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A long overdue post to kickstart the new year

Diary

I haven’t written in a horribly long time, and I don’t even have a good excuse. Let’s blame the holidays and a touch of seasonal depression, shall we?

We’re planning quite a few big changes here at Fixer-Upper for 2008, many of which we’ll be sharing with all you blog readers in the near future. Right now, there are a lot of question marks and vague ideas floating around. We’re focusing on narrowing down our next moves.

That said, I think now is a good time to reflect on 2007….

Bathroom remodel, clawfoot side

Last January we were working diligently on our master bathroom. This turned out to be the most expensive project we have taken on… probably because we went overboard adding lots of pretty trim and I just *had* to have a clawfoot tub, complete with high-end chrome fixtures. It came out beautifully and is by far my favorite room in the house, but we put a lot of sweat and blood into that room. Not to mention the stress of shoving past each other each morning in the small downstairs bathroom.

Craft room shelves

After the bathroom was finished, we moved on to the laundry/craft room. We added a closet, some organizational goodies like shelving, and a cool new paint color. It went from a lackluster kitchen (leftover from when the house was a 2-family) to a hobby sanctuary. Martha Stewart would approve.

Perfect?

After that, we took a break. We were completely burned out and broke on top of it. We thought about painting the exterior, but didn’t have the necessary motivation to start something that big. Instead, we stuck to “little” projects. We installed a picket fence which I proceeded to stain white all summer while burning to a crisp. (Never, ever, again. Not by hand anyway!) We finished drywall repairs throughout the upstairs, making all of our walls and ceilings lovely and crumble-free. We carpeted 2 bedrooms, the craft room, and the hallway to cover up worn and paint-spattered (not in a charming way) wood floorboards. We painted three upstairs bedrooms. We built a closet in the master bedroom since normal people like to hang up their clothing in the room they sleep in.

And then? Then, we hit a wall. The biggest we’ve ever hit. There are always ups and downs when you’re remodeling, but this time we lost any and all motivation to work on the house. It was bound to happen. Everything we hated was fixed. Everything embarrassing had been repaired. We were living in a normal – NICE, even – house. After 3 years of very hard work, we had accomplished what we’d set out to do. We resurrected Dirty Gert from years and years of neglect and abuse and turned her into a nice place to live.

So  now we’re been resting on our laurels, remarking now and then about how refreshing it is to have our weekends free and money in the bank.  To have a clean, drywall-dust-free house. To see our friends and family and get back to hobbies we’ve neglected for the past three years. There is always something to be done in an old house, but for now we’re putting our to-do list in a drawer somewhere :)

Comments, Thoughts, and Feedback

Sara had this to say on 01.02.08:

Your house looks so good!!!!! I have been reading what you guys have been doing on your houseblog.I totally understand about needing a rest.Our house is almost done and already I am talking about getting a bigger one and starting all over!!!!!

Roxy had this to say on 01.03.08:

Hi There!

Just had a question. I’ve noticed that you have two smaller dogs, do you find that the picket style fence keeps them contained to the yard. We have a small dog and are having a hard time selecting a fence for our yard and wondered how yours has worked out.

Thanks and keep up the good work!!

Mindy had this to say on 01.03.08:

Thanks Sara ;)

Roxy – the picket fence keeps one of the small dogs in, but our Houdini (the min pin) gets out on a regular basis. No matter what type of fence we installed, we knew he would dig his way out. We ran two strips of screen mesh material at the base of the fence, but he busted that within the first week. He doesn’t go any further than our driveway so we’ve decided to just live with it!

colleen had this to say on 01.06.08:

mindy you two have accomplished so much in 07. i understand about “the wall” but if you stop this blog i seriously will have to find a life! anyway look at the equity you have in your place , the market may suck but homes are always a good investment, so why shouldn’t it be fab! so good luck in 08

stoogssam had this to say on 12.31.10:

How is Everyone

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