Slow Goodbyes: The Living Room

Yesterday I started a series of "slow goodbye" posts where I'm processing all my thoughts and memories about the rooms in our home. Yesterday I shared about our kitchen and all the joy that room brought us in the last four years.

Today I am saying goodbye to our living room!

Because this room is adjacent to our kitchen, it also received quite a makeover in the time we lived here. When we took down the wall between the two rooms, the living room changed as much as the kitchen. One of Ryan's best decisions ever about this house!

Here are the changes we made in the living room (and I'll count the entry as part of it, since I don't feel the need to do a separate goodbye to that space).

* We took down the top half of the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen, allowing light to flow between the rooms, unhindered. That change also allowed the feel of the living room and kitchen together to lean more toward the open concept side, and it really helped when we entertained.

* We did a stone feature wall (thanks, Pinterest!) that became quite a conversation piece and gave the room so much personality.

* We replaced the carpet, which was an unplanned project we were forced to do when the (still new) carpet the previous owners put in ended up staining TERRIBLY. It was white and though it was high quality, and I'm sure they paid a lot of money for it, it hung onto stains like you would not believe. We overlooked everything until the cup of coffee took a tumble. Couldn't overlook that!

* We replaced the light in the entry to something a little more modern - and much brighter.

* We did a board and batten feature in the entry that turned out GREAT! That was our last project before finding out we were moving, but we think the new owners are really going to love it!

* We painted all the walls.

And we had plans to put in a shiplap/bookshelf feature wall, but we didn't get to it before we found out we were moving. But we've heard that the new owners plan to do a version of it, so we are excited to know it will eventually happen!

When we lived in Marion, our living room was a little on the small side, and it was long and skinny with few furniture placement options. (It basically only had one wall that wasn't broken up by a doorway and/or windows.) We were so excited to have a HUGE living room in this house - where we could do all the living and configuring without any interruption. And much like the kitchen, it did not disappoint. The huge open space gave us all kinds of opportunities to enjoy all kinds of joy in the last four years. Here's just a sampling of the memories.

* We hosted my mom's surprise party for her 80th birthday here in this living room. That's still one of my favorite memories - her sitting in the wheelchair in the corner, throwing her hands in the air and yelling when she saw my sisters sneak into the room as surprise #2. This was our first true entertaining in this home ,and what a joy it was!

* Our small group met in here every other week for three years. People came early to claim couch seats and a couple of the girls loved getting the electric throw blanket when the coldest parts of winter rolled around. We congregated on the couch, folding chairs, and even the floor to open up the Bible and study and pray together. So many friendships were forged during those small group nights!

* We did many, many workouts in this room. For part of the time we lived here, Ryan had a gym membership, but the rest of the time, we did all kinds of Beachbody videos and most recently, Revelation Wellness workouts right here in this living room. We hauled the hand weights in and out of the room and did a lot of sweating.

* This room served as entertainment central whenever the kids came to play. We built things with blocks, stacked the ice cream scoop game, played matching games, hid Easter eggs, colored pictures, built blanket forts, watched cartoons, and tumbled all over the place.

* The entry served as the check-in desk when our friends came to spend the night and their kids wanted our house to be an actual hotel. I had just a couple hours' notice, but I did my best to transform the whole place into a proper hotel, and the entry became the hotel lobby.

* We spent every Christmas Eve sleeping beside the tree - one of my favorite traditions we have. Even though we had a tree in our bedroom, too, I loved waking up to our family tree on Christmas morning. We read the Christmas account from Luke 2 and exchanged our gifts in here. And of course, the living room was the home of the famous Merrcy Hristmas sign. (And yes, that's going with us to our new home.)

* Friends and family members spilled over into this room when we hosted Mommapalooza, Christmas, Thanksgiving, game nights, and other adventures. They made themselves comfortable, talked, watched TV, and sometimes even took naps.

* This is the room where we've curled up in the early morning and late night hours to study our Bibles, pray, and write in journals. (Okay, so that last part was really just me.)

* This is also the room where I wrote thousands of words, read dozens of books, and watched more hours of Hallmark Christmas movies than I care to admit. (But I don't apologize for them.)

* This is the room where Ryan and I have taken a billion Sunday afternoon naps, watched hours of TV reruns, and shared so many conversations. We have prayed together and talked over major life decisions. We've laughed and cried in this room - truly living here and making the best life from it.

We are excited for the new owners to get to make memories of their own here and have space to spend time together as a family without being piled on top of each other. And we are excited for our own new living space. It won't be as large as the area we have now, but it will be plenty big enough for what we need, and I have a feeling it may even feel cozier. We won't have our huge sliding glass door, but I'm pretty sure the window configuration in there will allow Braeya to supervise the yard to her heart's content, so she'll be a happy girl.

We've loved living here - not just in the house as a whole, though certainly that too - but living in this room. Living with the Lord, living together, and living life with friends and family. It's been a blessing!