When Jon and I got together, over ten years ago, I gave up doing any kind of house repairs. Before that, I spent a good chunk of my life fixing up old houses and didn’t want to do it anymore.
But over the years, I’ve gradually gotten back into doing certain things. And once we moved into the farmhouse we live in now, I really started enjoying painting the rooms bright colors.
Sometimes I fantasize about painting the outside of the house two shades of dusty pink. But that’s a
much bigger job than I want to do. All I have to do is think about the reality of the prep work of scraping and priming (and getting any repairs fixed which there always are on old houses) and how many weekends it would take and I’m suddenly very happy with our white house.
But there are certain small jobs, that are about keeping the house in good condition that I don’t mind doing.
We bought the paint for the front porch over the summer. I would forget about it then when I went to feed Flo, or read on the wicker bench, I’d look at the peeling porch floor and remember.
So the summer went by and soon it’s going to be too cold to paint outside. I knew if I didn’t paint the porch soon it would have to wait till next year.
It’s a small porch and without much prep work, so it didn’t take me long to do. My biggest problem was keeping Flo off of it till the paint dried. It’s supposed to be in the fifties again tomorrow, so I’ll give it a second coat, then Flo can have her porch back.
I’ve come to enjoy taking care of our home in this way.
I do know a lot about maintaining old houses and I like being able to use that knowledge and my skills.
And it doesn’t feel like a burden anymore. It’s more like mending a rip in a favorite piece of clothing. The house gives me a safe and comfortable place to live and I take care of it the best I can.
