All posts tagged renovation

About a Bedroom

Finished bedroom

Earlier this year–okay, much earlier this year–I embarked on renovating my back bedroom.  I live in a three bedroom house, and this bedroom was the final one to be renovated.  I’m making my way through renovating the rooms in my house at an average rate of about one every two years.  I know that seems like it takes a while, but in my defense, I do pretty much all the work myself with the occasional help from friends and family when I do something stupid like break my wrist (but more on that later).  I also had a renovation hiatus of about two and a half years while my sister was occupying one of those bedrooms.  So figuring that in, it’s probably more like I complete a room every 1.33 years.

As I mentioned in my post about my wedding anniversary, the completion of the back bedroom is the final piece in the cohabitation puzzle for my husband and me.  I had been aiming to finish it in time for our anniversary, but somewhere in mid-September I realized that I was going to fall short of my goal.  It was looking like I’d finish it only a couple of weeks late, and then I broke my left wrist playing frisbee.  I was really bummed out, but Ben agreed to complete the rest of the work, which consisted mainly of running electrical and reattaching the baseboards.  And then he tore a ligament in his right index finger.  October was a tough month for the Wittzlers.

I love doing renovation work for many reasons–you get to use your hands, it’s easy to see the progress you’re making, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, it makes me feel a connection to the history of the house.  However, as much as love it, I always reach a point somewhere in the process where I am convinced that I am never going to be finished.  Then I push through, and I fall of the impatience cliff, where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and just want the damn thing to be done.  It happens every time.  At the end of the project, I inevitably vow to hire someone to do the work the next time, but within several months, I suffer a blow to the head from a large, blunt object and start scraping wallpaper again myself.  (What’s the definition of insanity again?)

But really, in the end, the work is immensely rewarding.  The satisfaction of being able to walk into the room and say, “I did this,” is hard to describe.  And when it’s your own house, you get to experience that joy over and over again for years.  It’s probably why I keeping picking up that stupid wallpaper scraper.

Continue Reading →

Renovation or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wallpaper Scraper

after-wallpaper-scraping

One reason I haven’t been making all that much stuff lately is because, shortly after the new year, I embarked on another project.  I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking, “My God, what is wrong with this woman?  How many projects does she need to have going at one time?”  The answer probably falls somewhere between 5 and 10.  Seriously.  Otherwise I feel like I’m being lazy.  No doubt it’s a character flaw.

So here’s what I’m doing.  I’m renovating my back bedroom.  It’s the last bedroom that needs to be redone, and I will be psyched to have all the rooms–save for the bathroom–finished on the second floor.  My house is old, so the typical things that need to be done in each room are taping and spackling, painting, refinishing floors, and running electrical to add outlets.  But before all of this can happen, there’s the wallpaper scraping.  And after the wallpaper scraping, there’s more wallpaper scraping.  And just when you think you’re done, you remember that the ceilings have wallpaper on them, too.  And then you wonder, “Why the fuck would anyone WALLPAPER THE CEILING?”  (I’m told that this was common practice earlier in the 20th century, but really, unless you’re suffering from a severe case of poor judgment or recently had a lobotomy, why on earth would you choose to wallpaper the ceiling?)

Continue Reading →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers: