The dust bowl

Old house blues

If you're a perfectionist, just know fixing up an old house is going to wear on your last nerve, especially if you're living there while the work is going on.

The floors and ceilings are parallel but not perpendicular to the walls. The floors slope in different directions. You hang a door and find uneven spacing between the door and floor and door and headers. You put the trim on and there are bulges and gaps. There is no such thing as a 90-degree angle or plumb-ness. You find unexpected remnants of structures behind the sheetrock and in the foundation that you suddenly have to work around.

The first few days, I came home from work completely unsuspecting. Then I developed a severe pavlovian resistance to coming home, afraid of what I will find. I was hypersensitive to every little thing that wasn't quite right.

Now, I'm learning to just chill. That electrical outlet hung at a strange angle was just until they could figure out how to cut away the beam to fit it straight. I'm learning the work happens in stages. Just because the door is hanging a little loose on the first day isn't cause to go off on the contractors.

There are adjustments made throughout the process until you have the finished project. And, as mysterious and daunting as it seems to me, if you know what you're doing and know what to expect, the early awkwardness of it is not so scary.

My dad compared it to the first draft of a story---if you worry too much about making every word perfect before moving to the next, you may never finish.

Really, really, really, really old wallpaper

We found this wallpaper under the sheetrock. The living, dining and kitchen all had their very own butt-ugly design.

Living room...notice the random butterfly.




















Dinning room















Kitchen















Another layer in the kitchen

New closets!

The bedroom closet was there but the doors are new.



















This is the new linen closet in the hallway.The space was stolen from a very deep bathroom closet, which we made shallower. There's a coat closet on the other side of the bathroom. And, some paint samples.

More spring blooms

The Jane Magnolia up close















Pear tree blooms in the backyard














More pear tree















Redbud in the front yard. I have two more in the back.



















Full Redbud