Although this post was the third post I published, it was actually the first one I wrote.
When you start a blog, it’s sometimes a good idea to write a bunch of posts in advance. That way when your blog has it’s debut you have more than one sad little post for people to look at.
I had no idea how to write a post. I’ll be perfectly honest with you here … when I started a blog .. I wasn’t even entirely sure what one was. I just knew other people had them and they were basically websites that for some reason people had taken to calling Blogs.
I’ve since become very familiar with what a blog is. The good, the bad and the ugly. I also for the purpose of this post, just looked up the history of the word “Blog”.
The word is a shortened form of the term “Weblog”. A log that you keep on the web.
I’m still not entirely sure what the difference between a lot of them and a “website” is. Gimme a few more years … I’ll figure it out.
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Originally posted
March 4, 2010
could someone pass the Depends?
We can play in my room!
When I first moved into my house 12 years ago I didn’t own a thing. Aside from the contents of my hopeless chest, which contained a small juice glass with the Coke logo on it and a set of salt and pepper shakers (shaped like mason jars), I had nothin’.
“Rusty”… how you could have helped me
Which would be fine if there was a very dramatic, overcoming all the odds story to go with why I owned nothing. You know, if say, I had “lost it all” in a gambling binge at an old folks home only to have made it all back and learned my lesson after a series of afternoon chats with Rusty, the oldest resident of the home with a prosthetic eyeball.
However the decidedly less interesting reason I owned nothing is because until the age of 29 I lived with my mom … and my dad. Uh … with my parents I guess you could say. Are you judging?? I think I can hear you judging. It’s very hard to save up the money for a down payment!! In fact, it’s almost impossible if you’re renting an apartment. Besides, when’s the last time your apartment made you a nice piece of toast or tucked you into bed?? So I decided to stick around and listen to my parents bicker until I could afford a house of my own.
Going, going, … GONE.
That day came on October 18th, 1998. The only problem was I couldn’t afford any furniture. The house I bought was a 170 year old brick cottage. Which worked to my advantage because the only stuff I was going to be able to afford was old junk. When you put old junk in a new house it looks like old junk. When you put old junk in an old house, it just kindda blends. Besides, at the time I thought it made sense that the decorating be appropriate to the age of the house. If the house is old and dusty, so should be the furniture! That way it would be comfortable.
Over the years I slowly acquired a whole lot of old stuff.
I no longer own a single thing in this room.
I either bought it at an auction, at an antique store or when I was really lucky, found it at the side of the road. Not squirrels and sleeping raccoons or anything like that. I found things like perfectly good soiled chairs. I stripped, painted and disinfected for about a decade. The home I ended up with was very cozy and comfortable. Picture Granny’s house without Tweety Bird.
Red Velvet?? It must be great! They named a cupcake after it didn’t they?
Literally everything in it was old and every piece of furniture had a folded up piece of cardboard under at least 1 leg. Without the cardboard stuff had a tendency to tip over and hit you in the shin. I had red velvet curtains and a red velvet couch and my dining room was painted red. The living room and foyer were painted a butter yellow. At least it was supposed to be a butter yellow. As it turns out “yellow” can end up looking kind of green. The living room ended up making people look like they were perpetually queasy. The upstairs rooms were the same yellow and a historical green. I was not afraid of colour. The decorating wasn’t exactly spastic, but boy oh boy, wherever you looked there was some sort of antique assault followed by a one two punch of colour. But still … it was comfortable.
I never created proper storage, which was desperately needed. In the olden days people only owned one coat and a bar of lye soap so they didn’t need closets. Being that it was built in the olden days, my house didn’t have much in terms of closet space.
Because of this I never had anywhere to put anything. Things were shoved under the couch, books were scattered from one end of the house to the other and I could never find my stupid stapler!! But it was cozy and it was authentic so I sucked it up and just bought another stapler.
That isn’t what you’d call dealing with the problem head on. It probably wasn’t healthy. Because one day I took a look around at my very cozy, grandmotherly house and screamed. Oh my God, who lives here???!! I got itchy and claustrophobic and I’m pretty sure I even developed a twitch. You know when something isn’t right in a room and you keep moving things around to make it better? That wasn’t working anymore.
Somebody give this lady a valium. And some botox please.
I hated, hated, HATED every inch of my house. I hated it like it had wronged me. It was personal this rift between my house and I. I felt sweaty and disorganized and frankly a little bit curious about all those medications everyone on Intervention seemed to love. And then one day, on a warm spring morning I full on snapped. Within 2 weeks I sold everything I owned and painted my whole house white.
My living room today. Calm can also be cozy. Who knew!
It’s been a year since “the incident” (not to be confused with “the great centipede purge” of 2007). I have filled the house back up with things I love. Some of them old and some of them new. There’s even one thing that I found at the side of the road. I installed floor to ceiling book cases and found a place to store everything. And let me tell you … white is the botox of paint colours. We both look younger and fresher for it.
