Don't let anyone tell you that renovation is a delightful experience. I'm here to tell you that it's not. It may have it's moments, but it's definitely not delightful all of the time.
Brian and I bought a house in an old, quirky neighborhood in Fort Worth. In a very desirable part of the city near the TCU campus. All of the houses around us were built between 1910 and 1940. Not old by Eastern standards, but old for Texas. All of them are brick or stone, some are one story bungalows, some are two story Craftsmen style houses. And then there is our house. It's, shall we say, unique.
Our house was built in 1939 for a young unmarried woman by her parents. She lived here all of her adult life, even after she married in her late 60s. It is a two story cottage with a steeply pitched roof, a red door and a blue awning. We fell in love with it, although it obviously needed some work. We agonized, we discussed it ad naseum, and we finally decided that we would take it on. We are the third owners.
So far, we've had the house reroofed, the floors refinished, the windows replaced (all except 2 of them) and, this week, 2/3 of the house rewired. Next week, the electrician will be here to finish hanging the ceiling fans and new light fixtures. Then the painter will be here to repaint most of the interior. After that, he'll tackle the exterior. And I'm currently taking bids to remodel both bathrooms. All of this chaos is really cutting into my quilting time. I haven't sewn a stitch this week -- mostly because the electricity has been off for most of it. All this renovation is such a mess (and I'm compulsively neat -- it's killing me), but I'm starting to see the improvements. We have a front porch light! Wow! You flip switches and lights actually come on! It's magic! We have a doorbell! It's so cool! No more holes in the walls! It's looking less like the Bates motel all of the time!
In fact, it's starting to look like a home. And that is a delight!
Brian and I bought a house in an old, quirky neighborhood in Fort Worth. In a very desirable part of the city near the TCU campus. All of the houses around us were built between 1910 and 1940. Not old by Eastern standards, but old for Texas. All of them are brick or stone, some are one story bungalows, some are two story Craftsmen style houses. And then there is our house. It's, shall we say, unique.
Our house was built in 1939 for a young unmarried woman by her parents. She lived here all of her adult life, even after she married in her late 60s. It is a two story cottage with a steeply pitched roof, a red door and a blue awning. We fell in love with it, although it obviously needed some work. We agonized, we discussed it ad naseum, and we finally decided that we would take it on. We are the third owners.
So far, we've had the house reroofed, the floors refinished, the windows replaced (all except 2 of them) and, this week, 2/3 of the house rewired. Next week, the electrician will be here to finish hanging the ceiling fans and new light fixtures. Then the painter will be here to repaint most of the interior. After that, he'll tackle the exterior. And I'm currently taking bids to remodel both bathrooms. All of this chaos is really cutting into my quilting time. I haven't sewn a stitch this week -- mostly because the electricity has been off for most of it. All this renovation is such a mess (and I'm compulsively neat -- it's killing me), but I'm starting to see the improvements. We have a front porch light! Wow! You flip switches and lights actually come on! It's magic! We have a doorbell! It's so cool! No more holes in the walls! It's looking less like the Bates motel all of the time!
In fact, it's starting to look like a home. And that is a delight!
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