Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Home sweet (former) home

Not long after I moved (which hasn't been that long ago at all really), a couple of friends asked me if I missed my house.  My easy, and oh-so-true, answer was no, I don't miss it. While I loved my house, it was a lot of work.  All I can think of now when I think of the house is having to mow the lawn all the time and having to keep it clean. My every Saturday morning revolved around getting up and trying to get in some kind of workout, followed by cleaning the house. Mostly so it was in good condition on the off chance that a potential buyer would come along to look at it.  That became my life every week, for a couple of years at least.  So the joy of owning a home and having space that I could decorate in whatever way I chose was soon lost to the reality that I had to paint over colors that I liked and remove items that I wanted and used just so some anonymous buyer could envision themselves in the space.  Personally, all the process of selling my home did was make me dislike home buyers intensely.  I think if you can't look beyond whatever you are seeing and envision what you want a place to look like then it's your problem, not mine.  I really resented having to do all that work, constantly, to make the place look good for someone else. I stopped being able to enjoy my own home and that makes me sad.  Because I really did love that house. Not everything about it and not every minute, but it was (and still is) a great house. I hope the new owners are enjoying it.

I drove by last weekend when I was in town just to look and see how the sunflowers were doing. I planted the seeds about 2 weeks before the offer finally came in on the house.  The lone survive smack in front of the house is HUGE and so much taller than I ever imagined.  Honestly, it could be 10 feet tall.  That's insane.  The other patch that sprung up seems to be doing well and all in all, everything is the same except for the chidlren's toys in the back driveway and that huge eyesore of an inflatable pool in the backyard.  But hey, less grass to mow and I'm all for that.

I was going through the pictures in my Photobucket account today and came across some oldies of my house that I thought I'd post.  I changed the house alot over the 7 or 8 years I lived there and the new owners will change it more as they live there I know.

When I bought the house, the kitchen and den area looked like this.




Looking at these pictures, I kinda miss the original paneling in that room.  If I could have afforded it, I would have changed out the carpet instead. Never could afford new carpet.



 


 

  And then eventually it didn't look like any of that, but I don't seem to have any pictures of it.  Ah well.

Of all the wacko colors in this house when I bought it, the one I understand least was this gold leaf-type paint job on the master bedroom walls.  And those curtains! I gave them to a friend to use the fabric and to this day we call them "The Bordello Curtains" since she thought they belonged in a New Orleans cathouse!

A much better upgrade, if I do say so myself.  And I do.





As God is my witness, I had no idea how green that paint was going to turn out to be. Honest.  This didn't last long, but long enough to burn the eyes of many visitors to my humble abode.


The living room never changed much.

Eventually I did have to paint over my lovely purple door.  I was not pleased.  Black is so boring.

A much better choice of greens!
Enough pic spam for today.  Hope everyone and anyone reading this is having a great July 4th holiday!