Wearing Red Lipstick
A new entryway is like wearing red [tag]lipstick[/tag]. I say this because your entryway is the first thing people see when they come into your house, much like your lips are the first thing people see when they look at your face. If they don’t have red lipstick, people often won’t notice, no matter how fabulous they are. If you do have red lips, they absolutely notice and usually say wow. Well, now our entry way is like our house is wearing red lipstick. It was this ugly pinkish taupe painted [tag]foyer[/tag] with strange rose [tag]wallpaper[/tag] trimming the crown molding and the trim going up the stairwell. There were cracks in the [tag]plaster[/tag] the horrible cheap white painted crown molding, which doesn’t even deserve the title [tag]crown molding[/tag].
So for a while I had been waiting and waiting and waiting to do some work on the house. It is, or can be, a stress relief for me. Plus I get to feel like we are making progress on all our projects and the dream of living in a house not under construction comes a little closer. But the main projects, like the bathroom, are not ready for me to work on. I have found this to be enormously frustrating. Sitting around waiting for other people to get motivated to do work so you can do work. It just drives me nuts! So in my irritation, I realized that the entry way needed to be redone. We have always spoken of it, but it has been one of those projects that just fall to the wayside. The only time we ever thought about it was when we were giving someone the “grand” tour and we would mention, “oh, someday we are going to redo the entry.” Well someday finally came. As I was stewing in irritation and feeling entirely impotent in house remodeling, I remembered the hallway and I tore into it like a dervish.
So roughly a weekend worth or work, and details spreading over the next week, which was mainly waiting for stain to set, I redid the entry and it looks beautiful! It makes such a difference. Now if we can just get some natural light so people can see what I have done, we will be all set….but that is another project.
But much like any project working on an old house, nothing is as simple as it looks. All the wallpaper had to be taken off with a razor blade. We had to shave plaster away from the wall to mount the trim, so what Dave thought would take 15 minutes took over an hour. But overall, it was a pretty simple job…and highly satisfying.
Working on your house gives you a bigger sense of accomplishment than just completion. There is a part of yourself that goes into everything you do. You get to see this beautiful old house turn into a truly beautiful old house. The house has good cheek bones, as my mom would say, and now you are starting to be able to see what we saw when we closed our eyes. The beauty is hiding underneath dull wood, bad paint, and a hundred years of wallpaper, but it is there. Not only do I love this house, I am proud of it. I am proud because I know that what I have done may help this house live for another hundred years.
5 Responses to “Wearing Red Lipstick”
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You SHOULD be proud!
I tagged you for the next 100 word challenge topic. Go over to my blog to see. Kiss and hugs!
You gave us a ‘before’ showing the doorway - where is the after?? BTW, your house, as seen in these pics, ‘feels’ good. I like what I’ve seen.
Lookin’ good! I want to come over again for margaritas and enjoy the new view!
Lou,
That is a great question, and I actually have an answer beyond forgetting to take the after pic. But it is not a simple answer, because, as I am sure you know, nothing is simple about working on an old house. So you will have to check out my Remodeling Yoga blog for the reason!