We've been in our house now for, going on, a year and a half. Worked on it for almost a year before that, and, I have to confess that we are nearly as jumbly and disorganized and unfinished as we were when we moved in. That isn't ENTIRELY true. We seem to be taking small steps forward all the time, but sometimes it is so much easier to see all that we are wanting to be done, rather than what has been accomplished. Somehow moving here with three small babes and a mostly non-existent decorating budget has hampered our ability to manage even small tasks. And, on top of it all, there always seems to be a hot water tank or a missing door hinge or a broken window that eats away at the financial end. Yesterday I attempted to rearrange, yet again. my living room to accommodate two sets of furniture (both handed down to us from family) because I don't know which I want to keep in the room, and the potential-down-the-road rec-room in the basement is currently a pipe dream as it's filled from brim to bottom with boxes, and because, frankly, I like the extra seating. The results seem BETTER, although I have no idea what we'll do when we need to put up the Christmas tree, but in the process I seem to have jumbled up two other rooms and now feel potently aware of a great deal of bare wall space. All this rambling to say that, for today, I am choosing to celebrating a small wiggle in our decorating and organizing progress rather than dwell on the disasters that surround me.
Unfortunately, this little wiggle took place in our bathroom, which is truly the tiniest of things, and something was happening with my flash and the pics are not the best. But I shall celebrate anyway. Celebrate the sweetest of vintage embroidery, given to me by my dear sister Michelle:
Celebrate this sweet cabinet with the broken glass in the corner, given to me by Unc and Amy from their own bathroom remodeling and fixed up and hung by my daddy:
Celebrate the little hymnal rack that came from the church pew that is now my bed and is keeping the magazines from piling up on the back of the toilet (*ahem*) and my husband, who hung it and the clock at my request and without complaint:
Celebrating that we HAVE a bathroom and a sweet little house and loving and supportive families. And, somehow, that makes it not matter so much that there's a wall missing in my basement and a zillions chips and scratches in the practically new paint jobs and no proper basket to hold my hats and mittens this winter. It will come, one thrifty little step at a time.
8 comments:
elissa, i could have written this post. limited budget, never ending tasks, baby steps, hand me down furniture. check check check check. (hey have you guys hit the point where you are having to re-do things you already did and you haven't yet finished doing things you still haven't gotten to? yeah. that's fun.) go for huge impact if and when you get the money. we kept saving (and listening to encouraging comments, which would have been encouraging if we had had the money when the comments kept coming) and finally had the house painted. i feel so much better about where i live now.
and it is so easy to feel down about it, but every time it rains, i feel so grateful to have a roof over my head.
your bed is SO cool! my parents have a church pew (as a bench) in their living room.
you can click on my "home" category and see all kinds of tours of my house. resourceful is one thing, but time really hampers things. i am STILL trying to get organized enough to paint my kitchen (using mis mix paints we bought on discount, so i still haven't decided which color yet!)
hugs,
nicola
http://whichname.blogspot.com
if you can't appreciate what you DO have in life, that what is there? keep on it!
You articulate your thought so well. So very well. I feel like I know exactly what you mean. Perhaps because I have felt those very things before . . . without being able to put them into words.
Your house is a home. I know that for sure.
I SOOOO hear you! My husband and I joke that by the time we get the projects done that we want to get done it will be time to start ALL over again! I decided I need to try to love our 70's wood paneling in the diningroom and our yucky floors in the kitchen and bathrooms. I have cows to feed and kids to raise darn it! Sigh...someday, right?
Patty, I finally just painted the 70s paneling. It works great and makes a tremendous difference when you cant afford or don't have the time to tear it down and replace it! my gray barn barn paneling in the living room is now cream . and the dark brown in the upstairs hallway is sponged 4 shades of beige.
Oh, I love this post. It made me smile.
I love your bathroom.
If you have any desire for a still life painting of fruit that apparently belonged to Grandma Carlson and hung in their house, let me know - it has a lovely wooden oval frame, but wouldn't look quite right in our house (plus every square inch of wall space in my house is decorated in photos). I can't get rid of it, but I'm not sure what to do with it...
On the other hand, we have two architectural drawings by the original Unk that Dad had framed and hung up, which were way cool and retained in our redecorating process. Unlike much of the "home decorators" crap that mom bought in the 80s. We have no cheesy puppy/kitten/chicken paintings remaining. But, we do also have a hideous, $5, 3D, metallic painted version of the Last Supper hanging in the kitchen. Yes, it was technically a gag gift, but it seemed an appropriate thing to hang.
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