A Labor Of Love.

I am writing this as therapy.... I had to break away from my remodeling project for a moment and re-focus on the goal....

 I was in the process of scraping and priming and painting a room in This Old House when I spilled a can of Killz primer/sealer all over the back porch floor and I felt I was going to loose it and tell Kevin I wanted to move to an apartment in town - until I took a break and thought it through.

 Looking at inspiring photos helps me keep my eye on our goal of a lovely old cottage farmhouse.

 

 

 
(We decided we needed a fountain in our herb garden and as I searched around the 'net for ideas on using salvage for a fountain, I came across this piano fountain. I loved it. Kevin said "no". Oh well. So now, I am looking for old hand pumps and barrels and things of that nature four our fountain.)

 I wish I could have just moved in, decided on colors, paid someone to paint my rooms, and been done with it. I wish all I had to do was shop for vintage and antique furnishings and textiles and place them where I want them. I wish I could have just enjoyed myself purchasing little accessories and spent my time arranging things in pretty vignettes and buying towels and a shower curtain to match; and that was it.

 But instead, we opted for an Old House with special needs. Instead of picking paint colors and bidding on antique hall trees and arranging things just so and buying towels and a matching shower curtain, we're doing things like gutting and removing walls. Replacing walls and re-wiring everything. Ripping out and replacing plumbing, indoors and out. Which means digging up the yard and ripping out things in the house, both.
We're ripping out floors. Sanding. Scraping. Refinishing. Painting and re-painting when the first paint isn't right. We're trying to fix water damage. We're re-doing fireplaces and mantlepieces and molding. We're replacing light fixtures. We're installing heating units.  We're insulating and deck building and porch patching and cement gluing.

 Meanwhile, we're barn fixing, soil-ammending, hay farming, vegetable gardening, tree-removing, and earth moving.

 And working full time. And trying to have a life.
 

I'm not complaining...........I'm just saying. I want to get to the fun part. I have, here and there - I've shown the few spots in the house that are "done" enough to show; that have been decorated and arranged. And I love This Old House. I am so grateful for it. It is an adorable little lady with a lot of appeal. It's just that on days like today - the paint-spilling, having-to-rip-out-the-carpet moments; the scraping off the lead paint inch by inch moments; the waiting for the 1st coat of paint to dry  moments; the guests locked in the bathroom because the old fashioned door handle broke moments; the rescue the guest from the bathroom with a pair of screwdrivers and a good hefty yank moments; the "Are we ever going to be done with this?!" moments........that I have to take several moments to remind myself that it's going to be so worth it.

 Right?

 Of course, right.

 Now that I've had my little pep talk, I have to get back to that scraping and sanding and priming.

 *Sigh*