stuck by stuck

little by little
or
slow by slow
or
stuck by stuck

it feels as though the last few years we have been stuck in our home progress...
it is easy for me to feel trapped by our lack of progress
(or- to be more accurate- what I perceive as our lack of progress)

in the last couple years we had to get our chimney re-faced
and
we also had our out-door living quarters removed

these were both costly investments- but didn't offer much day-to-day relief
from the clutter that so quickly
and so easily
collects
multiplies
takes over


so I am hoping now to write here
to collect ideas, next steps, and tips
here

Seeds

Mom sent seeds from their garden down south. Each delicate seed packet came with instructions and a description of what the plant looked like. Mom's writing on the outside of package matched the tissue paper wrapped around each seed cluster.

This is my first in the ground garden. I don't know that much about plants except that last year Sam and I had a container garden and I have recently watched Life. When I proved that we could grow tomatoes in a red radio flyer wagon last year, I felt confident enough to start brainstorming an in ground garden. After seeing Life it seems plants will grow no matter what. This explains the reappearing weeds in our garden area.

We are not far along on our garden. Not far at all.

But what I have learned is that gardening is much more like a discipline than a project. It requires some peace of mind to put aside everything else everyone else pressing in and just pull up weeds or make sure everyone has enough water. I am not great at this discipline yet. But I am looking forward to peace.

Blue

When Sam and I finally gained possession of the house, we did tons of bleaching. Then we got to buy paint!

Deborah and I hoarded books and folders and cards of paint chips for weeks prior. I think this might have been my favorite part of home renovations: the paint chips. The smooth, not always glossy texture. Colors changed, muted, intensified, just waiting to be selected. Each perfect square means something slightly different than its sister to the left or right.

We went to Home Depot to place our paint order for the entire house at once. 2 hours later we walked away with 2 full carts filled with sturdy gallons of salvation. By standers gawked and wondered who we had hired. "Oh, no. We're teachers; we don't work over the summers (which is a lie- but anywhoo...) we are painting!" Chuckles and well wishes as we threw our body weights against the wobbly carts.

When I wake up in the morning and see the blue kitchen... it was worth it.

There are two blues in our kitchen. Three walls are a translucent robin's egg blue. And the third wall is bright and bold. It was difficult to capture the translucent blue with the camera.

Stoop Garden

Some things came with our estate.

These bleacher/benches that sit outside our front door are an example. They used to be a dull gray. After a quick coat of primer and paint they're ready to greet spring with plants.

We are trying to buy as few decorative plants as possible. We want to save time and money for a vegetable garden. So most of the plants here are from our neighbors or the backyard. We did purchase a few ivy plants and the pansies.

I am hoping that the ivy will wrap its tendrils around the bench. I like the overgrown beauty especially here in an urban area, it's nice to see "too much" green.

Kitchen Painting

One of the projects we did over spring break was painting most of the fake wood in our kitchen. Because we had so many different shades and varieties of the fake wood we went ahead and painted over almost everything with the same colors we used on the walls and cupboards.

We don't have any matching pieces in our kitchen, so painting the various a unifying color has really helped the room feel calm and more grounded.

Changing My Mind

As we got further and further along in our painting projects, and now after the bulk of the initial work is complete, I am still surprised when people say we have a beautiful home.

Recently the plumber was encouraging us that there was no way we could've known something like that was going to happen when we bought the house. "You know those home inspectors. They don't really do a good job."

It took a moment to realize what he was perceiving. "Actually our home inspector gave us the address of another home to purchase." Not to mention the selling realtor asked Donna, "Are they sure they want to buy the house?" Not just once, multiple times.

In some ways it is hard for me to let go of what the house was. Because when I let that go, I let go all the blood, sweat, tears and stench that we worked through. But shouldn't I want to let that go?

I guess I find myself still wanting to say to everyone who comes over, "I know it's not perfect yet! But look at what we had to deal with!" I should probably let that go as well.