Two years since we began

Somehow, I let the day pass without noting its significance, on Monday. November 5th, 2010: we closed. We drove here from Unadilla, with Patrick's dad, who probably thought we'd gone completely batty, swooning as we did over a dirty, bug-filled technicolor-painted shell of a neglected old house. We walked into that room you can see on the right, which is now the guest room, and I think I jumped up onto Patrick's back and he threw me off and wrestled me on the floor. We were so happy. We ARE so happy. I think maybe a few kisses were involved. The next day, we spackled holes and sanded, and I insisted he grab the camera to document the first application of roller to wall. I can't get over my face! So happy!

This is where we started. With an upstairs kitchen, yellow/orange/green, with painted tile and dead bugs inside every light fixture.

With more yellow and more green, and a bamboo chair-rail Patrick had just wrested from the walls. This is our bedroom. Unrecognizable.

This was Veterans Day. Patrick had a day off from work, and we couldn't bear to not spend it on the house. It was so much fun.

Then it got a little less fun, and a lot more cold. But progress was being made. Oh, sweet progress. This is Patrick's music room.

It started to snow.

It snowed quite a bit more. Patrick and his dad wrestled three 12 x12' carpets out the front door and into the garage. Our neighbor Jody shoveled our driveway while we were away, without us asking, every time it snowed, all winter.

We uncovered the stairwell. Oh my GOD, I can't help but think, looking at this. And considering this:

File that one under Things I'm Glad I Won't Have to Do Again.

Installing the chandelier was a big day. It all started to seem possible, the other side. The prettifying side.

A boost in morale was needed, in the face of sanding.

Then, it became spring. That helped.

We planted asparagus.

We waited for the floors to dry, so we could live on them.

Then, slowly, things began taking shape.

I am so grateful. We are lucky, and this house is lucky, and so we are lucky together. Isn't that the sign of a good relationship, when both parties feel like the lucky one? It holds true for houses, too, I think. 

I can't wait for another year to go by. I'm already thinking about springtime-- near-impatiently, at times, though it is the very beginning of November-- and everything we're going to do next year. 

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