I keep posting on and on about this room remodel we were forced into by a bad storm. But, it has really been a crazy experience, and I still have more to say about it, apparently. I would have expected to love all of this because I love design and projects, but because of timing, school starting, and my lack of communication opportunities with Mr. Fantastic, it has been smashing me into dust.
What doesn’t smash us makes us stronger. Or, something like that.
Here are ten things I have learned:
10. You can love stained concrete floors in theory, but cry for 2 hours when you stain your own. Stained concrete seemed like the obvious choice for a budget conscious duo like us with a room that may or may not flood again. But I hated ours with an everlasting hatred. They were gross, weird in color, and uneven in texture and pattern. Even thinking about them almost makes me cry all over again.
9. Beds cost WAY too much money. Our cheap IKEA bed made of particle board acted like a giant wooden sponge when the room flooded. We decided we wanted a real, grown-up bed since we are real grown-ups. Real grown-ups must all be way richer than we are, though. Good grief. Sticker shock galore.
8. Pinterest has a purpose aside from making me feel like I will never be everything I want to be. I needed inspiration for the room, and all of these crazy, awesome, blessed people have uploaded and pinned all kinds of cute bedrooms on there. Thank God for the Type A design-obsessed people of the world. I picked my paint colors from Pinterest- and I love them. Score!
7. When your husband tells you to find what you want, you should decide on a budget number before you shop around. This is so obvious, but we have been busy. So, I shopped and got sick with stress because I found all kinds of stuff I liked, but had no idea if we could buy them all. So then I was sick of thinking of it, and I just wanted to sell the house as-is, never own another home, and rent a house. You know, because moving would be easier than asking, “How much do you think we should spend?”
6. It is possible to get to know the people at Lowe’s on a first-name basis. Lowe’s loves us. We hang out there now all day, because every time we think we are done with Lowe’s for the day and go home, we realize we need caulk, or a sponge, or a piece of tape, or new flooring (again!)… Sheesh.
5. I am a quitter by nature. At least three times a day for several weeks now, I have wanted to quit and seal off the master bedroom, like a mysterious wing of an old house. People would come over and wonder what was behind that door and I would just put my finger up to my lips, slowly shake my head “no” and “shhhhhhhh…” their questions about the locked door. My kids could make up old myths about vampires or ninjas or giant cockroaches, and all the neighborhood kids would kind of shrink away from our house as they walked by. It would be awesome.
4. No matter how much you pray, God won’t say, “Let there be flooring!” and end the insanity. It dawned on me that He could, if He wanted to, turn cement into hardwood, or move the floor from some ritzy house downtown into my house with just a flick of the wrist. I mean, He is God and He specializes in miracles and design and stuff like that. Man, I really wish He wanted to….
3. It is laughable that I ever thought we could flip a foreclosure. We almost bought a total fixer-upper last year. Just imagining the padded cell I would require if that deal had gone through is a fun way to pass the time in the car on the way back to Lowe’s.
2. We have insanely talented and generous friends. I have to say, I can’t believe how many people have offered to help us, how many hours our friends have logged sanding floors that I end up hating (our friends are also forgiving!), replacing drywall, and protecting our house from future flooding. I love our friends. I love our neighbors. I owe them all a huge, ginormous, massive debt that I can never really pay back, because my heart cannot pour out as much love as we have received. It has been beautiful.
1. This room better be amazing. After all of this, I really hope we LOVE this room. I hope we run to it every night and do a happy dance when we see the white walls with the hand-stenciled pattern, the linen headboard, and the new fans. I hope that it is the one place in the world that everything seems okay, even when my kids are throwing up, or dinner burns, or my computer dies. No pressure, room, but you have some seriously high expectations to rise up to, so let’s hurry up and be spectacular, okay?
