This past month has been a bit of a challenge for our sweet little house - first the washing machine started leaking (possibly messing up the floor) and then our old wiring went out (about 3/4 of our house has been re-wired, this is the 1/4 that wasn't). I was feeling helpless tonight about the BIG things that were wrong with our house (including the fact that it needs an exterior paint job and the small bathroom shower needs to be re-tiled) - things that are not fun and cost more money than we have right now.
There are also some fun projects I've been wanting to do - like painting a chalkboard onto our pantry door, painting the girls' room, and finishing our office re-do. But those projects will have to take a back seat to the necessary projects mentioned above :(
I've been feeling like I'm overflowing with decorating and remodeling ideas I can't carry out, which is frustrating. I know what I would do with our house if I had an extra $1,000, an extra $10,000, or an extra $100,000. But I don't have an extra anything that starts with "$" right now, so I looked around and...
I found some of our trim paint in the laundry room cabinet and decided to paint a couple of areas that I've wanted to paint since we moved here (six years ago) and just hadn't gotten around to it. We have wood paneling in our dining area, but not our kitchen. Our kitchen cabinets are white, but this one cabinet behind the bar on the dining side was wood - it just didn't look right. So I painted it white like the kitchen cabinets, and it looks MUCH better. Same with the bathroom door off the study, which is also paneled. The inside of the bathroom door was wood, which had gotten icky looking from the moisture. It looks much better white too.
It felt good to do something that was so rewarding - it only took two hours, the paint will be dry to the touch before the kids get up, and I can second-coat it tomorrow night. Two hours worth of effort for something that's been nagging me for six years!
Plus I just always love making this house more and more "ours." We've done a lot of work on our house, and I love that - I love seeing how far it's come, and feeling like this eighty year old house is being morphed into OUR house, just like all of its previous owners have molded it. It's the character of these older houses that I love - years of being turned into a home makes them feel more like home to me.
Many of my friends live in great houses but only see them as stepping stones to the next house - wanting more and not making the most of what they have. I've blogged about this before, several times... I love our home. It may not be our dream house, but I'm going to love it like it is.
(Obviously I'm not that great of a blogger yet - although I've started taking pictures of my dinner, it didn't occur to me to take before and after pictures of my painting!)
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4 comments:
Paint is definitely the cheapest route to go in redecorating. I have a mini paint store in my basement from all the painting projects over the years! Can't wait to see a picture of the "after". :)
Thanks for the post below, too, Vera. I'm so thankful that I didn't have to deal with breast cancer. I was very scared about it.
I love seeing all the pictures of you and Davis wearing your babies. :) I think yours was by the far the most elegant looking one I made. :)
Way to go getting something done! It must feel good now that it wont be nagging at you.
I need to get some things done also. I want to wait until I move into a house with my boyfriend in 1 year...I can wait 1 year to do redecorating, right?!?
I know how it is to have tons of ideas and be in the mood to decorate and not have money. :( That happens to me on a regular basis. I want to paint so bad! But paint is so expensive!
We are contemplating fixing our basement and front porch. We had an estimate of $58,000!!! Oh my goodness! I sometimes just pray - Lord please keep it standing. Ugh!
Sounds like you're making the best of it and doing what you can. I do have some white paint somewhere - I think I'll paint my little coffee table and end table this weekend. Thanks for the idea!
Well, I better run. It's been a big computer day - I'm trying to clear out some big stuff because my 160 gb computer is out of space! Yikes.
It was fun visiting. Tell your cool husband and your sweet girlies I said hi!
Love,
Lynnette :)
I would love to see "after" pictures. It's too late to get "before" pictures now. I also have some big plans with paint, like painting my daughter's bedroom pink, but I just can't seem to find the time.
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