Over at the A Dress A Day blog, a clever and quite witty blog host, Erin, posted a list called, "Five Things I Will Never Buy Again", in which she dilineated those things she has bought too much of, bought and never used, or bought and wished she hadn't. So I thought we could try something like that in terms of the home.
Five Things I Will Never Do Again In My Home
1) buy cream-colored carpet. I thought it would look lovely. And it did, until the pink primer paint was tracked across the living room floor by my crawling son (that would be my first, circa 7 months old) and until it rained and left watermarks in the front corner of our dining room, and until the shoe marks started to pile up at the front entrance. Then it just looked awful. Simply awful.
2) make shrimp bisque soup. It tastes good in restaurants, but in my home, it was a disaster. That dad-blasted soup took hours to prepare, then hours to simmer, and by the time I tasted it, it was a nightmarish drippy watery mess, and I had followed the recipe to a T. That, and it was expensive. So forget it. I'll just get a cup next time I'm at Razzoo's or Pappadeaux. (Which for me, being in Central Asia for the next few years, will be a long time-- but you? You can go grab a cup anytime ya like! So do it for me and enjoy the luxury and ease of having a great tasting cup of bisque soup.)
3) choose bright mustardy-yellow as a paint color. Oh, yes I did. I thought it would be really great and different. And OH BOY was it different! I did a color wash with a dark mustard color (you could call it burnt maize, if ya like), and then did a color wash over it with a light sunshiney-mustard yellow (you might call it "French's"). It definitely raised some eyebrows. I will say that it did look rather nice with my dark mahogany-colored wood dining table set and dark brown metal mirror and metal wall decor, but nevertheless... never again! Once I painted the room a nice light taupe color, it was actually enjoyable to spend time there. And enjoyment of a room is a good thing. :)
4) wait to spruce up certain parts of the house until we're about to sell it. We lived with those old, peeling bathroom cabinet doors and changed them out 2 weeks before the house sold. What a bad choice! We could've lived for 3 years with beautiful "harvest oak" cabinet doors in our home but didn't see the need to spend the money. We ended up spending the money anyway. What a lost enjoyment.
5) use the A/C when leaving the windows open would do the trick. Back in Texas, I used to switch immediately from heating to air-conditioning, never taking so much as a slight break to open the windows and enjoy the nice weather. Sometimes it was necessary but often it was just my preference for being able to custom-control the exact temperature. Now, in Central Asia, I'm finding myself really enjoying being able to leave open the windows on days with a nice breeze. It freshens up the air, and makes me smile. I hope I never forget to open up the windows and have the enjoyment of a nice breeze flowing through the house.
Do you have any "Nevers" you'd like to add to the list?
3 comments:
I am with you on #4. I lived with my late 80s (UGLY) kitchen for 7 years. We finally stripped the wallpaper and painted it a fabulous color (cafe au lait) one week before we put it up on the market. Ugghh!
Those "nevers" really do make you stop and think. I looked at each number and "re-lived" each thing with you. On #3 - I applaud you for stepping out and "trying" something new and different. I thought it was really neat. Love you, Mom
I'm with you on number 5. Unfortunately, the temperature is almost too variable here in KY to do that anytime other than during the day. We regularly have 30 degree temperature swings DAILY this time of year. Fun.
I'm going to say that I will never again buy a live Christmas tree for a tiny apartment with a cat. :) My cat kept drinking the water, so the tree died, and when we finally got around to taking it out, we had to do it in a sheet (down a narrow flight of stairs) because there were needles falling off left and right. Fun times, lemme tell ya.
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