The life-sized antique oil painting is one of only a few things I kept.
My twitch is gone and I feel much calmer and much more comfortable. I was a bit worried that going so extreme with the white was going to make my house cold and sterile. That when guests walked in they’d break out into a sweat, worried they were in store for some unexpected surgical procedure. But it isn’t cold at all! As long as you add in a few fuzzy things (cats count), white can be very cozy. Think of our friend the polar bear. What’s cozier than one of those?
And you wouldn’t believe how much easier your life becomes when you just have somewhere specific to put the extra toilet paper. And the board games! Go ahead! Ask me to find my Scrabble board. I can do it in 30 seconds flat with time left over to grab the Boggle!
A place for everything and everything in it’s place.
Why yes, I am installing bookcases and smiling about it.
I’m savin’ time, I’m savin’ money’ (I’ve had the same stapler for the past year) and I’m not walking around with a bunch of cartoon squiggly swear words over my head all day. I figure I’ve gained at least an extra half an hour a day because I’m no longer wandering around trying to find stuff or trying to figure out where to put stuff. That totals an extra 3 1/2 hours a week, or 7 1/2 days in a year. An entire week’s worth of time was gained by clearing out the crap I didn’t need and finding a proper place for the stuff I did. Of course, I’m just estimating here, but it seems like a reasonable estimate to me. I worked it out on paper and it all seems right. Want me to staple it together and send it to you? ‘Cause I can in an instant.
An added bonus to this whole de-cluttering thing is the fact that I can now look at a decorating magazine. For the past decade I haven’t been able to look at a decorating magazine because they made me angry. Grrrrrr. Now I can not only look at decorating magazines, but I can look at them and think “Huh. I like my room a lot more than that one. Who in God’s name lives there? Whoever it is, I bet they can’t find their stapler.”
Hi Karen!
I have been loving your blog since I came across it in March when looking up how to pour self-leveling concrete! Your post was the most helpful how-to out there!! Your experiences and humor have helped keep me going during some of my crazy home renovation days!
I was wondering if you could please tell me where you found your living room sofa?
Thanks for everything!
Jamie
Karen: I love your dining room! Where did your buffet/credenza come from? Thanks in advance! Michelle
Hi Michelle – The buffet is from a store called Structube. They don’t make it anymore, but they have a similar (smaller) one called Moby I believe. ~ karen!
Karen,
I’d love to know more about your white dining chairs!
Thanks!
Whitney
Whitney – I got them in Canada for $100 each from HomeSense which is the Canadian equivalent to HomeGoods. They’re a copy of the iconic Panton S chair. If you google them there are tons of copies out there, all for around the same price. :) ~ karen!
Thank you for the response, Karen! Are they comfortable?
I love your blog! I just found it today, thanks to craftgawker, which is like my porn.
I have such a dream of doing what you did. Problem is:how to get it all out? I’ve been trying to declutter by selling things on EBay, which is great but extremely time consuming.
Any ideas? How did you sell all your things and make even close to enough money for all your gorgeous new things, if I may ask?
Thanks!!
HI Christine – Glad you found my site! I sold a lot of stuff to relatives believe it or not! I also sold a bunch of larger items at an antique booth I used to run. So that made things easy. However, many second hand stores take things on commission. My dining room suite I sold on Kijiji. It sold in 2 days! Kijiji and Craigslist are great tools for sellings locally and not having to worry about shipping. ~ karen!
OMG, I’m hearing you, nanna chick is OK if your 70+ and love cats but gee whiz, it’s soo nice when you can say ‘fair go’ (yep, the Aussie is back!) and just decide to be an adult about your house.
Yes my parents were sick of the sight of me too..;)
Purging is so good for the soul! I need to do this….I am SUCH a hoarder! I cannot even imagine getting rid of EVERYTHING in my house….some stuff I really like…..I wish I could do that though…I wish I could, I wish I could!
You just needed a nice cleansing fire! I just found a 8′ long, Chesterfild sofa from the 1860’s, for free, on Craiglist. Um, it weighs about 250 pounds and my husband hated it BEFORE he had to move it into the house. And then I cried and felt old bc he said it belonged in a ‘musty Astorian mansion’ and then I wanted the whole house white with new formalahyde-soaked furniture that has neither mammal hair OR down anywhere in it, that the maid can lift with one arm to vaccuum under it. Did I mention it was red? and that everything in my house is pretty much inherited, bought off CL or otherwise saved from the landfill? You know what that makes my house? the landfill. Ugh. Thanks for the inspiration, there may be another spate of free stuff on CL and this time it will be leaving the house.
This is such an epiphany! I have just been experiencing the same “hate of the house I once loved” and had no idea others had this same affliction. Our house is a 100 year old shotgun/camelback house…no closets, no storage, no money to buy new stuff. I found myself fantisizing the other day that it would just burn to the ground so I could start over. How did you get rid of all the stuff and still have money to get replacements? I am so, completely jealous!
