First of all, the best news is that A. arrived home after his month-long trip to California. He efficiently and safely navigated two cross-country flights all by himself. He had such a good time. Having him home is wonderful, but I also know how much he misses his friends and their families, and that makes me sad.
We had a minor setback in the teen’s bedroom, and we did not get the boys moved into their own rooms as we had planned. When I got ready to paint after priming, I found that the dried condition of the primer was just too much of a mess to  put paint over it. Oil-based primer is not as forgiving as latex primer. As a result, there is prep work to do all over again. I have been spending about 30 minutes per day sanding, chipping off knobs of primer, and taping in preparation for painting. I am disappointed and a little bit cranky about the whole thing. Such is life though. We screwed up, and now it will just take a little bit longer to finish.
In the meantime, I have also been wringing my hands a little over how much we need to do to BHH vs. how much we want to do to BHH. In other words, I have been having a hard time actually living in the house as it is right now instead of daydreaming about how it will look in the future. Apparently, this is a common DIYer lament. The inside-my-head, run-on sentence conversation goes a little like this: I want to post a house tour on this blog, but I need to clean and organize before I can post a house tour on this blog, but I cannot clean and organize because we don’t even know where we are going to put everything until some of the DIY work is done. We can’t do all the DIY work yet because it isn’t in the budget right now, and so I will just not do anything, but I want to post a house tour on this blog. You see where this is going, right?
I am my own worst enemy when it comes to living in chaos. I hate living it it, but I actively create it by being paralyzed by my own daydreams. Surely, I am not the only person who does this.
Today, I took a long, hard look at the entire house, and I made a pact with myself to move into BHH as it is, right now, with all of our crappy furniture and just deal with it. So, I guess this is the beginning of a house tour plus to-do list for each room. I did the living room today, and I will just keep working on one room at a time.
Keep your expectations nice and low because I have lowered the bar so far it is just setting on the ground.
This room is a showplace for all of the terrible furniture decisions we have made over the years. Much of it is broken in some way, and it is very dark.
I did not hang any of the artwork because there is not any artwork in the world that does not clash with that wallpaper.
The shelves are mostly empty. We have a library upstairs, so I did not leave any books downstairs. I put our musical instruments on the shelves for now.
This last photo is our music corner. Anyone who wants to practice and play is invited to use this corner as they wish.
The to-do list for this room is as follows:
- Remove the wallpaper and repair and paint the walls. The color is TBD.
- Paint all of that green trim! The color is TBD (I am lobbying for white. Andy wants to strip it and stain it.
- Get new rugs. That green rug was in the house already. I put it here to protect the floor.
- Have the fireplace inspected, and perhaps add a wood burning stove insert for efficiency.
- Buy a new set of furniture that all goes together. Buy our first coffee table ever.
- Repair broken panes of glass.
- Put stuff on the shelves.
If you have some decorating suggestions for us, please feel free to leave comments. I have no experience, and based on these photos, I have no taste. I am going to need a lot of hand holding when it comes time to decorate BHH.
13 Comments
Robin
First: nope, you’re absolutely not the only person in a futile loop or daydreaming about your old house. Comes with the territory as far as I can tell.
Second:
As much as I love Andy’s dream of natural woodwork in that room, it could easily become a nightmare, especially if the varnish underneath was compromised when they painted it. There are times when it is nearly impossible to get all the paint out of the grain of the wood. And there’s not a great way to know ahead of time how it’s going to turn out.
Also, paint strippers are caustic. There are nontoxic ones that work, but they’re much harder to deal with on vertical surfaces. I’d stick with white too, unless you don’t want that room done for a few years.
stacyfg@gmail.com
Thanks for the feedback. I am also concerned about the condition of the wood and the toxicity of paint stripper. I know that several details, such as the wood valances over the windows, are later additions. That wood isn’t likely to match, and it may not even be nice at all. Andy and I will keep talking. I would love to see your house sometime.
Amy
I agree with you that the trim needs to be painted white. Wood is beautiful but it would be way too dark.
I would caution against buying a matching furniture set. You don’t want to have to replace the whole set when you feel like a change, and you don’t want your house to look like you ordered the whole thing from one page of a sears catalogue. Instead, gradually collect pieces that coordinate well, but don’t match perfectly. It’s what the “real” designers do!
stacyfg@gmail.com
Andy and will keep talking. 🙂 Thank you for the tip about choosing furniture. Your idea makes a lot of sense.
Ame Jo
I’m going through your blog 😀 I, personally, love the loud wallpaper. Also, your furniture is amazing compared to ours. We don’t even have a couch left at this point.
stacyfg@gmail.com
Thanks Ame. I am so excited for your new adventure. 🙂 I understand not having much furniture left. We have worn out several key items over the years. One day, I will have a real coffee table. 😀 I can’t agree with you about the wallpaper though. It has to go (except the entryway and foyer).
Jan Elizabeth
I look at that room and I see…potential!! Wow, it’s beautiful!
Janelle
Hi! I stumbled across your blog this morning from twitter. I’m loving the pictures of your house. I’ve always had a thing for historic old homes – but my husband also does historical restoration work for a living. I know both the ups and the downs!
Good luck with all the renovation work! We are in the middle of it ourselves. It seems like one thing finishes and it just filled but 3 other things in it’s place
Stacy
Somehow I missed this comment. I’m sorry I did not respond earlier. Yes, it sounds like you know all about what it is like doing restoration work and living in an old home. I joke with people that the struggle is fixing things faster than we break them. 🙂 I’m putting your blog on my Feedly. I’m looking forward to reading it.
Janelle
You are so sweet! Thanks for following. Same to you! I look forward to updates. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you ever come across a weird scenario. John’s (hubby) is a weird pool of restoration knowledge 🙂
Stacy
Thank you for the kind offer. I may take you up on it sometime. Old homes are full of head-scratching scenarios. 😀
Erin
I am really enjoying your blog! I agree with the previous comment, as lovely as it would be to have the trim in its original state, the chemicals and elbow grease needed may not be worth it and like they said you’re not guaranteed to get all of the paint off. If your husband is against white you could always paint it a soft color(grays, colonial-type medium blues)
And you are totally on point with the constant wondering what it will look like while getting through the nitty gritty of renovations. It will all come together beautifully and will look better when done over time. It’s always obvious when people try and get the work done as quickly as possible and fill the room we’ll at once. It will look more curated over time. Looking forward to your next posts!
Best of luck!
Stacy
Thank you, Erin. I appreciate your knowledge and your comments. Now that we are a few years into the process, things are starting to come together. While I still don’t know what I am doing regarding decorating, I am taking more risks. I am much happier with the outcome of each project now.