The Walls Go Up or are Close to It.

We were in the house, admiring the sheetrocking and the framing of walls to come. I was comfortably in a camping chair in the living room while Matt wandered around, testing things, looking at things, trying to figure out how we were ever going to get ourselves to a point where we move in to this beast. “The water’s back on!” came an excited shout from the upstairs bath along with the sound of running water. “Yay!” I responded, studying paint colors (who knew there could possibly be so many shades of white?) “That’s so exciting!” “What the….?” Was the next statement to come from upstairs, followed by things that I’m not posting on the internet. “What’s going on?” I called. “They didn’t reattach the drain under here!” So all the water was just going into the vanity. This after we were just discussing ways to salvage the upstairs vanity and make it at least sort of decent while waiting for our lotto money to come in. One step forward…how many steps back? When pulling down things in an old house, you do expect to find things wrong, not well done, strange. I think that we were not expecting so many things to have to be redone. And I had definitely not thought through all the decisions we would have to make. For instance, door hinges, finishes on dining room fixtures, the insane price on dining room light fixtures, why is there a pile of dry wall in our backyard? It’s hard to realize the scope of replacing so much in so little time. I feel like a lot of people move into a home, and then live there, and then realize that antique bronze is much better than oil rubbed bronze (ah ha- you didn’t know I knew about the differences in bronze finishes, did you?) for the house. It’s hard to get to know a house that you have just brought into your life. While I understand that for many people a house is just that, I get much more attached to homes. If you doubt that, just ask me about my studio in Greenwich Village- a 12x12 room that closely resembled Heaven. Or Chapel Hill. I loved my place in Chapel Hill, even with that crazy guy downstairs. Or the one year I spent in a sweet little house in Wilmington with a huge backyard. I love houses. I have loved them since I was little. Whenever we would go on vacation, I would spend a good part of it imagining how it would look if I lived there, what I would move, where my room would be. And of course the house we moved from. The house that nurtured the first part of our marriage, that we attempted to learn about each other’s styles and wants from a home. The house that we lived in while looking for a new house. This house seems more important than the others, though. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m pregnant (Hello, Nesting) or because I want to believe this is The House but I’m super into this process. Today on the way to meet my parents for lunch, I studied the Sherwin Williams deck and thought about what should go downstairs. Homes are important. Maxwell Gingham-Ryan, the author of Apartment Therapy, and the Apartment Therapy Blog, and a person who lived with his wife and daughter in an apartment that was 265 square feet, says that people began focus on nesting in the ‘70s, post-Vietnam. People wanted to spend more time at home. That’s when the focus became family rooms along with or even instead of living rooms, of a more relaxed atmosphere, larger sofas, bigger TVs. People wanted to be at home. Now we are obsessed with our homes. There is a whole network devoted to our homes and gardens, and plenty of other networks that boast shows focusing on everything from finding the perfect home down to making the perfect yard work. We love our houses. But I think more than that, what we want, is what is in a really great home. That feeling you have when you walk in from a long day and take off your shoes and you are home. Or my favorite- when you’ve been gone on a long trip and come home to your own bed. Our home is currently struggling with walls, with plumbing, with electric work, with so many things. But what I am starting to see when I come home is what will be- a nursery that is clean and painted, a master bathroom with really nice tile underfoot, a kitchen that we can hang out in together. So while we wait for things like drains to be properly reattached to each other, and walls that are ready to be primed, and especially while we question the bizarre amount of wallpaper used in the house, we are trying to look into what it will be. At least we know it has “Good Bones!” If you doubt me, see below: Half Bath: Family Room: What you are looking at is what it looked like, and what it looked like last week. Don't worry, walls are going back up, new photos are coming and I promise the demolition has a purpose- trust me, I didn't believe it at first either.