LOVE the new house. LOVE. Looking at the pix of your “old” house gave me the heebie jeebies! (no offense) You’ve really given me the push to do something about my own place (I’ve mentioned my pack-rattiness before). Just looking around my computer room fills me with…well, definitely not calm. :( However as it’s still 103 degrees outside, it will have to wait. Guess I’ll be doing some “fall cleaning” soon.
Love the look that you have now!!! And it’s good to see that you’ve definitely grown as a blogger… Good post, but you’re better now.
And I’m glad!
Jodie – Hmm. Interesting. My mother actually just phoned to tell me that she preferred this post to my newer stuff. She thinks it’s funnier, LOL. I told her it was my first post so I probably spent 4 days writing it as opposed to the 15 minutes I give myself now. ~ karen!
I so enjoyed re-reading this blog entry. Love your sofa. Looks comfortable but stylish.
I love that tree stump side-table so much. I keep wanting to make one of own so that I don’t have to make bedroom eyes at yours. Unfortunately, I don’t actually have any stumps lying around and my husband frowns on me cutting down a tree for use of it’s stump. He’s such a party pooper!
Im 25 and live with my parents… In Canada… Difference is I’ve been collecting furniture since I was 14 so the worry there is lots of furniture (and dishes, and artwork, and accessories) with no home to put it in.
That image of your dining room with the full length portrait has been in my inspiration file for years! It’s perfect.
Thanks Ange. That’s Margaret, from Argyleshire, Scotland. :) – karen!
WOW! The result is so stylish and cool! Good job:):)
What a difference white paint can make..I found that out when I redid my bedroom..Now I want to do it to the whole house..
Wow, welcome to the 21st century! Your place now looks like a hip young woman lives there instead of granny (could almost smell the mothballs). I remember purging about 10 yrs. ago, my kids thought I had flipped my lid. Really who needs 4 sets of dishes, etc. and it was such a good feeling, like scrubbing yourself clean. My mantra?….”edit,edit,edit”.
I think if we all looked back at what we started with we would gag! I am amazed at what you have done to your space in only a month which is why your home has always been one of my favorites!
http://www.dawnajonesdesign.com/
I remember when I read this post the first time. I remember that I laughed and nodded all the way through it. And this morning I read it again, and laughed and nodded all the way through it.
I love this. I have fantasies about selling everything I own and starting over, but my housemate might object. Until he gets his own place, I’m stuck. :)
Too funny!
I love that you were once an old lady and the white paint was your fountain of youth. I did the same thing with white paint, and became a white paint lovin’ trollop. haha!
I wrote about it here (and you were in my blog post then too) : http://www.lynneknowlton.com/i-am-a-white-paint-lovin-trollop-just-sayin/
Have an AWESOME week off !
Lynne :)
I really need to purge my house especially my kitchen. I have a huge kitchen and it always seems to be a mess – stuff everywhere – and I am beginning to hate it. Hmmm long weekend ahead – maybe a good time to purge.
I love the redecorating Karen it really did make a difference in your home!
lol You had me chuckling while I drank my morning tea. Very cute story, love your writing style!
And I love how you redecorated! I does look lovely and cozy.
Debbie :)
Thanks Debbie! A few antiques are starting to sneak their way in gradually. :) ~ karen
I totally agree- white is like botox. I finally made the jump and painted my townhouse white. Saturday’s Paper to be exact. I love it!!!!!! it took me forever to pick a shade of white, but could not be happier. It makes the old stuff look great and the new stuff pretty. How could I have ever thought yucky soft browns would make me happy?
Wow! Super chic. Baby you got style! But we knew that. Love the choices of textures – sleek and nubby with old and new. Bravo! Mia
Hi Karen,
I know just what you mean! I am feeling the frustration you once experienced-I just moved into a rental home that I can’t alter.
I’m wondering about the bookshelves you installed. Can you share where you bought them? Seems like they’d solve my storage problem…
Love the blog. Very funny. ;-)
Hi Denice – The bookshelves are Ikea “Billy” bookcases. A whole bunch of them lined up in a row to look built in. (You have to attach them to the wall to make them stable) ~ karen
This is a great post. I really like starting over, even though it can be painful. I moved from Texas to Arizona with nothing but what fit into a VW Beetle last year, and that included three cats. It was traumatic, but losing the clutter was indeed a good thing.
There is something really great about it. ~ k!
The whole “living with your parents and saving a huge downpayment” thing seems to be a theme with you Canadians. I’m always shocked at how much of a down payment people have oh House Hunters and property virgins when they’re in Canada.
Nikki Kelly @ the ambitious procrastinator
it has to do with living within your means, not paying double for your house in interest relative to the purchase price thanks to making your mortgage company rich, and it’s a factor in why the Canadian housing market didn’t tank the way the US market did. Basically, the WHOLE economic mess the world is in is due to living on debt. Be part of the solution: live with your parents til you can afford a decent downpayment.