HGTV Junkies
Wow. I knew I had neglected the blog but we are going nigh on 3 weeks with no communique’. I know you are devastated. The problem with getting this far behind is fighting the urge to return to all that’s been going on and realizing not one bit of it is interesting. At all.
It would be so awesome if I could tell you I’m ready to break the streak of boring but truth is we’ve been working at the Pee Wee football Jamboree all day and I’m ridiculously exhausted so I’ve laid myself up in bed to enjoy an evening of House Hunters. Yes, hubs and I are both HGTV junkies. Luke is the only straight man I know that can define ‘focal point’. On this episode of HH, a couple is looking for a green home and this real estate agent is trying to sell them on a particular house because it has high efficiency light bulbs. Yep. I’m certain they will pick it now. Oh, wait. Just found out this house also doesn’t have polyurethane finish on the floors that emit those pesky toxic fumes. That’s a plus. Now we’ve arrived at the climax of the show when we learn whether they buy the Non-Green home in order to remodel it using green features. Which begs the question, if you renovate and throw away all the non-green stuff, isn’t that in effect being non-green? Wouldn’t it be less wasteful to keep the old stuff? These are the things that I think about.
As for houses, ours is coming right along. We are painting and putting in flooring this week. The process has been relatively simple but it’s getting a little stressful now that the finishes are going in. I’m a horrible decision maker and I’m pretty confident our cabinet maker is ready to close up his entire shop and go out of business if he sees my face one more time. I went into his showroom dead set on painted cabinets with a dark island and when I walked out I had stained. We got into the parking lot and Luke said, “What in the world just happened in there? Why did you change everything?!” It was the pressure! Just too much pressure! I could discern from the cab guy that he wasn’t crazy about painted cabinets and so being the wimp I am when it comes to wanting to do what the experts consider the ‘right’ thing, I caved and picked what he liked instead of what I loved.
I came home so disappointed, checked my emails and saw I had a blog note from my darling friend Melissa at Inspired Room. I emailed her with my dilemma and she talked me down from my stained cabinet ledge. In short, she gave me the excellent advice of doing what I loved no matter what someone else considered the best thing. I knew I would not love those stained cabinets so I got brave and called the guy Monday morning and asked him to make the changes. So in essence, we just switched places on the ledge. As horrible as I felt for doing it to him, I’m pretty sure he’ll feel better when he gets the check.
I’m looking forward to showing some pictures when the thing is done. It really hasn’t looked much like a house until the last couple of weeks but now it’s finally beginning to look like something we may live in sometime soon. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited our family remains. It’s a 20 year dream that we never thought we’d be able to see happen. God is good and the fact He orchestrated the whole thing iin the exact timing that He has isn’t lost on us one bit.
The only thing to make it any better would be for Candace Olson to come decorate the entire thing. For free. As of right now, most of the rooms are beige because I have no decor. I was watching Sarah’s House the other day and was excited to find out that she was going to decorate 2 bedrooms on a budget. Her ‘budget’ was 10,000. For one kids’ bedroom. I don’t think I’ve spent that much on my entire home in the last 20 years of marriage. Let’s just say for now we are concentrating on getting in the thing and will hopefully have many happy years to work on furnishings.
So tell me, any of you girls do any fun budget decorating lately? I would love to see your projects!
But only if they cost less than 10 grand.
no decorating going on around here. that idea kind of goes out the window when you have to replace the entire AC unit at the beginning of summer. Grrr. :) excited to see pics of your house though! :) nice to hear from you!
Well, I DID help the parents paint today. I did like one whole wall.(yes, be proud.)
I never have tried the painting thing before, so I learned and then was ecstatic about my wall the rest of the night:)
If you expected profound…disregard this comment:)
Hope you are well Lisa:) I hope to see you in Bham…
(I am taking myself to DS for my 30th bday.) WHOOP!
i just helped my parents redecorate their master bedroom a couple months ago! check it out on my blog, here:
http://frills4thrills.blogspot.com/2010/03/master-suite.html
Ian and I thought we were going to buy a house, but plans fell through and instead we are downsizing to a smaller apartment at the end of the month and I can’t wait to redecorate! (I’m an interior design student).
I can’t wait to see pictures of your new place!!!
We used to watch This Old House — it was kinda disgusting to listen to the folks have to limit their spending to half a million whenn redecorating their weekend home (which was bigger and nicer than my everyday house) . Can’t wait to see pics of the house!
