Recently I had the pleasure of sharing our old house with a group of interior design students. One of the things we discussed is that when renovating an old house like ours, it’s all about choices and tradeoffs. Unfortunately, since we had no option but to live in our house while renovating, one of the tradeoffs is that we make great progress, clean up the construction dust, take a deep breath for a short time—and then start the next messy project.
We trade order for chaos—over and Over and OVER again. Some days it’s exhausting.
But then things start to come together, and (for a short while) it’s exhilarating again. We catch a glimpse of THE END and like what we see!
There’s been a whole lot of that push-pull lately.
The kitchen I’ve showed you in my last several posts is oh.so.close, but we’re still waiting for the final trim-out of the refrigerator/freezer/pantry wall plus some final touches of paint. Even so, we managed to decorate and enjoy the space several times over the past few months before cluttering it again with “progress.”
Back-to-school. Christmas. Valentines Day.
The dining room also managed to look nice a few times, although it’s on the messy path as I write this. But as of this week, the old wallpaper is gone, and the walls have repairs and paint in their futures. Yay!
4th of July. Late Summer. Christmas. Winter. Valentines Day. You eagle-eye tablescapers will notice my shortcuts from one season to the next. You don’t always have to start from scratch!
The upstairs hall has made recent progress, too. I have to admit: I struggled here. I knew the right answer was to replace the failing plaster and dingy wallpaper with shiplap, but Chip and Joanna have just about ruined me on it. Nevertheless, I went with my gut, and I’m so glad I did! Once the final trim-out and painting are done—and final furniture is in place—I suspect this hallway will be one of my favorite spaces. It’s not there yet, but I’m catching that glimmer of hope!
There’s one more messy-turning-hopeful space I’ll show you today. I’m calling it my creative space. At its most basic, it’s two bays of a 3-car garage addition that previous owners turned into a family room. It’s a big, boring, low-ceiling room that we (thankfully!) were able to use for storage until things could be moved into place elsewhere.
In order to get the walk-in pantry we needed for function in the kitchen, we chose to move the laundry into this space. That’s going to be super convenient once I can get back to laundering linens! But that’s only one of the requirements for this hard-working space. Here’s the list:
- laundry/ironing
- office/computer work
- craft room
- sewing room
- wrapping/shipping
- reading nook
See what I mean about hard-working?
Laminate replaced carpet. LED cans replaced fluorescents and ceiling fan. Mini-split will replace window AC for year-round comfort. Large antique windows will replace small windows for additional light.
We’re SO CLOSE on so many spaces!
I want to believe things will start coming together faster and faster. Have I mentioned lately I’m not getting any younger? 🤪
Never one to comment on much but you KNOW I love seeing the progress! And how wonderful that you have a history of all your hard work in this space.
Keep on keeping on, friend!
Aw, thanks friend!
I’m looking forward to seeing your laundry and craft spaces, Susan!