The New Homeowner's Lament

Does anyone else have this problem? 

Your new home is complete.  You move in, settle in, enjoying every second of your new, blessed space.  To you, your home is perfect, peaceful, enchanted.  All you can see are the lovely little details you obsessed over during construction - the perfect shade of yellow in the kitchen, the wonderful marbled effect of the concrete stain on the floor, the delightful wall sconces in the soon-to-be baby's room.

And then one day, months later, you find that instead of enjoying the blessed perfection of your new home, all you can see are the huge, glaring, unfinished projects that surround you.

This is my problem.  It seems this is all I can think about when it comes to my home.

The mantels still need to be attached to the rock walls
All of the rustic wood needs oiled
The back patio is ... well, dirt ...

The kitchen cabinets need hardware

The kitchen cabinets need undercabinet lighting

The baby's room still needs a door

Emily's room and the guest room still need closet doors

The entire loft needs barnwood trim next to the ceiling

The porch ceiling needs covered in barnwood*

*note to self, locate more barnwood

And on, and on, and on ...  Did your blood pressure go up while reading my list?  'Cause mine sure did while writing it.  I can probably blame it on the start of my third trimester and that danged "nesting" instinct, but whatever the cause this past weekend I became positively overwhelmed by the "to do" we still have left "to do".

Now, on the other hand Gage and I have spent the past six months enjoying life more than we have in years.  We've wasted away Saturday's doing next to nothing, Gage has experimented with his homebrewing, I've enjoyed canning fresh veggies from the garden, and we have both read (a LOT).  It has been nice.  No, wonderful, to have this time together.  But that list ...

So, this past weekend when my list started to overwhelm, I realized I needed to begin a NEW list.  Hence the new picture column on the righthand side of this blog.  I decided to make a list of my favorite features of our home, and to put them front and center where I will see them frequently.  I hope to add and change these pictures often. 

I realize that owning a home is a never-ending project, especially when you are your own contractor and can decide when to say "DONE!"  (P.S. No self-respecting contractor would leave a house as unfinished as ours is.  Such is the blessing and the curse of calling your own shots.)  One thing I am desperately trying to keep in mind in regards to our home is that good things take time.  In a society of instant gratification, this isn't easy.  However, when we began building with reclaimed materials, we knew there would be delays while we hunted up what we needed.  We knew that in the end, finding the right barnwood to match, or locating the matching crystal antique door knobs would be so much more gratifying than rushing through the process just to say we are "done".  And we knew that doing the work ourselves would take more time, but that nothing compares to the pride we take in a house we helped build (and doing so on a budget we can afford!) 

So, we will keep plugging away at our projects one by one.  We will try desperatly to keep in mind the big picture.  We will work to find gratification in the process, as well as in the result.  And we will daily enjoy the wonders of our home ...

Geraniums on the front porch ...

Plenty of kitchen space to make homegrown, homemade salsa ...

Some new furniture.  :)