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DEL.ICIO.USWhat are your “Great American Dream” projects?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Home ownership is often touted as the “Great American Dream.”
While I agree, I consider the purchase of my first home one of my ultimate achievements.
I set out looking for a home that would both inspire my imagination and personally challenge me.
Little did I realize at the time, any home would have been a challenge.
I had very little in terms of anything including furniture when I first moved in.
I had the whole proverbial “bachelor working with a blank slate” thing going on.
No couch. No dining room furniture. Hardly nothing.
All I really had was some industrial shelving used as a makeshift entertainment center, two hand-me-down chairs and coffee table, bed frame, and a few other little side tables and such.
It was really pretty embarrassing.
Almost three years later, I have made significant progress in moving from that blank slate to making my house a home.
You would think that living in as close proximity to Furniture Row that I do adding all those elements of a home should have come easy.
Not only am I extremely picky, I seem to have great difficulty in trying to make up my mind on one decorating scheme or another.
Somehow I did manage to put a hodge podge of furniture together including a leather love seat and recliner, dining room table and chairs, a china cabinet and a king sized iron bed frame.
I’ve made some significant in roads on updating and decorating the home too.
The tacky 1980’s wallpaper from both the kitchen and half bath walls are gone. I have added decorative molding to the kitchen cabinets and painted the kitchen, half bath and hallway.
Some of the artwork I have collected thus far include a small Scott Westmoreland collection for the half bath, a Mayan ink print of a lion from Belize, and various other trinkets and thingamajigs and lots and lots of candles throughout the house.
While the entire house will always be a work in progress, the only room I consider “complete” at this point is my half bath. I have barely touched the upstairs.
This year, as I do every year, I set certain goals to meet or be completed by years end.
Some of them include the following home improvement goals:
Upstairs bathrooms: Remove tacky wallpaper and paint; update lighting and other fixtures. Kitchen: Add arches to entry ways, repaint (if I can settle on a color), change faucet, add ceiling tins, and maybe tile the countertop. Create and add to collection of artwork. Gardening including plants, flowers and cayenne peppers.
Those are but a few of the things I have ahead of me this year, but I am as usual looking forward to the challenge.
What projects have you already completed on your home that your particularly proud of or consider a significant achievement? What projects do you have planned for your home this year?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Woody Bass
Comments
By Brian Curtis
February 19, 2007 09:18 AM | Link to this
Sorry, I’m not much of a home-remodeling dreamer. I have a roof over my head and adequate space; all the utilities work; I’m happy.
My next projects revolve around books I want to read, movies I want to see, possibly a better job soon, etc. Housing is just a subsistence requirement with me, not a dream.
By Bruce Wilcox
February 19, 2007 09:32 AM | Link to this
We take three vacations a year, two short and one long, this year the Verde Valley in Arizona looking for property. Everytime you return home it looks great, nothing needs to be changed. Plus we’ve blowen all the money on vacations, it works out just fine.
Since 93’ we’ve added oak hardwood floors, redid two bathrooms and the kitchen and a deck, Plus all those little things that pop up, a new roof, a new furance and air, water heaters.
Now it just a matter of maintaining it for four more years, then it’s “Westward Ho”.
By KA
February 20, 2007 09:14 AM | Link to this
We built our house 22 years ago, filled it with an eclectic mix of family and new pieces over the years, reared 3 kids, who are finishing college, and we are looking forward to travelling and not sitting around the house in our retirement years. We will be putting on a new roof this year; already painted inside and out, replaced the water line to the house, ac/heater, hot water heater and all appliances. I have no interest in remodeling, or updating and decorating! We are looking forward to the kids taking their stuff and some furniture with them when they get their own places.
By aw
February 20, 2007 01:06 PM | Link to this
I’d just like to be able to have a home.
By woodys mom
February 22, 2007 09:10 AM | Link to this
bruce how lucky you are to be moving to verde valley. my parents retired there years ago. it was a heart break when they had to move closer to family during their last yrs. verde valley is something to experience if even just to visit. the people there really look out for each other. my parents lived in camp verde and when a flood took their home out the town came together and built them a new one. if you get a chance to go babes roundup.. thats where the locals go. great lunches and great people. my parents were their very first customers. now on to the real subject. repairs on home. have finished the kitchen, one bathroom, master bedroom, and the diningroom.. still have one bathroom and two bedrooms to redo and the livingroom.. then i am off live on the top of a mountain in tenn.. cant wait!
By Bruce Wilcox
February 22, 2007 12:40 PM | Link to this
Thank you for the heads-up on babes roundup, you can really get a feel from the locals. Camp Verde is where we have been zeroing in on, not really that far from Sardona and just the right size city. If we find the right place maybe I can talk my wife into letting me and the dog stay out there to get the house just right for her! Okay, I can dream I guess.