No matter how hard I try, no amount of painting, furniture rearranging, yard work, de-cluttering or organizing will ever be enough. And I feel guilty about that. There are plenty of people with much less in this world, this country, even this town than us. Yet, I want more. Is this a conditioning by inundation of advertising? Conditioning of the American dream we grew up with with? Or just the innate greed humans possess?
Europeans live in small houses and accomodate for those conditions and live happily. Why can’t I?
Currently, I’m watching Under the Tuscan Sun while files are downloading for work. And I can’t help think, how could she afford to just outright buy that villa? Of course, it’s a movie. But I yearn for another project. Another house to decorate, to paint, to make my own and fantasize about restoration even (although, DH will NEVER buy a house in such condition because he has less faith than I do in renewal). Am I nuts? Why add to the workload I already have? Plus, will I be “done” when the next house is painted and decorated? Will it be enough?
This is why http://www.historicproperties.com/ is like porn for me.
And it’s just a sign I’m insane becuase I’ve already done a restoration. I KNOW how awful it is to pull back a layer to find out it’s much, much worse than you thought. Wept real tears because I felt we were in over our heads.
But part of me wants to do it all over again…and our current one isn’t even done yet!
It’s mental illness, I tell ya. You start restoring and you can’t stop.
It was just a movie (I believe we watched it together at the beach a few years ago, didn’t we?), but it was based on a book which was non-fiction. She is a college professor, as is her husband, and they saved up enough to buy the place and restore it. So it is possible. Of course, they have the summers off to go there and restore, but they certainly had to save a lot to afford it.
In cleaning out the room that was supposed to be my office/craft room, I started to become overwhelmed with how much stuff we have. We painted the room and moved the Pumpkin’s things in, and now it’s her new room. And because of doing that, I’m also becoming overwhelmed with how much stuff she has. I’m reaching this new place for me of wanting to get rid of a lot of things, or at least pack them and stick them in our storage room. We don’t need all this stuff! Why do I keep it? Why do we buy more? Why don’t we get rid of a ton of it so we can keep our house nice instead of cluttered?