It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.
But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.
There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Alan Cohen
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
Groucho Marx
The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Before and After

When we bought this place, it was not in the greatest condition.
The owner rented it out and the lady kept it clean but she was obviously not interested in decor or updates.
She was just saving money to buy her own apartment.

We saw it as an adventure, a blank slate in a way, there to do whatever we wanted.
Whatever we wanted within reason, after all the repairs that kept coming to our attention.
By way of mold on ceilings that were not caused by steam in the shower as we were told but by a persistent leak from the plumbing above.
None of these things waited long for us to discover them, they announced their presence by the sound of dripping  ... the sight of water running down a newly painted wall ... the rush of water from the ceilings ..
There were days where I walked into rooms and looked up first .. dread was probably the look on my face most days.

Fear of water dripping might be instilled in my poor psyche forever.

We felt , in the beginning, that we were up to it all.
We were.
Now, I wonder.

The most satisfying of homes to renew are the ones like this, neglected, old and sorry but with the most amazing "bones" and that air of stillness, waiting, knowing that we were just the ones that these rooms were waiting for.

And here they are, the sad but now happy rooms that we call home ..


                                                                  Sad Kitchen


Happy Kitchen

The Bath of Gloom

Beautiful Bath

Sad Bedroom

Dreamy Bedroom

4 comments:

  1. After reading your problems with water invading from the ceiling, I'm now grateful for our less invasive problem of moisture just seeping in through the tuffeau stones of this old barn in France. Sometimes an old place just needs a little more love and understanding. Progressively worse eyesight/inspection doesn't hurt either.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We sometimes wonder how we would have thought about things if they had happened somewhere else.. it just seemed to be all a part of the package here .. thankfully a part that we were able to fix :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You did a great job makng your house your home!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome..Thank you.

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