It's been almost a year since I've been in my Storybook House. Transplanted from metro NY to Indianapolis, I'm still adapting. I've filled my new home with old things. Things that are worn and beat-up a bit, like me. But aren't things with history so much more valuable?

Most of the furniture in my house is old and has been somewhere before, like me. I've succeeded, I think, in making my home look as if it were the 1930s or 40s.

I've added something 'Indiana' to my living room. This old tool chest has become my coffee table. I was in Portland, Indiana, cruising antique shops and this old chest struck me. It has a worn painted red finish and some golden lettering that reads somewhere in I N D I A N A. I thought it would be appropriate to include something distinctly Hoosier in my living room. It kinda makes me feel like a Hoosier now. Which I am. I think. I'm lining the inside with cedar planking so I can store some blankets inside, the blankets I cuddle with when I'm watching my 1940s classic movies in my drafty old house.

I've made the transition from NY to the Midwest. Not only have I survived, but I've gratefully savored the respite from the rat race I left behind.