I feel like it’s going to take us a long time to get this place in order, and the longer we sit around not doing things to the interior of our home makes me twitch with anxiety that maybe we’re getting too used to what’s already here. Know what I mean? If it isn’t forced to change immediately, it’ll be that way forever? I know it’s not true, but it is this evil little mindset that I have. Couch? Hasn’t moved since we sat it down on Day 1. TV? Not even plugged in yet. Dining room table? Still covered with boxes that need a place to live (Pete likes to call this place “The garbage”). The old lady curtains are still hanging in the half bath. The only paint that has touched the wall is from this test, and we’ve lived here for 5 weeks. We’ve got a lot planned, I think I’m going to have to start removing all the fixtures and fittings we’re not keeping and sort out a skip so we can start clearing things as we go along.
I haven’t quite yet figured out the balance of working/living/playing/DIY-ing, because there’s a lot to do in each category, and mostly, I find myself working, feet up, tending to a long trail of emails and trying to relieve my mega-cankles. I’m finding out fast that settling into a new house is a lot different when you’re self-employed and trying to run a blog and have a family, I’m no longer a single girl with a 9-5 and long nights made for killing time painting, crafting, and renovating.
In any case, there are a few updates on our list that will surely make a big impact, even if we weren’t to do anything else. They’re also the kind of home modifications that will require us to bleed money from our eyeballs too, so, what’s the hold up, you ask? Like any normal person, the changes will have to happen gradually, and we best get started.
On a scale from easy to hard:
- Painting the kitchen cabinets ($). This will probably make some of you groan, you made it perfectly clear how pretty/nostalgic/classic they were in our house. But have you seen the kitchen in the daytime? It’s very dark and vurping* beige, and because we know that updating (i.e. gutting) the kitchen is one of our longer term goals ($$$$), we’d like to brighten it up and make it a little more lively and tolerable on a day-to-day basis. Best get this done while we can still use the paint sprayer outside.
- Fixing the chimney and electrical ($$). These are repairs that we were credited for at closing, and we’ll be hiring out for both. It would be so nice to have usable fireplaces come wintertime.
- Furniture. Period. ($$$). We have, like, no furniture. It sort of seems that everything from our old house could possibly now fit into one of our bedrooms at the new house. Pulling the trigger is the hard part, because we’re at the point where we want to establish a collection of investment pieces, but it’s hard to pull the trigger on a set of 8 dining room chairs when you haven’t sat on them yourself. We were SOSOVERYCLOSE to buying a sectional couch from West Elm a few weeks ago when they had a 25% off sale, but we bailed at 11:59PM. Pete happened to be in Orlando, FL on vacation during this promotional period and thankfully checked it out in person, because something about buying couches online without having a chance to assess them in full really scares me. What he learned (and this is the Tillary Sectional, BTW) is that the stinking back rests don’t actually attach to the seat, making the sectional as a whole nicely adaptable, but impractical for a growing family of people who like to lean back and work on the couch and watch TV. This didn’t stop us from picking up a whole assortment of fabric swatches, though, so now we’re at the very least prepared in knowing what colors we liked best. The one that Cody ate (it’s obvious in the photo) is Choice #1. Let’s not talk about all of the stuff Cody has eaten lately.
- The bathroom ($$$$). I did successfully swap in our fancy-pants shower head from Delta Faucet, but there is no foot rest for me to shave my legs in that standing shower, and I am reminded of it daily. And more often than not I just wear pants. This renovation may still be many months out, but we talk about it daily.
- Updating them floors ($$$$$). We think it would be killer to have hardwoods running throughout the entire house, save the kitchen and bathrooms, to enable a nice, even flow with no thresholds. And that’s about as much as we’ve decided. When we started to price out the flooring that we wanted, our mouths went dry. All I can say with certainty is that the longer we walk on carpeting, the more we start to be OK with it, and being OK with mass amounts of old beige carpeting is not acceptable.
*That’s Vomit-Burping. We saw Wreck it Ralph. The end.
12 Comments
I can certainly identify with the anxious feeling of wanting to make changes to a new home and feeling like you should make them sooner than later so that you can enjoy your home as you envisioned it. In our first three years in our new home, we did several renovations – Painted all of the interior, restain of the exterior logs, replaced both front and back decks, new flooring for the kitchen and front room, new fireplace hearth, updated guest bathroom and a few other things. In year eight, we are still at it with a kitchen update pending. The changes were definitely in order, especially the electrical wiring updates we had done recently, but I think after the kitchen reno, that will be it for awhile. Home renovation is great, but it can take its toll when you are working more than enjoying. You have a wonderful blank canvas full of possibilities rather than a lot of sins in design and construction, as we had. Take your time and enjoy the journey .. Although if I had to choose which to do first, I would go with the electrical and fireplace, just as a safety priority. :)
I have to agree with you there, Brenda – we are so lucky that our canvas is blank and there is nothing that we feel the need to be rid of immediately, in the way that some people feel with paneling, dropped ceilings, filthy carpet, etc.
Electrical and fireplace are first on our list!
I feel very much the same way. I’ve lived in the same house since December 1979 (I’m 36), so to me, it’s home and I’m used to it. Sure, some things need updating, but it’s hard to (a) see them all, since I’m so used to them; and (b) want to spend $$$$ to change/fix them. My new hubby, however, is making me see things with fresh eyes. “Oh, yeah, I guess that is a pile of Hitchcock videos I will never, ever watch again because we have no VCR.” “Yep, that wallpaper is pretty hideous now that I think about it.” “Hmm, yeah, I guess we don’t need to keep all those Reader’s Digest condensed books of my mom’s.”
