I'm painting my front door today (army green with a plum trim!). I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm barreling ahead anyway. It'll be good, right? RIGHT? I'm not so sure.
I often wonder if the quest and need to get the house perfect ever really stops. Will there come a point when I stop fixing and changing and painting and buying and doing and just be satisfied with it all. We have been the giant hoover of consumerism lately and I'm overwhelmed by the boxes in our garage waiting to be recycled. Isaac father's day present, a George Foreman grill, Sammy's new twin bed (!), a bike for Sammy, curtains for the windows, outside gazebo with netting. Now I'm scanning IKEA for a solution to my shoe problem and I keep thinking, with each one, ok, this is where it ends. We're done consuming and we're just going to be.
I think part of this is natural. This is our first (and, knock wood, only!) house and we do want it to be perfect for us. We have a few projects left (see: patch walls, gazebo) and then I want to just be. Live in this house and make the greatest of memories for Sammy (and, uh, never have to have our vaulted ceiling painted again!). I want to stop consuming. I want to stop using our one free day a week on house projects - that's why we hired landscapers, gosh darnit - and use them for good. I really hope this is the summer to finish it all. Finish getting the plants ripped out so we can plant veggies next year. Finish ripping the tree stump out and get the gazebo up. Finish patching the holes and putting the drawer pulls on. Finish deciding what fruit trees to plant next year. Figure out the shoe thing and finish the other couple of projects and then just...stop. This house will be what I imagined and will be ready to go. You know, until I decided to get new kitchen cabinets. Or put hardwood throughout the downstairs. Or recover the family room couch. Or enclose part of the downstairs bathroom for more pantry room. Or...sigh.
So today I'll be painting my front door. Look for the crazy woman in pajama pants and t-shirt wielding her first paint brush since 1982. Feel free to stop and talk me down from the crazy at any point.
I'm afraid if one has a house, it never ends. There's always something to fix and a myriad of things we want. The new dress for your door sounds wonderful! Be sure and post pictures of the finished product.
ReplyDeleteYes, pictures.
ReplyDeleteI remember one time Sharon said to me that if I tore out any more walls my house would fall down. And as Aunt Kay said, it really never ends.
It never ends.
ReplyDeleteEmbrace the change.
Oh, I embrace. I just want a little respite from it!
ReplyDeleteI have a list a mile long of maintenance items for my house. I tried painting a bedroom once. I have since been banned. I guess I'll stick to painting my nails, which I also do poorly I might add. Time for a real mani-pedi.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to do a quick drive-by to check out your door.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that houses are ever done. Just when my Mom finishes her entire house (takes 10 years each go-round) she just starts on the room that has been untouched the longest.