My wife Lisa, who is the same exact age as our house, has done a beautiful job making a silk's purse out of a sow's ear. The house in no way resembles the orange shag-carpeted poopstorm we inherited in 2003, but it's been a methodical, step-by-step process done mostly by us, our mechanic Mike Sappington, and a lot of tears. Tears and blaming. Why can't she sow curtains? Why can't I build new shelves? Why do we pay people to fix things for us? (Answer: BECAUSE IT'S WORTH IT)
So we're in a good place with our house. But there are a few things that are so horrible and awesome that they bear documentation. Here are three:
1. Starry, Starry Night! When we did our initial walk through of the house I immediately noticed these sparkly popcorn ceilings. These would be the first to go, I swore. Hey ho! They are like the last to go. We tell ourselves that they are retro and cool again, but that's mostly if you think that asbestos is cool and retro. Truthfully, I don't even notice the popcorn ceilings anymore, and that's a problem: every person who walks into our house does. And they are horrified. Please don't tell me that these are easy to fix. I don't want to spray them with a water bottle and walk along with a scraper. I don't have time and my arms will fall asleep and it's going to be cancer fumes everywhere. No thank you!
2. Cutboard Island! Dude, don't get me started on the kitchen. And seriously don't get Lisa started on it. This is the cutting board - the original 1974 cutting board - which has never once been used by us a cutting board and has since fallen into a horrible depression right above the dishwasher. Sometimes if we have guests in the kitchen I sit on this thing. Not to hide it; there is no hiding it. But because it's springy and centrally located for conversation! But be careful! A spider lives in there and crawls out all the time. For reals. As you can see, I painted it gray a few years ago to at least match our walls. But now it just looks like the sewage treatment plant. Bon Appetit!
3. Clatter Clatter. This pots 'n pans cupboard has almost singlehandedly ended my marriage. Several times. It's not an anomaly either. All of our cupboards look like variations of this. There used to be a center shelf but it broke. And I've tried to fix it but I can't. I've tried! I painted it white, but now it's all scuffed and horrible, and the inner wood doesn't match. But the real tragedy is how we have to lump all of our pots and crap in there and hope that they don't fall over and open the cupboard door. For real, you have to hurry and shut the door before all the pans roll back out. Lisa hates this cupboard. She hates me whenever she uses it, which is daily. It's been a thing.
So there you go, fat cats! We don't have those fancy RC Willey granite counter tops or IKEA kitchen cabinets, and we have death in our ceilings. So what? Our home is filled with love! And spiders.
