life, love & laundry
Home Improvement 101 (and a question)
We have lived in this house over 3 years and we will be here at least another two years. I think when we moved in, we really weren’t sure how long we’d be here. We signed a 2 year lease and I think we both figured we’d move on after that. We tried to settle in but we never put any time or money into the house, itself. Mostly that is because we lease this house and the mentality that home improvements are an investment against the value of the house was firmly implanted in my mind. Why would I invest in someone else’s house?
Why? Because living in a rental that you do not make into a home for five years is incredibly depressing. Staring at the same baren walls with paint someone else chose and flooring you despite eventually impacts quality of life.
So when we renewed our lease this March, we also renewed our dedication to make some improvements. And because we don’t own the house, part of the cost of those improvements is actually being absorbed by our landlord.
First up: blue paint (pictures forthcoming). I have been talking about painting my dining room blue since right after I painted it red. Finally I got sort of consumed with finding the perfect color blue. I literally bought at least 6 different samples and hated them all. But at a home birth I shot, the family had the *perfect* blue. Not too blue. Not too green. Not too grey. It was perfect and calm and soothing and peaceful. Luckily they had saved the paint chip and I color matched it with Benjamin Moore. We are almost done and the difference is huge. And I don’t mean the color of the walls. I mean in my mood when I walk in the room. And in my feeling of pride and adoration for my home. And my home is totally trashed right now. Furniture everywhere, stuff in total disarray. Just wait until its all neat and tidy! Ah. Calm wall colors.
As soon as the paint is dry, we’re ripping up the carpet and laying laminate. We’ve talked about this since we signed the first lease. I really hate this nasty carpet. And as the years go on, I hate it more and more. There are carpet nails exposed everywhere, stains all over it despite having it professionally cleaned. I mean who puts carpet in a dining room anyway? So out it goes. If we could afford to, we’d replace the carpet in the entire house but for now, it’s just the living and dining rooms. And the new cherry laminate is going to look BEAUTIFUL with my blue walls and white trim.
Next up: new furniture. I am throwing out ALL the bookshelves in our gameroom. We have totally mismatched, old, falling apart, pressed board bookshelves lining the walls on both sides of our gameroom. It’s embarassing and ugly and dysfunctional. It looks like the thing you throw up when you are first starting a family – not after 10 years of marriage and a house full of kids. They are all going (the bookshelves – not the kids!) and being replaced by matching, actual wood bookshelves and bins and baskets. And a couch. We have no couch in our gameroom. The kids sit on the floor or cheesy ikea chairs. We want the gameroom to be somewhere the kids can hang out with their friends – young and old. It is going to happen before September if I kill myself making it happen!
When that’s done I already have it in my mind that I want to paint my kitchen. Maybe a nice pale yellow. Something bright and cheery.
So with that in mind, do any of you keep a Homemaking (or Household) notebook? If so, do you keep an actual binder or do you do it digitally? Do you have any format that works best for you? Because I just decided that a functional home must have one of these and figure all of you with functional homes must already have them. So help a girl out!
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i love that idea of a home improvement journal. i am all about list these days. i swear they make you get *&^% done!
i am excited about your home improvements. paint really changes a home. take pictures, ok?!
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I need to put my blog on my list too, except I don’t have a to-do list :) Never been a list person, myself. Picking a color of blue is so tough, for me it’s the hardest color to choose b/c I tend to like bright, bold blues…that they don’t always look so great on walls.
Moving to a new home this fall…going to have to make all these decisions again soon, too. It’s exciting and a little daunting at the same time.
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