forced us all siblings to again share a room. But by 15, I finally had my very own room when some shuffling happened, and by that time, I really don't mind sleeping alone. Thank goodness!

Fast forward to today, I'm still here at this very house, in a bigger (not pink!) room, but same house. I'm thankful for having a roof above my head (without rent!) for the longest time, but I think it's just about time for me to have my own house. For the past 5 years, I've been checking out houses in the market once in a while. I know we can't afford it, but I just wanted to see what's out there. What we can (barely) afford are sooo sooo far away, and we don't want to be so far from our respective families (bf and I)

But that was just a distant dream back then, but I just wanted to make that dream a reality NOW. Maybe getting a bit older triggered that, maybe seeing other people home's everyday did, I don't know, I just wanted it now.

In the three years I've been decorating other people's home, I'm always a bit jealous after we're done. Now they get to enjoy their very own space, and I will go home to the sad state of our house. This is our house before I started the blog...
and I did attempted to revamp it to give us all a nice place to call home. You may read all the updates I've done to this house here. It was all old posts (3+ years ago!) which actually started this blog. Ondoy did hit us that's why we decided to fix it up a bit. That's when we thought that the flood is just a one time thing. But then Habagat came, and I just gave up. For those with flood-stricken home as well, don't be dishearten, you can prettify your space and just make it a bit flood-proof. But as for me, about a million of us live here and they are mostly boys, so it's quite hard to keep it pretty. Flood + boys = not so nice house. haha... Some people might assume that since I decorate for a living that I have a great-looking house, well... you can't be more wrong. I don't. Even my room is a mess. Shameful really.

This was the time when my room was a bit presentable.. long long time ago

But I just told myself that I'll save up all my ideas, energy, and money as to when I've got my own place to decorate. Some may think that it's a very shallow reason to have a house-- "to have a space to decorate." Well, it actually is. Aside from all the practical reasons out there that you all probably know already, I'm just itching to have a place to fix that I can also enjoy. I feel that it is a privilege and a joy to create a space for yourself that will inspire you or just make you smile on a daily basis.  


And you have no idea how many things we (the bf and I)  have hoarded that we are planning to put in our future house. It is everywhere. Let me enumerate some of them.

1. Sofa-- I inherited a sofa from my cousin that we'll probably have reupholstered in a cognac leather ala chesterfield. (currently being used here as secondary sofa)

2. Headboard --We have an old ornate headboard with upholstery. Super nice details and has a lot of potential.

3. Dining table legs -- another cousin was discarding furniture and I took the legs. The top was no use for me, two wide and not so nice, but I can already see the dining table those legs can make so i went for it.

4. Chairs -- lots of them actually. We have 2 big swivel chairs, vintage wood chair, and about a million more.

5. Artworks -- I have a few artwork that we used to decorate the room at the showroom before. And I'm always on the look out for cheap vintage artworks from thrift shops and I've got quite a few. Maybe I'll share them here when we finally tackled the mountain of boxes of the stuff we have.

6. Cowhide rug -- yes we bought one. For a steal. You know how expensive they are at retail stores right? Well we found a very nice pre-owned one and bought it without even having a place for it. We just thought, for the dream house. (Animal lovers, don't hate. These are hides from cows/beef we eat so unless you're a vegetarian/vegan..... )

7. Accessories -- ohh I'm excited about this. The bf and I loves vintage stuff and we got some stashed away. A nice ice bucket, an amazingly weird metal knight shot glass holder, Rizal bust, Saraos, and lots more that we probably already forgot.

8. Vintage trunks -- we've got two. 

I could go on and on but I won't since this is already a very long post and I'm not even sure I'm making a point. But we can probably furnish our not-yet existing home with all the trash/treasure we have collected. 
            
see some of my DIYs here

And I miss doing DIYs. I miss updating old pieces and making it work for a space. We have a lot of stuff to work with, but it doesn't make sense to do them now when we have no idea where it would go and what's the look of the space it's going to. Well that's not exactly true since I KNOW what the look were going for, but still.

Oh and I can't wait to share them all here. Probably a more shallow reason, but I think when the time comes we got our dream house, this blog will not be as neglected as it is now. Imagine all the planning, DIYs, decorating, redecorating, and all dream house related I could share? That would be awesome. I follow quite a number of blogs, and the most I enjoy are blogs that share their personal home. 

But the most important thing I'm excited about is sharing it with the bf. Naks! But really, we spent almost every single day of the past 10 years together and thankfully, we're still not sick of each other. Haha... We actually quite enjoy each other's company so it will be one exciting ride. Oh I'm sure there'll be a lot of "discussion" when it comes to design choices since he has quite a vision as well, but it's something I'm looking forward to, creating a space the both of us would love and enjoy. We're both the creative type, and we both can't stand still not creating something, so it will be one chaotic happy house. Haha...


So there, some of the reasons Project Dream Home should commence soon. Like yesterday. I've been obsessed with the house thing since I was a kid, so I guess it's about time right? Right. That's what I thought too. I know it wouldn't be handed to us, so we're currently working hard for it. The dream is this year, we'll have it. Hear that universe? Bring it to me.

Rant. Over.


7 comments

  1. i always keep on dreaming for a flat, small yet cozy and easy to maintain. all decorations and layout are all in my mind...someday...nope it should be soon I can move to my dream flat

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  2. Hey Arya! Yup soon.. we'll move to our dream home. Lets do this!! :)

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  3. What a lovely post, Elle. It's funny how I relate to so many things you wrote... I hope you'll get your dream home soon!

    Mirela

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  4. Hi Mirela, thank you! Really hope so too :)

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  5. Hello..Been following your blog and I'm wondering if you can recommend your go-to guy/company for a re-upholstery job? Or where to source leather for upholstery in Manila? Would appreciate it. Thanks!

    -Rebecca

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  6. Hi Rebecca, as for the upholsterer, I just use the services of neighborhood upholsterer for small job. (del monte qc) For leather, dynasty in edsa cubao for some nice afforadble options.

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  7. Hello I'm just wondering if magkano ang nagastos nyo po sa pagpapatayo ng tiny house

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Thanks for dropping by. I'd love to hear what you think! :)

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