Yesterday, I decided to take the day off. In retrospect, it was a day wasted in a way, but I felt at the time that I needed some quiet time a moi même. Time to just quietly take it all in, with no worrying, no excitement, just acceptance that this is our new home. However, it didn't quite go that way for me, I found that the combination of the boring beige walls, the worn out floors, the dog hairs and stinky dirty carpets, (not to mention the totally ugly and grease-coated kitchen) were all glaring reminders that this was not 'our house'. (Even though, legally it is of course)... I don't mean to speak unkindly about it either, because the previous owners had done a pretty good job of cleaning the place, so I didn't really even have much of a purpose once I got there. I cleaned a few door frames, and the stairs, and a closet; I hung up some winter coats in the storage area under the stairs, and took pictures of the inside (www.ginlor.com/house.html). I wandered around the yard for a few minutes but the heat kept me mostly hiding inside where it was cool (thank gawd for basements!). The trees and bushes grow sporadically all around the yard, their ungroomed branches snag your clothes and hair and you can see by the worn trails on the ground that the previous owners were fine with weaving between the trees to access the various areas of the yard (which is huge). Anyway, it wasn't until last night, when Luc suggested we sit down together and write down some plans for what we wanted to do inside, that I got excited. Now I feel prepared to go back in there, armed with paint and new stylish door knobs, and of course, hedge trimmers!
The yard will be a work in progress and will probably take a few years before we have it where I want it to be. I'd like to one day put interlocking brick down in the front, reside the house, build gardens (even a small veggie/herb patch), pressure wash and stain the decks and put up some stained lattice alongside Tigger's run for my morning glories and moon flowers to climb, it'll be loverly eventually. :) The shed is another amazing thing - it's huge! We're not sure what we'll use it for yet, but Luc will have a kick-ass workshop for sure. :)
Anyway, we chose some beautiful colours for the walls inside that I think will really transform it to the way we want it. For our bedroom, we chose an ocean-inspired barely-there blue, which will go nicely with our cream coloured curtains and dark wood bed.
Then we chose a warm mellow yellow for the kitchen, with the plan to freshen it up by painting the cabinets a cream colour and adding mouldings as a temporary way to make it look a bit more classy. We got new handles as well and a new appliance set will snazz it up nicely. The lino is worn, curling and stained, so we will hopefully be putting down vinyl (it's a small area so I don't expect it to be overly expensive to do). Something like the kitchen pictured here:
In the living room, we chose an earthy green, as a nice contrasting backdrop to the beige couches we have. I'm contemplating renting a sander and attempting to fix the floors in there ourselves (at least as much as we can do for now). A light sand and a few coats of varnish would at least make them look nice and shiny again.
We didn't choose all our paint colours for the basement yet, but Luc did pick up a deep wine coloured paint, paired with a rich tan colour for the office downstairs and he's thinking a deeper blue for the rec room.
People had cautioned me to wait until we'd lived in the house before painting, but we just can't do it! I need to make it feel like home - it would be hard to go from our vibrant, comfortable, warm apartment with its bold reds and yellows and navy and terracotta, etc to an all beige house that screams 'someone else owned me!'.. I'm possessive, what can I say?
Anyway, I'm going to start trying to keep track of the decorating ideas we have - right now the kitchen is small and is separate from the dining room. I'm hoping we can knock the dividing wall down, put in an island, and eventually lay ceramic tile and new hardwood down. I'm planning to hold onto this house for a while so it's fun to dream big!!
Anyway, time for a meeting - back to the world of work.
xo
The yard will be a work in progress and will probably take a few years before we have it where I want it to be. I'd like to one day put interlocking brick down in the front, reside the house, build gardens (even a small veggie/herb patch), pressure wash and stain the decks and put up some stained lattice alongside Tigger's run for my morning glories and moon flowers to climb, it'll be loverly eventually. :) The shed is another amazing thing - it's huge! We're not sure what we'll use it for yet, but Luc will have a kick-ass workshop for sure. :)
Anyway, we chose some beautiful colours for the walls inside that I think will really transform it to the way we want it. For our bedroom, we chose an ocean-inspired barely-there blue, which will go nicely with our cream coloured curtains and dark wood bed.
Then we chose a warm mellow yellow for the kitchen, with the plan to freshen it up by painting the cabinets a cream colour and adding mouldings as a temporary way to make it look a bit more classy. We got new handles as well and a new appliance set will snazz it up nicely. The lino is worn, curling and stained, so we will hopefully be putting down vinyl (it's a small area so I don't expect it to be overly expensive to do). Something like the kitchen pictured here:
In the living room, we chose an earthy green, as a nice contrasting backdrop to the beige couches we have. I'm contemplating renting a sander and attempting to fix the floors in there ourselves (at least as much as we can do for now). A light sand and a few coats of varnish would at least make them look nice and shiny again.
We didn't choose all our paint colours for the basement yet, but Luc did pick up a deep wine coloured paint, paired with a rich tan colour for the office downstairs and he's thinking a deeper blue for the rec room.
People had cautioned me to wait until we'd lived in the house before painting, but we just can't do it! I need to make it feel like home - it would be hard to go from our vibrant, comfortable, warm apartment with its bold reds and yellows and navy and terracotta, etc to an all beige house that screams 'someone else owned me!'.. I'm possessive, what can I say?
Anyway, I'm going to start trying to keep track of the decorating ideas we have - right now the kitchen is small and is separate from the dining room. I'm hoping we can knock the dividing wall down, put in an island, and eventually lay ceramic tile and new hardwood down. I'm planning to hold onto this house for a while so it's fun to dream big!!
Anyway, time for a meeting - back to the world of work.
xo
No comments:
Post a Comment