Now for the Hard Part

We own another house. Now what? Now we have to make all of the changes we want. This has been in the background from the minute we started seriously considering this house last year -- we knew we'd need to make changes to it to get it where we want it, and felt we could afford to make most of them based on getting it at a low price. Once we had a closing date we turned up the heat on sorting out some of these issues, but alas we never got to any decisions about anything. Access to the house was difficult and inconvenient, which slowed things down. Liane was, as is often the case, consumed by her work at the school, and I had some big distractions/projects going on as well. 

Well, that stuff doesn't matter anymore (as if it ever did). We simply have to make decisions about floor surfaces, wall colors, bathroom remodeling, screened porch, countertops, new door openings, lighting, bar in the basement, and other less major ones. Several of these, particularly the bathroom and porch each require many difficult decisions before they can get moving. It's daunting.

While most people complain about the hassles of dealing with contractors and workers many of them actually enjoy the decision making part. It's an opportunity to "play house" in a way. They like to go and look at materials and dream about what they can do.

I don't.

I have somewhat picky (and unusual) taste and I recognize the difficulty in picking out many disparate materials that are to come together to make something really nice looking -- elegant, but contemporary without being trendy. It's a lot of pressure to get it right. These changes we're making (most of them anyway) are for all practical purposes permanent, and they are EXPENSIVE.

I've already looked at so many pieces of wood and granite I'm about to lose my mind. And that's just for the kitchen. We've only just begun to get started on the bathroom. We're still trying to nail the layout. Haven't even gotten to materials yet. And the porch? We're miles from having all that nailed down. Other things mentioned above haven't even gotten off the ground yet.

We know a good interior designer that we trust, but she's preoccupied with something else right now and not really available. We're just slogging through on our own for the time being.