just a little outdoor baby yoga (:

I’ve always had romantic notions about old houses.  It must come from old Missisippi roots, and growing up totally in awe of the houses in my mothers hometown.  Now that we are going on two years of living in one, I can be less romantic and  more realistic.  Don’t get me wrong – we love our house and I wouldn’t change our decision!!  I honestly can see us here for a very long time, even forever.  That being said, I don’t think I was aware of all the sweat equity, time, and money we would have to put into it when we bought it.  Sure we figured there would be quite a bit, but I don’t think we recognized all that would come up.  In less than two years we’ve had to do little stuff like -paint every room, trim huge trees — to bigger stuff like — re-sod the yard, new washer and dryer, get two new AC’s, clear and get new ducts, put in more AC vents, get a new hot water heater, sand and repair the wood flooring, re do the fire place, re do the sleeping porch flooring, and replace lots of light fixtures.  annnnnd I’m sure I’m missing some other projects.  Thankfully JB and my dad are both very handy, so they do a lot to improve this home.

So! what do you need to know if you have these romantic notions about old homes like I do/did?  Here’s what I’ve learned so far…

First, figure out if you really truly love it.  I love love love our house otherwise it would be hard to put in all the time, sweat and money into it.  It needs near constant attention and there is a list a mile long of what we are continually working on.  BUT it’s satisfying work.  It’s improving something and restoring it, and we both love that.  There is charm about our home that I don’t see too often in our area – big baseboards, the beautiful door knobs, heart of pine flooring, the original siding, and tons of old foliage.  I love the creaks and a lot of the imperfections I find.

Get the best inspection you can.  Find the inspector with the best reputation!  It’s easy to get clouded when you fall in love with a house.  I was definitely holding my breath, expecting the inspector to say we had some majjjjor issues, but so thankful when it was a good report.  Had it not have been, I think it would have been very hard to give up on this house.  But I would have if the report noted major structural or foundation issues.  Paint and new appliances, we were expecting but foundation issues would have been too much for us.

You are going to need a savings account just for things that come up with an old house.  As much as I hated putting away big chunks of money to a savings account for what if’s totally devoted to home stuff, JB was 100% right to have one. Be sure to have the right tax calculators and other tools though, as savings accounts have certain tax implications that go along with them. This has made it so it’s not a big shock to our everyday life when things like AC or washing machines have to be replaced.

Realize that if you don’t want to go into debt, or if you don’t have an endless bank account, you are going to have to do it slowly.  Sometimes this totally drives me crazy and other times I’m actually grateful. I definitely think of this quote from Stephanie Risenmay A LOT when we are making slow progress on decorating due to other priorities.

“If you wait until you have enough money to decorate and make your home your own, it will never happen. If you wait until you can afford to buy everything new, you are missing the point. It is the old, the new, the hand-me-down, the collected, the worn but loved things in your home that make it your own.”

I thought I’d also share a few of the things we still have yet to do, and update y’all when they get checked off:

paint all of the trim
paint the outside of the house, door, and shutters (think this may happen over the summer when we are gone for a week)
plant new bushes and put mulch out surrounding the backyard.
new fans in all of the bedrooms
buy a bar cabinet
upgrade our guest rooms bed (we have a full and would love to give them a queen size bed to sleep on – many of our male house guests are current or former baseball players, so they’re a bit bigger than the average)
buy a hutch or buffet
a (good looking) lazyboy or a comfy chair for the living room
work on my flow blue collection and do a wall of it in the dining room
more indoor plants
clean tile/grout in bathrooms
new lighting in kitchen
porch swing bed on sleeping porch

Five- ten year goals:
re-do the play room (it was the addition made in the seventies and it’s special (; looking)
kitchen re-do (it’s not bad by any means, but the arrangement is funny)
get pavers for the walkway up to our house
re-do the barn/garage.  it has exposed wooden beams and would make an amazing guest cottage / man cave, etc.

Any fellow old house lovers, like myself?  And any other tips or things to look for if you’ve bought an old house??