The House

I thought this week that I was taking a break from wedding planning (for the most part) and just going to focus on getting the house together. I love this house but I bought it when the housing market was at it's peak. It KILLED me...I knew I was paying way too much but I had no idea when the housing market would go back down, so I had to bite the bullet. Instead of looking at the house as an investment, or something to flip (the lady I bought it from in 2001 sold it for $50K more in 2006 doing NO repeat NO renovations and actually letting it deteriorate) I was buying it as a house...imagine that...to live in.

But because the market was out of control, the upper limit of my price range afforded me a home in a questionable neighborhood with no kitchen and no bathroom as big items, with a myriad of other smaller items to be dealt with along the way (think a long the lines of replacing ceiling fans, painting rooms, etc.). The plus to this house was that when I walked inside I could totally see it's potential. For instance, beautiful hardwood flooring under layers of carpet. Sure, the house is on a busy thoroughfare, but the house is on the sidewalk side of the road, and I can walk to a beautiful park as well as the bay in a few minutes. In fact the house is close enough to the higher end waterfront neighborhood that sometimes I drive through it just for it's beauty and to remind me that it's "my neighborhood."

But it's been a long three years and a lot of work. I don't have a lot of money so things have been slow but fruitful. For instance, the wood floors in two rooms have been refinished. I made a tile mosaic on the bathroom floor, got a new tub installed, painted the walls, and added some beadboard for Florida cottage charm. The biggest project thus far has been the kitchen. It's tiny so no contractors wanted to deal with it - it wasn't a big enough money maker (for instance I was quoted $250/sq. ft. for countertops because I only needed 25 sq. feet and they didn't want the job). As fortunate shined on me in this situation, I have a good friend who does high end cabinetry and he offered, for cost of materials only and my labor, to build the cabinets for me. So since April that is what has taken up most of my free time. At this point it's more than 50% finished (maybe even 75%) but with the heat of summer I haven't been knocking on my friend's door to sweat my you-know-what off everyday. We're getting there though. Installing some of the doors this week on the cabinets made a big difference in my outlook and I'm now reinvigorate it to get it finished ESPECIALLY now with the wedding coming. I want it to be done and over before my family gets here next month...about this time! Yikes!

But an unexpected remodeling job has added to the mix. One night while reading in my bedroom I looked over at Chris to see his feet hanging off the end of my double bed. Also at that moment I realized he puts out a lot of heat! I was uncomfortably hot just sitting there next to him. I realized that didn't bode well for our future sleeping patterns and the hunt for a new and bigger bed was on. Again, fortune shined on us and through a strange three way trade I won't go into we ended up with a fairly new fairly unused king sized bed. Now, my bedroom is in no way big enough for a king sized bed. When we were looking to buy (ie. looking to add to the registry) we were thinking queen at most. But the king is here and we're going to make it work.

So, ever the project minded girl I have become, I thought when would I have another chance to have a bed out of the bedroom (the king has taken up residence for the last month in the breezeway, tilted up against one wall...a nice sight to see upon entering the house :)? Never. So let's no holds barred redo the bedroom!! OF COURSE THAT'S A GREAT IDEA WITH A KITCHEN IN SHAMBLES AND A WEDDING IN 6 WEEKS!

Well, I thought it was a great idea at first. Marvelous ideas like redoing the wood floor in the bedroom and expanding the closet all seemed possible and within my reach. Chris and I picked out new colors for the walls before he left for St. Augustine and I determined to have it all back in mint condition before he got back. August, after all, seemed so far away and three weeks was an eternity.

I am looking at him right now, peacefully working on his computer. If I turn my head a slight bit to the left I see the bed, still just as peaceful, propped up in the breezeway. I didn't get the bedroom done. Well, I didn't get it done the way I thought I would a month ago, but I think it'll all turn out just fine. But I haven't posted much in the last week because it's been my sole focus. I had a contractor come over who wanted over $700 just to widen the door of the closet and install some sliding doors (not widen the closet itself mind you). I chose to take 2 big garbage bags full of clothes to the Waterfront Mission instead and took the door off the closet (the point of sliding doors was because with the king in this bedroom there won't be much room for closet doors opening!). Anyway, there's plenty of room in this little closet now. After much back and forth between refinishing the wood floors and painting them white (a trendy idea that I have fallen in and out of love with many times these past few weeks) I decided to do nothing to them. Nothing. I decided making a decision in haste was one I would regret later. I found a great deal on a sisal rug from overstock.com (normally $500 delivered and at my door two days later for less than $190) and I will cover the worn wood and old paint spots with that until the time comes when the decision about the floors can be made without urgency.

The walls have gone from glossy school bus yellow to a light blue-grey ("Rising Tide" actually). Chris, amazingly in my opinion, opted for a very subtle but still noticeable lavender hued trim color. Though it took 3 gallons of paint to get rid of the yellow, it's finally gone. Last night, late, the walls the trim and as a last minute addition the ceiling is all shiny and new.

Today we'll put down the rug, set up the bed, move the furniture back in, hang some old pictures, hang some new...and it'll be done. But I shared this story because though I thought I wasn't doing wedding planning, I really have been. This project was just as important to me as picking out cake flavors, or making invitations, or planning the ceremony. This is the real life stuff that happens post-wedding. And for me, September 20th will ultimately be more meaningful than September 19th.