Carpet & Paint

In typical Meg-and-John fashion, we are trying to finish a major home project by the time I host a shower on Saturday.  The project was suppose to be wrapped up a while ago, but we drug it out until now.  Enough of the room will be done by the shower, but we have a few little things to finish after that.  

For now, the closet is built.  The room is painted.  The carpet is down.  Both from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot.  (Shout out to Home Depot...by far the best customer service that I've ever encountered.) We paid the $37 installation fee and someone laid the carpet for us...the second time we've ever hired out for a job....Here's a tip: if you pay Home Depot to do certain services (lay carpet/install doors or windows) then the entire transaction becomes a service, thus tax free.  

I've never had a white room.  As much as I love white, a white room makes me nervous.  It's almost too much freedom to decorate.  However, I'm excited about the possibilities.  Like my sister-in-law said when I told her we went with white, "Ooooo, thank of all that you can do!  And Christmas decorations will be so fun!"

There are a few things that I've thought about while working in this room: First, how much money it cost.  This was probably our most expensive makeover yet.  Second, I wondered why we waited so long to do it.  It was on the top of our "get done NOW" list when we bought the house 5 years ago!  Third, I've imagined what we did before kids?  No baby gates to block drying paint?  No snack time while sitting and watching the men lay the carpet?  No including Burl in something that has to do with construction?

I also think about home improvement projects in general.  Our biggest hindrances on getting more things done are time and money.  I'm not sure how to fix the time thing.  However, the money thing is big.  So far, we've been able to pay cash for everything that we've done to our home.  We plan to keep it that way.  I remember two people who do the same.  

First, my friend Deb.  She's got an Ektorp fund going.  That's what she calls her extra cash that she's saving to buy some Ektorp sofas from Ikea.  She's saving the extra, and she's planning a yard sale.  She's doing it right.  Second, I think about my dad's neighbors.  He told me that they did all the work to their house themselves.  Even when they were dirt poor.  He said that they would save a couple bucks at a time, then go buy ONE piece of sheetrock until they had enough to do a whole room.  That's persistence.   

As much as I want everything done right now, I have to remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day.  It took time, patience, money, and persistence.  Give me several years and I'll show you my Rome.  Scratch that....I like my house now, Colosseum or no Colosseum.