Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Obsessed with Home Goods


I watch movies, yes even movies I like, and notice the doors, the tile back splash, the floors, the wall color, furniture and general set decor. I salivate over good bathroom and kitchen hardware I saw in The Upside of Anger. I daydream about American bungalow style, paneled doors I saw in You, Me & Dupree. I pine for crazy, multi-colored, patchwork-style kitchen floors I saw in The Princess Diaries.

I did not love living through the mess, dust and fumes of our home projects for six months with only one weekend's escape at a nice hotel. Lots of cursing, crying and eating fast food plagued me during those six months. Shudder... I did love picking out the paint colors, the hardware, the bathroom tiles & fixtures, the furniture, rugs, ceiling tiles, etc... I enjoyed talking to the nice man from Austin Deck Specialists about different options for our deck. I reveled discussing the possibilities for our new driveway with interlocking paver stone guy, especially when I saw the amazing curb-appeal enhancing results that this one project yielded. I absolutely love our house and the results of all of our hard work and thoughtful decisions.

The only big project left on this house is to replace the sad, sagging fence. I talked to those guys today. Oooooooh, I'm liking this new composite wood material. The saddle color will weather to perfectly match our house.



So why do I still peruse the real estate listings?

Maybe I should study to be an interior decorator, but I fear that I'd get stuck with clients who have forty different names for beige, and I'm violently opposed to beige, Mommie Dearest violently opposed. No wall-to-wall beige ever!

I have enough sense to know that I don't want to get my realtor's license or become a house-flipper in this market.

How do I sublimate this compulsion to redecorate and renovate without driving my sweet husband batty and without sending us into debtor's prison?

Oh, look at the wood paneling in that commercial...