hello. i'm beth, and i'm a renovation addict.
2 years ago this fall, i discovered severe water damage (think alien life form growing up out of my base boards!) in the lower level of my house, which is my office. this came on the heels of pretty much completing the renovation of my entire house, which took about 3 years in all. it was a devastating discovery because i was tired of renovating at the time (i had done a lot of work myself) and i was really looking forward to a clean house. one without boxes and stacks of crap moved from room to room and sheetrock dust everywhere! so, at that point, i said to myself, that's it, i'm prepping to sell. shortly thereafter my house (sans the water damaged part) was to be photographed for 3, yes, 3!!! separate magazines!! a forth one was added to the mix a little later!! only 1 of the first 3 panned out, but the forth was the wonderful spread in the 2016 spring issue of atlanta magazine home. the point here is the renovation of my house has provided everything i wanted it to. more beautiful pics for my portfolio and the validation of my talent as a designer. obviously, it's also been a wonderful retreat for myself and my kids as we've made our way through life, post-divorce. i really couldn't be happier and more satisfied :) so now, it's really time to sell, because i've been saying this for almost 2 years and i'm emotionally ready! and because, clearly, i am unable to just stay and enjoy being done :)
there's really just a few things to finish up (stuff you wished you'd done years ago and actually enjoyed all those years instead of finally doing them and the buyer gets to enjoy them!!!). in another post, you'll see the follow up pics of my office, aka, the one-room challenge i failed at completing on time :( right now, i am finishing the large closet just off my office space, which also had water damage and floor and wall replacement. i installed the new base and door trim weeks ago, after the new door was hung and am just painting today. this should be super easy because the one thing i don't ever pay anyone to do is paint! i love to paint. except today. it's just not going well and i kinda feel like it's similar to hitting rock bottom with an addiction. i usually paint while listening to music, but what i wanted to listen to wasn't downloading and that just wasn't sitting well with me. the primer wasn't really going on quite opaque enough for my liking...
and then there's the physical suffering.
please note the difference in skin coloring between my arms and palms!
i am ambidextrous. a fact i do actually like to brag about. but here, it's not about bragging, just all about pain. this is the universe telling me to put the paint roller down and rent a nice apartment, where other people are available on speed dial to do things like, change a light bulb, repaint a wall, fix the dishwasher you haven't used in 2 years because it was leaking because it was never installed properly...
to make matters worse...
you may not see anything wrong in the above picture, but to the eye of a trained professional (resident crazy reno person) such as myself, this roller has an issue. it was fine for all the priming, but when i started painting the wall with the satin paint, the handle "shrunk" and was all wobbly. it was truly an equipment battle to the death. as you can see above, my hands were not winning :( i have used this same roller throughout the entire house and was really just a bit emotional with it failing me at the very end!
to top the drama off...
underneath the drop cloth i find this stupidity!!!! aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!! ok, it's really not that bad, i washed it off really easily, but still!!! just another sign it's time to hang up the renovation hat for now and relax for a bit :) until, of course, that foreclosure i have my eye on works out or the land lady of the cottage i'm looking to rent lets me retile the kitchen and paint all the walls and change out the light fixtures and the floors may need refinishing...
my house goes on the market the end of this week, so please wish me luck :)
beijos,
beth