It is one thing to look at a mid century home and admire the beautiful bones with all the unique characteristics and modern lines. It is quite another to move into that house and live in it while you fix it up.
If you are ever feeling down about your house just take pictures of it because houses always look better in photos. When we put the offer in on our house we had still only seen it through pictures and video at that point because we were still in Seattle. Seeing it in person was a bit of a blow. You don’t see all the details and lack of care for the house until you are in the space. My favorite was the layer of black scum around all the door handles 😖. After seeing it for the first time I might have had a panic attack about living in it while we remodel. To say that I am easily grossed out by things would be an understatement.
After moving in I have spent many sleepless nights being paranoid and worried about the multitude of possible things wrong with our house or crawling behind those walls. Unfortunately, for awhile it clouded out the excitement of finally having a house to call ours, a place to raise our girls and how perfect of a fit it really is for us.
It has been blow after blow ever since. Move in day consisted of breaking into our own house because the seller locked all the keys inside the house. We ordered new doors that week from a big box store which will remain nameless… for now. Five months later, still no doors so we just cancelled the order, back at square one. We also had plans for remodeling at least one bathroom right after moving in because there was black mold behind the wall and it is the bathroom our girls will be using. We ended up having to deal with drainage issues in our back yard instead and spent the money on new gutters and drainage tile so our basement wouldn’t get damp and musty every time it rained. Angie’s List has been a lifesaver but I cringe every time the girls take a bath.
I think the hardest thing for me specifically is actually a really silly thing. I feel like I was handling the spider situation in our house really well. There were cobwebs everywhere! Luckily nothing too large or hairy was living in them. Then this stinking house centipede comes along and I’m ready to burn this sucker down and go back to our apartment. Since the first sighting I have only seen three live ones and a whole lot of dead ones (you better believe I called the pest control the next day). Unfortunately one of the live ones I found scurrying across our bedroom floor. This would be a large part of my sleepless nights 😬.
I realized that I actually haven’t lived in a house since high school which is so crazy. We have lived in apartments and condos since and I think it has made me weak! But every day that goes by that I don’t see a centipede I relax a little bit more. Every time we do some work on the house, even something small like painting walls or trim or switching out a handle, it becomes our home and a little less scary and gross. I’m starting to see our dream home again and creating new memories in it.