OK, I completely stopped blogging here sometime during Leigh's third trimester. Things got busy, like really busy. I think the last time I posted something here I was unemployed, interviewing for jobs, waiting for my baby to be born (which happened, by the way, read all about her here), and generally living my life.
My life is about 60% different today than it was a mere 6 months ago. I'm someone's mom now, Leigh and I have a family that consists of more than our pets, my house is kind of a big mess, we are about to start traveling regularly with our infant child (yes, we are insane), oh and I have the job I've wanted for a very, very long time.
In general, things are great and I'm reminded every day how very lucky I am. And I don't just mean lucky to have been born in a western country, have a better than decent education and job and my health. I mean truly blessed to have my family, good friends, and spend my days doing work I enjoy.
The topic I was blogging about most before my recent absence was fixing up my house. Well, I got about halfway through a few projects before creating more projects and then starting a very demanding job. So, in short, our kitchen still needs to be replaced and our floor still has a big hole in it. Oh, and we've realized how very small our house really is and that we need to buy a new one sometime in the next few years.
First, I think we've decided to NOT replace the kitchen. Our plan is to keep our house as a rental when we buy a new one and our kitchen is perfectly functional. Instead we are going to look into refacing our kitchen cabinets to give it a less expensive facelift. I don't know much about this so we are thinking of taking a field trip to ask questions soon.
But the project we MUST complete this summer is replacing our laminate flooring in the downstairs and staircase. This is going to cost a pretty penny that we hadn't planned to spend at all, but it must be done. We can't live comfortably with a hole in our flooring and we certainly can't rent out our house as it is.
When I think about home improvements I like to look on websites like Apartment Therapy and Young House Love for inspiration. It's a fun form of escapism and, most of the time, I can imagine taking on a lot of the projects in my own home because they fall within reasonable price ranges and serve practical purposes. The only real down side to this is getting overwhelmed by the sheer consumerism and materialism that accompanies these blogs. I'm the first to admit that I enjoy shopping and having nice things, but I also take a great deal of joy out of making the most of what I have and not buying unnecessary things. In contrast, I feel a lot of shame when I realize I've indulged in things I don't need or can't justify or when I realize that my closet is more than full and almost half of it is stuff I don't even wear anymore.
Maybe it's living in Alaska or having a long history of thrifted clothes and Craigslist furnishings, but being constantly encouraged to buy new things, finance major purchases, and further complicate my life can get completely overwhelming and leave me feeling a little bit empty. It makes me stop and think "do I really want to finance my new flooring" but that thought is instantly drowned out by "do I really want my next dinner guests to notice the not-so-cleverly-covered-up hole in my flooring?"
In the end I will replace the floor because it adds value and increases my daily enjoyment of my home. But at the end of the day I really just want to simplify my life: a comfortable house, enough of the things we need to be comfortable and none of the things we don't that add clutter, less debt, more family time, more travel. Obviously these things don't always go hand in hand, at least not in the beginning, but hopefully with the right focus we can look forward to this kind of existence.
Or I could stop tearing down walls that leave holes in my floor.
My life is about 60% different today than it was a mere 6 months ago. I'm someone's mom now, Leigh and I have a family that consists of more than our pets, my house is kind of a big mess, we are about to start traveling regularly with our infant child (yes, we are insane), oh and I have the job I've wanted for a very, very long time.
In general, things are great and I'm reminded every day how very lucky I am. And I don't just mean lucky to have been born in a western country, have a better than decent education and job and my health. I mean truly blessed to have my family, good friends, and spend my days doing work I enjoy.
The topic I was blogging about most before my recent absence was fixing up my house. Well, I got about halfway through a few projects before creating more projects and then starting a very demanding job. So, in short, our kitchen still needs to be replaced and our floor still has a big hole in it. Oh, and we've realized how very small our house really is and that we need to buy a new one sometime in the next few years.
First, I think we've decided to NOT replace the kitchen. Our plan is to keep our house as a rental when we buy a new one and our kitchen is perfectly functional. Instead we are going to look into refacing our kitchen cabinets to give it a less expensive facelift. I don't know much about this so we are thinking of taking a field trip to ask questions soon.
But the project we MUST complete this summer is replacing our laminate flooring in the downstairs and staircase. This is going to cost a pretty penny that we hadn't planned to spend at all, but it must be done. We can't live comfortably with a hole in our flooring and we certainly can't rent out our house as it is.
When I think about home improvements I like to look on websites like Apartment Therapy and Young House Love for inspiration. It's a fun form of escapism and, most of the time, I can imagine taking on a lot of the projects in my own home because they fall within reasonable price ranges and serve practical purposes. The only real down side to this is getting overwhelmed by the sheer consumerism and materialism that accompanies these blogs. I'm the first to admit that I enjoy shopping and having nice things, but I also take a great deal of joy out of making the most of what I have and not buying unnecessary things. In contrast, I feel a lot of shame when I realize I've indulged in things I don't need or can't justify or when I realize that my closet is more than full and almost half of it is stuff I don't even wear anymore.
Maybe it's living in Alaska or having a long history of thrifted clothes and Craigslist furnishings, but being constantly encouraged to buy new things, finance major purchases, and further complicate my life can get completely overwhelming and leave me feeling a little bit empty. It makes me stop and think "do I really want to finance my new flooring" but that thought is instantly drowned out by "do I really want my next dinner guests to notice the not-so-cleverly-covered-up hole in my flooring?"
In the end I will replace the floor because it adds value and increases my daily enjoyment of my home. But at the end of the day I really just want to simplify my life: a comfortable house, enough of the things we need to be comfortable and none of the things we don't that add clutter, less debt, more family time, more travel. Obviously these things don't always go hand in hand, at least not in the beginning, but hopefully with the right focus we can look forward to this kind of existence.
Or I could stop tearing down walls that leave holes in my floor.
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