When we moved into our house nearly 22 years ago, I thought
I was the luckiest person. We were moving from a house that had been built in
the 1970s (and was still stuck there!) It was a great house with a big,
beautiful yard, a gorgeous tree right outside the front door and neighbors that
we loved.
However, we didn’t own it, and I did not love the harvest
gold appliances and bathroom fixtures. While I loved the huge kitchen, I most
definitely did not love the dark fake-wood ornate cabinets or the floor that looked
like various sizes of pebbles in all shades of orange, gold and brown. All of
those things may have been quite groovy in the 70s, but in the 90s, they were
just blech. And ugly.
When we decided to build this house, I wanted most every
surface to be white. White floor. White countertop. White appliances. White
walls. You get the picture. Our house was so sparkling white it was blinding.
Not really blinding, but it was very pristine with not a speck of
ugly dark brown or harvest gold. We did however choose hunter green carpet (it
was the 90s after all!). For some reason, I loved that carpet. When the house
was being built, the builder called one day to tell us it was our last chance
to change any of the flooring we picked out because he was ordering it all that
day. We briefly talked about changing the carpet color to tan, but decided what
the hell? If we got tired of it, we would replace it.
Yeah, that did not happen.
If I had been able to look into a crystal ball in 1994 to
see that my beloved hunter green carpet would be the harvest gold and avocado
green of the 90s, I wouldn’t have chosen it because I grew tired of it less
than 10 years after moving in. By then, we had 4 kiddos and no extra money to
replace carpet. Also, it held up very well and still looked “good” so it was
harder to justify ripping it up. And I grew to hate it. My decorating taste has
changed more than once over the years, and it was always hard to pick new
paint colors because it had to look good with that hunter green carpet.
But, 22 years ago, I loved every single thing about this
house. Everything. I walked around the empty rooms the day we closed, taking it
all in, thinking of how I would decorate each room, dreaming of the memories we
would make here with our children, one of whom was still in my belly, just 2
weeks away from being born!
Like I said, I loved it all. I loved the front porch that
already had a chair waiting for my 9 months pregnant self to sit in while I
bossed everyone around and told those who were helping us move where to put
things. I loved the crisp white vinyl floor in the kitchen and the oak parquet
in the hallway. I loved the hunter green carpet. I loved the white countertops
and the golden oak cabinets. I had just been relieved of 8 weeks of bedrest the
day before, and I couldn’t wait to put my beautiful, spacious kitchen together.
I loved the white walls that were a blank canvas just waiting to be coated with
pretty paint colors and wallpaper.
This house has been through many transformations since then.
I have wallpapered and ripped down wallpaper while cursing and swearing that
as God is my witness, I will never wallpaper again. I have painted and
repainted so many times I can't even remember how many. We covered the white vinyl kitchen and bathroom floors with ceramic
tile. We finished and refinished the basement, bought new furniture and
curtains and replaced the fake wood baseboards. We have rearranged kid’s
bedrooms as our family grew. Yet sadly, the hated hunter green carpet survived every single one of my redecorating escapades. But alas, the time has come! I have said, “Adios!” And, “Good
riddance!” to most of the green carpet. It is still on the stairs and in the
upstairs, but there is not a trace of it downstairs. There are now 38 boxes of
beautiful wood flooring waiting to be placed throughout the whole first level.
Yay and yahoo!
There aren’t enough adjectives to describe how I feel about
that. Giddy is the first one that comes to mind.
*If you decide to replace the flooring, you are going to
realize that you simply cannot have beautiful new floors with walls that
haven’t been painted in years. So you are going to want to paint them.
*If you paint the walls, you truly must paint all of the
white baseboards and doors and trim. Because who wants beautiful new floors,
freshly painted walls and dirty white trim?
Not me.
*If you have pristine new white baseboards and trim with
newly painted walls, you really must paint the ceilings, too. Right?
*And if you are putting beautiful new floors down in the
kitchen, the 22 year old cabinets that need some love and attention just won’t
do any longer. Will they?
Nope.
*And if you decide that you are going to finally take the
plunge after years of thinking about it and paint your kitchen cabinets, well, the old, stained white countertops
that bleach won’t even clean will feel left out if you don’t replace them.
Won’t they?
Yep.
All of the above is where I have been over the past month.
In my head anyway.
Right now, I am in the painting ceilings and trim phase while
walking across dirty subfloors that are crying out to be new and pretty and
loved. Not only are they dirty and oh-so-gross, I can’t walk through my house
barefoot because of the nails and staples in the subfloor that we are slowly
but surely smashing down with a hammer. These Sketcher sandals have become my
very good friend over the past month.
My plan at the beginning was to blog about it as we
progressed, and that clearly has not happened, but I have been taking photos
along the way. Don’t be jealous now. I just know that everyone dreams of living
in a home that looks like this!
Those are photos that have been taken over the past month as we have ripped all of the flooring from our downstairs. I gotta admit that while I loved that vinyl flooring in 1994, when we uncovered it a few weeks ago, I wasn't feeling the love.
We have progressed, though, and this is what my house looks like today.
I am starting to see
the light at the end of the tunnel, and yesterday, I finally was able to start
painting. So far, I have only painted the ceilings and trim in the dining room
and office space. I have chosen a paint color to cover up the red, and my next
project is to primer over the red walls. I used to love that red, but it is time
for that color to go, too.
My house is definitely a work in progress at the moment, and
while I hate what I am living in now, I know (hope!) it will be so worth it
when we are finished.
I will have to keep reminding myself to dance in the dust
and find things to love and enjoy about the process as I sweep and hammer and
paint and breathe some love back into this home.
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