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| Our bedroom's wallpaper when we moved in |
I do not think I have ever shared with you the first night we stayed over in our cozy cottage.
At the time, we were both working full time, planning our wedding, I had my apartment, and Mr. VS had his own home. Talk about a handful... I am not even sure how we pulled that off for as long as we did! It was a juggling act that is for sure... oh to be young again.
We both decided it was a stellar idea to work an all nighter after work on one Friday evening in the summer of 2013. We thought oh we will be able to get so much accomplished, no worries, no interruptions over night. It will be grand, and we will spend our first official night in our new home together working on the ole' gal.
Mind you, there was no furniture here... we had brought over a card table that we set up in the dining room to have meals before or after we worked and that was about it. We would sit in those folding chairs and share our dreams of what we planned to do with this cottage. Let me tell you we had some lofty goals and short turn around times too.
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| Our little card table in our dining room |
I think back and laugh because we were pretty unrealistic when it comes to home rehabbing. We thought hey, there is nothing to it, we will have this place completely finished and in ship shape in no time. Is it funny we are still working on our cozy cottage?
You know, I do not mind that we are either. Our needs have changed since we purchased our home, and life just has a way of throwing curve balls at you. I can tell you it's ok to the home makers who think they absolutely must have it all perfect ASAP. Do not get down on your luck when it does not happen exactly when and as you think it should. Take your time... slow decorating is perfectly fine. You might as well get acquainted with your home. I know we sure have.
I started thinking back this week about when we first purchased our English lady, and I laughed when I thought about the first night that we stayed here when it came to mind. We brought dinner over and sat at our little card table, discussing and dreaming up projects.
Mr. VS was adamant the kitchen was top priority for him, and we went back and forth with ideas. After dinner was finished, we decided to get busy removing wallpaper. Oh the dreaded task of wallpaper removal!
My mom had let us borrow her steamer to remove the wallpaper. If she knew we were going to add fabric softener to her steamer, I doubt she would have let us borrow it. We read everything about wallpaper removal and tried many different ways.
I always went for the low parts of the room, and Mr. VS would always get the high. He could reach the ceilings in our home without standing on a ladder, and I would move all around the room from the baseboards up. We had an ebb and flow with the wallpaper removal, working together as a team.
I lost steam way before he did and fell asleep on the dining room floor with a pillow and a blanket. He was full speed ahead upstairs with a fan blowing to keep the room cooler, and the steamer removing all he could.
Of course sleeping on a hard floor is not as much fun as an adult as when you were a child so I woke with only about an hour of sleep under my belt. As you know, I do not sleep much anyway.
We have an older home, it creaks when you walk around... you can hear it. I did not think about the fact that he had a loud fan on and was preoccupied steaming away. I just drifted up the stairs and entered our now bedroom.
I walked into the room asking a question at the same time, and my goodness did he jump! He clutched his chest and asked what are you trying to do, kill me? We still laugh to this day and he says I purposely snuck up on him. Now do you really believe that?
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| The place where I scared Mr. VS! |
Older homes... yeah, they make noises. Sometimes we are not surprised by its noises and other times, well, let's just say you are totally unprepared. I chuckle when I think back to that evening spending our first night in our home together. The memories held within the walls of our homes... each one precious to us.
We left in the wee hours of the morning as the sun was coming up, feeling accomplished in all that we had achieved. We did not think about the fact we were not exactly spring chickens being in our mid to late thirties and we would need some time to recoup after pulling an all night steaming/wallpaper removal party. We just smiled at each other and said our first night in our new home... little did we know at that time, it would be 11 months later that we would finally move in.
I have so many fond memories of our wallpaper removing days... on occasion I bring them up to my husband and he says good thing there will never be wallpaper in this home again. Too bad that is not exactly the truth.
I have found I actually enjoy it in small doses, you know closets... or niches... and even on books. I am actually looking forward to getting back to projects soon. Sometimes it is just nice to share a story here and there with y'all. I am not the great storyteller my grandfather was, but it does not stop me from sharing with you the adventures this cottages holds.
It was a glorious night of wallpaper removing and frights and scares with little sleep and no sleep for each of us. When you are making a home, these are the memories you remember, not the flooded ceilings from the toilet upstairs, or when the air conditioner breaks down, or the brand new carpet soaked from a leak that should have been repaired... you think back on the memories you have created within the walls of your home. Homemaking can be a wonderful, fun, enjoyable experience, along with the storms that pass through every now and then. It makes me happy when I think about our projects here, and the many more we have to look forward to creating and making a home together.