I would like to offer advice, but home decor is not my spiritual gift. We’ve been here for two years and my pictures are still leaned up in in a stack by the china cabinet.
I know you must be excited, congratulations!
When my folks built their house, my mom said that if a marriage could survive building a house it could survive anything. Glad to hear it’s going so smoothly!
I love Candace Olsen! Why can’t she live in Houston and come fix my house for me?
Glad you went with the painted cabinets! Repainted is such a quick and easy update down the road. I’m about to paint mine black. I tossed around the idea of painting the cabinets a turquoisey-green, but I think I might get sick of that rather quickly. (Or I might hate it in the first 3 seconds!)
I must say…..I’m probably the cheapest home decorator on the planet!
$10,000 would be like hitting the jackpot for me! I could go crazy and make my house look amazing with that!
Wow!
Don’t get weak in your decision making now…..hold tight to the stuff you really want. You’ll be mad with yourself if you cave to someone elses choice!
I just saw your book in the blogosphere. Holy Moley, it’s cute!! And you’re cute. Congratulations, Lisa.
I will eventually blog about it, but I love to get pottery barn catalogs for decorating ideas. Sure I would love to be able to buy their furniture, but that will NEVER happen. So instead I look through for ideas behind the stuff they are selling. There are some really good ideas. Also I use their “staging” for ideas of things I could do more cost effectively. One of my favorite bargain hunts (besides Craigs list) is Big Lots furniture.
So excited for you and Luke, Can’t wait to see the house!
We just bought our first house. The kitchen had the space we needed, but was very ugly. it came with goldenrod countertops. Unfortunately, new countertops are not in the budget right now, so we decided to do some work to make the countertops less hideous. We painted the walls a soft mint green (they were dark fushia) and the cabinets “cool cucumber” (which had been a very old, dark wood). The room looks so much better already, even though we haven’t finished insalling the cabinet hardware or the new light fixture yet. (Should we even be installing our own light fixture? I’m a little nervous about that one…)
Hopefully new countertops and flooring will happen in the next 18 m onths or so, after we’ve each had more than 1 paycheck!
I was just thinking about you yesterday and thought, “they must be knee deep in the house building process!”
To show you how green I am, when I read that the people in that episode wanted a green house, I thought you meant literally, as in the color…green. The line about toxic fumes made me say, “oooohhh, green not GREEN!”
I totally understand about knowing what you want but being pressured by the “expert.” Can’t wait to see some pics!
Love you girl!
Don’t ever let anyone talk you out of what you want in your house! If you make a mistake – then it’s your mistake! I actually changed cabinet builders when we built our house because he tried to tell me what I liked. As fas as decorating, you have a great interior designer in your church(aka Ms. Greene). She helped me alot!
I found your site through Scott Bridwell. :-) I am going to look around some more, but thought I would comment. I hate not always knowing who is looking at my blog. LOL. And I agree, do what YOU want in YOUR house.
You crack me up! Unfortunately, I have no decor advice for you. That is not one of my spiritual gifts. :)
Looking forward to seeing the end result, and I hope it will be 100% you (well, you and your hubby). :-)
xo
Funny stuff…good luck with all that!
I shared with my husband about you HGTV junkies. Asked him if he knew what a focal point was and he correctly pointed out our living focal point. He then stated, “any room you are in honey you are the focal point”. I love this man. We just celebrated our 29th anniversary. I’m glad you went with the painted cabinets. I have them in my kitchen and just love them. They are then accented with copper pulls (yes, you will even have to pick them out). Stick with what you love for your home, you will never regret it. You are paying people to make your house the home you want it to be so don’t let them talk you into what is easy for them! Blessings to you.
House Hunters is my favorite show. Especially HH International.
Pictures! Post some pictures!
Well, I did our kitchen for 10,000 about 6 years back. And when it comes to kitchens that’s AMAZING. If you take your measurements to home depot they will plan out your space for you! Oh, but I guess we’re kind of on a boycott right now…nevermind! Try Lowe’s instead! Decorating on a budget to me means thrift stores, good will, resale shops, craigslist, and finding super good deals at Target and Kohl’s. And occasionally buying that one thing at full price because it’s truly what you have been looking for your entire life. :) Can’t wait to see your pics!