What Makes A House a Home?

So, after running our first Facebook giveaway (www.facebookcom/theminerscouch), with the question ‘what makes your house a home?’ , reading all of your answers got me inspired to think about what does make a house a home…

Some of you may have read a previous blog of mine, about renovating our farmhouse, and I guess what has made our house a home starts with the fact that it was created by us! All of our dreams, ideas, our hard work, our pets, even the odd tiff, has made what we have today.

I guess I looked at our house as a shell, it might’ve been dilapidated and inhabited by number of wild creatures, but it was just sitting there waiting for someone to love it and fill it with family, love, laughter, hand me downs, special new items, photos, colours, textures… all these things that portray the people that live in it and the lives they lead.

When my parents decided to sell the family house we had grown up in, in order to build a new home, I have to say we were all a little sad. So many memories were made there, it was hard to imagine life in another place. Everything was packed up and once again the house was just a shell, awaiting its new owners, new people to fill it and create a life in it.

Meanwhile, my parents finished their new house and we all set about shifting their much loved goodies into it… it was during this time, as we watched the new shell come alive, that I realised a house on its own is not a home, but whatever shell you choose to set your family and life up in is what turns it into a home. My parents’ new home is now just as full of memories and fun times as was our previous home.

When thinking of my own special home we have created on our property at Redwing, my entry for the giveaway, what makes my house a home, in 25 words or less, would be:

‘It’s the peace, it’s the quiet,

It’s the beauty in the silence.

It’s the love, it’s the laughter,

And the happy ever after.’

Renovating Redwing

Hubby and I have been together for nine years (wonderful years, I should say, as I’m writing this on Valentine’s Day!) It was eight years ago that he drug me out of suburbia an into a ramshackle old farmhouse that was inhabited by mice, bats, bee hives, owls and giant bird eating huntsman, as I liked to call them after first screaming, pointing and running.

There was orange and green carpet, faded curtains, a toilet out the back, a shower out the front and a bath out the side (where all the water ran into the foundations). There was also light coming through the cracks, a falling down fence and ninety nine huge pine trees surrounding the ‘house’, plus a multitude of brown snakes living under them. Now I’m an animal lover from way back, but this was taking it a little far…

I swear you can see the spiders hanging under the verandah!

 

So… sink or swim? And swim we did! Renovating Redwing began in 2005 and since then we have turned our run down ‘wildlife shelter’ into a gorgeous 1860s country home. Along the way we somehow got hooked on this renovating thing and have completed a bed and breakfast (Redwing BnB), renovated our building for The Miners Couch to move into, and have just about completed our second bnb, Redwing Barn.  We well and truly have the renovating bug and I’ve had a lot of people ask me to blog about our projects…so please stay tuned!

She sure has come a long way! Stay tuned for pics of the inside :)











Would love to have wedings here one day!

The Comeback of Vintage Australiana

The Comeback of Vintage Australiana!

Over the four years we have been running The Miners Couch, we have already seen many items come and go in popularity. We’ve had ‘runs’ on white beds, cream couches, hankies, clocks, birds, blue, orange….the list goes on (and its always interesting!)

Lately we have noticed a new fad, and this is one for those of you who have a love of old furniture (like myself)… the return of the good old Australian furniture! I’m talking meat safes, leadlight dressers, trunks and ice chests, just as a few examples. Take me back four years ago and I couldn’t sell one of these to save myself – but now they’re back with a vengeance! And it’s great to see such Australian products finding their way into your homes in 2013.

My theory for the return of these pieces is not that people suddenly realised how well made they are and how much character they ooze (lets be serious, if you’ve been overlooking that for the last 100 years you probably haven’t been paying enough attention!!) , but that they suddenly fit in with today’s trends and styles! That’s right, the introduction styles such as French, Rustic, Retro, Vintage, Beach and even Industrial décor, means these guys can slot right in and look super cool again!

So check out the pics below for ideas, and if you’re into French, Industrial or Retro go out and find yourself a piece of uniquely Australian furniture today - it could just be that last item you need to finish off the look you’ve been chasing for your home!

If you’ve already joined this latest craze, feel free to post some pics on our FB page of how you’ve incorporated Aussie vintage furniture into your home!

PS. Want tips on restoring these babies? Let me know and I can blog something down the track…have done my fair share of restoration and have a few useful tips! But just be prepared for hard work!

PPS. We currently have some of these Australian pieces in store now, so check out our FB page to see what’s available.

Beginnings

So, the first blog! I’ve thought of some great ideas for future blogs and also had people suggest some too, but I like a good story and a good story has to have a beginning, so the first blog is about me! Well, more so, how I ended up running this fantastic (I think so!) shop…

I guess you’d say I’m a ‘nester’, I love my home. I’m that person who goes on holidays and doesn’t feel comfy until I’ve found out where everything is, have spread out all my things, set up the bedside table and all the benches with my items and then surveyed the area to make sure it feels just right! I know there are some of you saying you do the same!

I’m a dreamer. Not in a dopey way, but in an ideas way. I love ideas! They go round in my head constantly, and pop up at the weirdest times (but as you know, Einstein thought of his theory of gravity while soaking in a bubble bath). I’ve been known to wear people out with my ideas – there’s too many they say – but one thing they can be sure of is that each one will be ‘out the box’ ( because you’ve got to keep things interesting!). My husband loves reminiscing about my various ideas…I think his favourite was when I sold the pile of wild cacti in our garden on Ebay and ended up making over $2000. There’s been flops too…but let’s not go into those too much!

Also, I love people, they’re all so different and they all have great stories and great ideas. And all of these people have homes. Whether it’s a caravan, an old house, a new house, a transportable, a mansion… all these people have a place called home that needs to be ‘nested’ in!

So first I used my nesting, my love of people and my endless ideas, to be a teacher – creating lessons, forming relationships with kids, parents and other teachers, and turning my classroom into a second home. It was great! But without going into it too much, over the six years I was there, the demands from the department and the reforming of the teaching guidelines, meant there was less and less room for creativity, I was getting squished… so it was time for a new idea!

And there it was! A shop! Hadn’t I entertained the idea of being my own boss before? And it had boundless opportunities for creativity, it had constant contact with people and it was a nester’s dream! I could make my shop into a nest and use it to help everyone else nest in their homes too!

So I did it.

And four years have gone past in a flash! Now let’s not make out it hasn’t been hard – after all, what a learning curve – the first day I cowered behind the counter thinking ‘what have I done? I have no idea how to run a shop!’ There were bills to pay, accounts to keep, reps to meet, companies to find and form relationships with, a whole overhaul of the stock I wanted, constant unpacking and moving of pieces, constant searching of the latest styles, and (luckily) a constant stream of customers to keep happy. 

And I love it! Mostly I love the customers (you guys!). There’s so many of you now who drop in for a chat and look for that perfect piece, and if I don’t have it, we discuss your home and your style and what you’re after, and I look for it… its great! And there’s nothing better than the smile on someone’s face when you find what they want and you know you’ve helped make their house a home – a nest they love to get back to, from work, or holidays, or just life in general.

So that’s my story, the moral is, and I tell everyone this – DREAM, dream big or small, you can never do too much of it – but the key is to not just dream, it’s to DO IT, to just get out there and have a go, and remember there are no mistakes, there are only lessons.

Renovating our new building ready for The Miners Couch!