Home Renovation: An Overwhelming yet Exhilarating Creative Project

Renovating a home is, perhaps, one of the most all-consuming, ginormous artistic projects a person can tackle. My husband and I have trekked through seven months of Mount Everest-like obstacles and are still looking for the summit of finishing these home-improvements.

As if the grueling six months of short-sale-stretched-long didn’t churn up enough anxiety and stress. We got the keys to a home that was filthy and full of other people’s abandoned stuff. Five trips to the dump later, and an entire family helping to gut and clean, we entered phase two of our new artistic adventure…

SELECTION!

That’s right, home renovation requires more choices than Carter has pills. (I’m aging myself with that idiom, so if you’re young, just ignore it.) In fact, I’ve never made so many creative decisions in such a short span of time.

From floor to ceiling, a home renovation project requires selection. Here’s just a few of the questions you must ask yourself, and then squabble over with your spouse:

• What kind, color, and quality of flooring do you want?
• What color of paint for the walls, baseboards, and ceiling? Do you want any rooms or walls different colors?

• How do you want your closets arranged? Wire shelving, wood shelving, ready-made units, or particle board shelving? Do you want one row of hanging clothes or a section for two so you can hang blouses above and pants below? How about a cubby for shoes? A section with a shelf unit? Open shelves or with drawers? How much do you want to spend?
• How will you arrange a three-car garage instead of a two when you’ve lost the storage of two sheds and a gargantuan rafter area?
• How much of the garage can you claim for your messy crafts? (Will you arm-wrestle your husband for a floral design area in the garage?)

Now let’s talk yard:

• Trim back the trees?
• Tear out the bushes?
• How many pots do you want to haul over from the other house?
• When can you afford to build a quaint garden shed that will double as storage and more creative space? What design do you envision? One all trimmed in white with flower boxes full of blooms? Perhaps a stone path winding its way to one of doors? Should it have two doors—one for storage and one that enters your inside potter’s area with a reading nook on the opposite wall that your daughter dreamed up?
• Will you choose solar or electric garden lighting?
• How will you position your patio furniture? When can you afford to buy more?

I could go on and on, but then I would incite stress in you.

So I’ve saved the best comments for last. This home will bring me closer to family. In fact, I can look out my art studio window and see my sister’s art studio window.

So, I envision future creative collaborations:

“Hey sis, can you pop over and check out my new painting? Tell me what colors I should add?”

“The grandbabies are here for a visit. Would you bring your camera over and take some photos for me?”

I also savor the long-awaited gift of a separate art studio from a guest room that doubled as both. On those future lazy Saturdays I can only dream about now, I will sneak into my studio and create when our adult children home for a visit are sleeping in. This will be my quiet place filled with inspiration and arts and crafts supplies. I can create to my heart’s content, undisturbed or joined by one of the many artists in my family.

Yes, home renovation is an over-welling, but glorious, creative project.

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