Yep, I feel your pain. Just gotta find a good place to start.
Love a fresh perspective! Everyone who comes over to our house has good tips and observations too. It’s nice to look through the place with a fresh set of eyes every once in awhile, and our friends have been good for that.
Emily, I moved into my house 19 YEARS ago and am still working on it! Like you I bought a great house with tons of space and lots of …. in my case …early 70’s “charm.” There was nothing off-limits from paint if it made my happy until I could afford to replace things. It’s a continuous process, so enjoy each step. And as for finding balance – I’m still looking too!
Slow but steady!
I know exactly what you mean about “maybe we’re getting too used to what’s already here”, and you’re exactly right that going from a single girl with a 9-5 to a (literally) growing family (and growing blog!). I get so anxious about wanting to change absolutely everything in our house sometimes that I have back away from it all and go for a bike ride or something. I want to finish our vurping guest bathroom, and work on the kitchen, and the porch (and, and and…) but right now it’s more important for me to support R while he takes on a new role at work and tries to finish his last 2-3 weeks of college (!!!!!!!!!!!!). Our bathroom can wait.
As for the working/living/playing/DIY-ing balance, in your case I think it’s more important to try to take a step back from worrying about fixing everything rightnow and focus on growing a human. Plus, you’re married now! It’s a good time to let Pete take the lead on a few projects while you take more of the foreman role. Or, you could blog about your inspiration for the house, what you’ve been working on at the rental, etc. Your readers understand all the reasons you may need to take a slower pace.
Clearly Cody has good taste! (ba dum bum…) I felt the same way about the Tillary! So disappointed. Also, I want to sit on the Crosby sectional but the West Elm near us doesn’t have one. Booooo.
I’m starting to rethink the Tillary again. Have you found any bloggers who have it and rave about it? All I can find are consumers who complain about it on the West Elm facebook page.
The balance is happening; I wish I could be raging on the brush the way that Pete has been, and even moving heavy boxes to the basement for immediate storage has fallen on him. I am pretty happy slowing down and sipping on a root beer instead of sweating on 95-degree days like today ;)
I totally understand! I cannot for the life of me make a decision about sofas. I am thisclose to throwing caution to the wind and ordering the Crosby sight-unseen because swoooooooon.
I haven’t found any bloggers who rave about it – yet. Everything I’ve read says the same thing Pete did, that the cushions slide all over the place. We did test it and their outdoor version in-store. I seem to remember the indoor was against a wall so the cushions didn’t slid around as much. The outdoor version seemed to have some sort of nonskid stuff on the bottom of the cushions so they stayed put a little bit better, but it still wasn’t perfect. Also one of them (wish I could remember which one!) felt a bit oddly low to the ground. Have you tried the IKEA Kivik at all? Our friends have one and it’s super comfy with no cushion-slipping issues…
That being said, if you LOVE the Tillary and your sofa going to be against a wall (or maybe with a console table behind it) then I don’t really think cushion-slipping will be that much of an issue. And you and Pete are so clever that I’m sure you could make it work with a nonskid mat or Velcro. (The pragmatic side of me says you shouldn’t have to make a $2000-2500 sofa work, but the emotional side says “SHUT UP IT’S PRETTY!” I have similar arguments with myself about the Crosby.)
I totally understand wishing you could be more actively involved! I have a hard time sitting on the sidelines (not for the same reason, but you know what I mean). It makes me all anxious & jittery and I start pacing & trying to find outlets for my pent up desire to smash something. And then there are days when it’s oppressively hot and I’m happy to slow down and sip a cold drink.
Ok, done hijacking your comments! Happy weekend! And I’ll email you if I come across any glowing Tillary reviews!
I like Crosby a lot, I wish it were bigger or more modular. Modular will work well in our space.
We’ll still debate the Tillary for awhile, I imagine. Or at least until the next huge sale comes along and we can’t say no. For the most part, I think we would be able to live with the loose cushions since many would be against a wall and yes, like you mention, consider a table or low bookshelf for the areas that need extra support. Hate the idea of having to retrofit a couch to make it work.
I’m skeptical about IKEA couches. They look nice and I know they get good reviews, but the ones in the store get awfully lumpy from thousands of butts, and I worry about ours looking like that someday.
The low height is actually something we like in our current couch, and don’t have an issue with when it comes to Tillary; I’ve seen those similar “too low” complaints too. In our house with the bigger, lower windows, a lower couch seems to make sense. We’ll see!
Ok, so right after I commented I found a blogger who has the Tillary and blogged about it in 2010. She has one side against the wall, and the other has a console behind it. Someone asked about the cushions slipping and she said that they haven’t had any issues. Maybe you could email her to see whether she still loves it?
This is sort of how I am starting to feel about our new house. We moved in two months ago (!) and have a loooong To-Do list, but some of the items require a lot of money, and we need to save up first before we could tackle them (like gutting the bathroom, for example). The pregnancy is also slowing me down, as I just don’t have as much energy in the evenings when I come home from work to tackle even simple things, like organizing the kitchen cabinets, and as a result we live in a pig sty. :)
But, I must say the one satisfying thing we did manage to accomplish was paint the future baby room, and that made a huge difference in making the house feel *ours*. Now we have to tackle some less fun items, like removing the mold in our kitchen under-sink cabinet and replacing our boiler, which we found out is 53 years old!