Updating Our House

 Over the past few months, we have been updating our home, things like flooring, paint, etc. It started with wood floors to replace carpeting that was 20+ years old and really hard to keep clean any longer. That led to decluttering (loved that!), a tile backsplash in the kitchen and now some painting. The wood floors were an instant success and worth every ounce of my husband’s diligence and sweat putting them in. It is so easy to clean the floors, helped us declutter, and overall improved the look of the house. In other words, they made our lives more simple.

We should have stopped there. The kitchen backsplash was added to “modernize” our kitchen. The new paint colors are being chosen for the same reason. Neither simplified our lives, in fact they created an inordinate amount of stress. Stress from choosing the “right” colors to installing the tilework (which ended up costing us money to hire someone.)

Why do we feel we have to change something that is really OK in the first place? Our reasoning is to update things in order to sell the house. Well guess what, we aren't selling our house. And really, would it not sell because there wasn't a backsplash in the kitchen? Our paint colors were all neutral, what is wrong with that?

I sit here and struggle with those questions as my husband and I are texting back and forth about the color he is painting the family room. It tends to change shades with the light and what it is near.  Why couldn't I just leave it alone?

Sometimes I feel that when we finish one project, we should start on the next. I am not sure why I feel that way. Maybe because that is what I do for a job, as does my husband. We continually move from one project to the next. I often have multiple work projects going on at one time.

Do we keep changing things to fill our time? My husband seems to have been making home projects a hobby lately, but I think we need to relook at this. We have the time to do the projects , but is this how we want to be spending it?

I know we don’t feel we have to keep up with the Jones's. Our house is in an older neighborhood and with the neutral colors was perfectly fine. I only have one friend who has a gorgeously decorated house, and I know I would never be able to achieve that so I don’t try.

Do we think the finished projects will add pleasure to our lives at home? The wood floors do, but if we didn't have the backsplash, I could still clean the walls and have a kitchen that looked very acceptable. Our neutral paint colors were fine; I think I just focused too much on them.

Many of us have a sense of needing to improve things in our lives. I really think this is the bottom line. I look for things to improve, and it is easy to improve the physical things – just go out and buy them. It is very hard to improve the intangibles – time spent together, relationships, a feeling of security, financial stability etc.

Hopefully the paint colors will work themselves out, and I am going to think more about improving the intangibles in my life.