Greetings to anyone still out there.
I did buy a house last June. Not the one mentioned in the previous post. That first house ended up having some issues with the inspection that I didn’t want to deal with. As it happens, I found something I liked better a short while later. So even though it was stressful, it worked out well in the end. How often do I say that?!?
This is the house I did buy:
Janie, the spud and Rupert on the front steps of our new home
Built in 1919, it’s a traditional two storey with 3 bedrooms and a partially finished basement with a 4th bedroom. There is a large kitchen with a fairly open concept living room-dining room. The yard is very small, but out back the home has a nice big deck, a detached garage and extra off street parking (a big must in my area). While in good structural condition, it was lost in the 80s and needed a lot of cosmetic upgrades. Most urgently the rooms all needed fresh paint and to ditch the 30+ year old carpet. Underneath most of the nasty old carpet was maple hardwood flooring. It has been a laborious, stressful and expensive process getting the floors re-finished, but they are finally done everywhere except the stair case (which my contractor was supposed to have done before Thanksgiving, but that’s another story) and the kitchen. I have new tile for the kitchen, so hopefully I can look into getting that re-done soon as well. Eventually I also want to paint the exterior. I am not fond of that brick red color and, though you can’t really tell in this blurry, enlarged photo, the paint job was pretty shoddy.
This is not my first house reno, but it is the first time I had to do a whole house by myself while working two jobs. It has not been a pretty process; I have broken down and hired contractors for a lot of the floor work and while it saved me personally a lot of time, the dealing with people who don’t give a rat’s ass about what you want even though you are paying them to work on your house has been very frustrating. But I am almost done (conveniently I am also almost out of money) and I am really looking forward to having a home to be proud of again. Lately I have been, what do they call it? Oh, yes. Happy.
I still have a massive pile of unpacked crap in my basement. Mostly it is stuff for the kitchen, dining room and decorative fru-fru (such as my wall hangings, decorative glass and pottery) but as I haven’t decided what to do about the kitchen, which is in much need of new, well, everything, and I am still working on finishing painting and wallpapering some of the interior rooms it hasn’t made sense to unpack it all. However, I did go and set up all my Christmas decorations. Some of which hadn’t seen the light of day since December of 2013. When the spud arrived home for the holiday, she said, “Momma, our new house looks like a movie set.” I knew then that all was right with the world.
My second job, being seasonal, is over for the winter, but the reno work is still slow going. Most projects have to happen on the weekends and be woven in between other mundane things like grocery shopping and laundry and the occasional fun times with friends. And, after the holidays, I deflated upon putting away all the decorations and got nothing done but sofa surfing during most of my free time in January. But, I am trying to grab my motivation by the scruff and shake it back into action. I do really want to get stuff done, it’s just boring and, well, exhausting to work all week at the JOB then work on the house. Plus, I don’t really like sanding, and staining, and painting and wallpapering, I just want the finished product.
Things got really bad a few weeks back until I had an epiphany: Audio books. I got myself a subscription to Amazon’s Audible, and listened to a Jane Austen spin-off while painting the dining room. *Cue corny music* Ahh-ahh-ahh! I actually started to look forward to painting so I could listen to what would happen to Elizabeth and Darcy in the next chapter. So, hopefully my new subscription will help keep my nose to the grindstone. Today’s task awaiting me once I am done here, is to build my new china cabinets and listen to the sequel to the book I listened to while painting.
Anyway, I appear to have digressed. Those last few paragraphs were probably very dull reading. The point I was trying to make was, while I am happy, I am getting a bit tired of always being on the job with the house reno stuff. I want it done so I can just enjoy my new home in my free time. Eventually I will get there. And, I will probably be pleased as punch and foist before and after photos on you all. You might not want to come back to my blog at that point….
Thanks so much to those of you who have always been such an amazing support network for me. I don’t know if it has been because of the craziness of life, or what, but I just haven’t had the blogging muse despite missing you all. It has been a tough decade, but I think I might be able to say I’ve finally made it through. Even though I don’t write much anymore, I do think of you often and how honored I am to have had you as readers and friends. Hope 2018 finds you all well and enjoying the best life has to offer.
Hugs,
Janie Jones, homeowner
Janie's Place 