Metal Meredith

Almost Not the Same Anymore

I wanted to point out that Phil and I have almost been in this house a year now. It is scary to think that it feels so completely not done, yet we have done a lot. What can that really mean? When we bought this house we saw it as a ‘for right now’ house that would grow with us, as we needed it to. Having no idea what the future held, we took the leap of faith and just went for it. Neither one of us were in love with the house, but I could see it for what it was, a giant project. Little did we know that we would have less money to take on those projects within a few months of moving in.

What we had hoped would take a few months is now coming up on the one year anniversary. I created a house blog to keep track of the progress as well as stop the incessant questions that seem to come when projects start. My mother and I have the same need for information and we both want to ‘see’ what is going on. I hope there are more than three of four people that check this site, but I suppose it is more for me than anyone else.

Since moving in, we have done a lot by most people’s standards. After watching many of those house hunting shows where a couple will walk into a house and critique it for their needs and hearing “Well, we will have to paint this room” in disgust, I have realized that not everyone sees a house as a project, like I do. We moved in here and I can’t think of one thing we really wanted to keep. I was excited about having a hug-antic bedroom and a real sized kitchen and those two things stopped me from caring about the original 1977 vinyl flooring in three rooms, the orange shag carpet in the upstairs and the overall “yellowness” of the entire house.

Now, I am in this house. I still don’t feel totally moved in. We have 2 rooms that have yet to be used as anything other than storage. I have to paint another 3 rooms before I have the whole house coated. We still have 2 floors to replace. However, we have removed a wall, re-carpeted and redone an entire bathroom. Things are starting to look less yellow, less colonial and thank god, even less 1977.