Normally, or at least normally for the last several years, I have gone around the house on New Year's Eve and done various home fix-its for the New Year. These fix-its include things like replacing light bulbs that have been burnt out for months, oiling the sliding glass door or hinges that squeak in the night. One year I painted the front door. I gather up old catalogs to recycle. Take back library books. Toss all old lists. New lists. Any lists.
Tossing all lists has gone so well over the last couple of years that this year when I looked around for lists to rip up I found none! My lists- of books to read, things to do, things to take care of, things to buy, places to go, groceries, even, have apparently dwindled over the years to the point where I don't have a lot of list-ing hanging over my head, which was exactly the point of the exercise in the first place. Don't get me wrong- I still make lists. The difference now is that I seem to actually take care of the lists or at least let them go when I am done with them whereas before I might have left them to linger around for months- either not getting to them or realizing I didn't want to get to them. Outdated lists can get in the way of moving onto something else entirely.
I didn't do as many home fix-its this year on New Years, though I did put in a few light bulbs because the front room had grown dark. I do, however, have some plans for more extensive fix-its that I am planning to spread out over the course of the next several weeks. All of them will no doubt increase the livability of our space. All of them I have been meaning to get to. Some are half done, some just a suggestion. Basically, I am going to make one big list and use the momentum of the New Year to fix a few things up around here, starting with the living room curtains.
We haven't had curtains for the window in the living room since we have lived here, mainly because we had so many plants- roses, a large laurel, a Japanese Maple- that blocked the view for the most part from the street. I also like how light and open it feels without the curtains. All of that changed, however, when our landlord had many of the plants in our yard dramatically cut back. Our front window is no longer partially obscured by the rose bushes and the laurel was cut way back as well. We are a little too light and open now for my taste.
I attempted to buy curtains a few months ago when this first happened but the curtains I bought ended up being too narrow for the window. I really dislike hanging curtains and left the project half finished so that right now most of the window is blocked by the curtains, but not all. I also chose the wrong color entirely- white- can you believe it? I won't go into too many details about what the bottom of the curtains look like now but suffice it to say I am going to go with a darker color next time. My foray into decorating with white has come to an end. My goal now is to get curtains that fit, hang them, and move on.
I know, I know. Why don't I just make curtains? There is a fabric store nearby. I have a sewing machine set up. I have made curtains before. Sort of. I am opting to buy the curtains because part of my mission for these home fix-it projects is to get the projects up and running with minimal hair pulling. My experience with making curtains last time was more about maximal hair pulling. So that's it. Inexpensive, easy, descent curtains with minimal hair pulling (because believe me- just hanging up the curtains will most likely involve at least some hair pulling already). No fuss. No muss.
No comments:
Post a Comment