Fall Perspective

It was a beautiful weekend here in Rhode Island. Temperatures in the low 70s and crisp blue skies.  I set my standards high for a weekend of fall festivities only to be consumed with house projects.  We were going to spend the last glorious weekend of September chasing each other through a corn maze, apple picking at a nearby orchard, wake skating on a glassy Sunday, experiencing "water fire" in Providence which we've waited for for a year now, and walking through quaint Weetamoo Woods.

And then the reality of it.

We did house projects. And by that I mean Andrew crawled under the back living room and cleaned out the disintegrating old insulation while brushing away dried animal turds while I filled 5 lawn bags with this crap.

Scary 1

Scary 2

Priming the cast iron baseboards

Digging the porch footings

Painting the cast iron baseboards: round 1

I do not recommend cast iron baseboards - they have been THE most time consuming and expensive project thus far!! 

It was not glamorous nor full of those long awaited fall festivities. And I have to admit I was disappointed.  Bummed even to waste such a good weekend on things that in my opinion could wait.

But the reality of it is that now is the time. This fall might not meet my expectations in the traditional way, but I will have to keep this in mind...

"You may not be where you want to be yet, but if you think about it, you're no longer where you once were either." 

The list of projects is sometimes overwhelming and I asked myself this weekend why in the hell did we buy such a BIG project.  I for one don't want this house to rule my life or deprive me of funds for a vacation or getaway.  I don't want to be a slave to my yard work or the fact that my house is crumbling before my eyes. Every new home owner must feel like this at one point or another, right?!?

On the bright side, this house is providing a creative outlet for Andrew and I.  A time to share laughs over dried turds and falling wood stacks.  A place to call our own.  And a place to start our lives together.

We live in an "instant gratification" society and I cannot help but fall into the trap sometimes.  We want things NOW or better yet, YESTERDAY.  And frankly, we can't have it all now.  This house, this sweet place we call home is an investment and one day our "sweat equity" and beautiful weekends spent cleaning our old turds will pay off...

To be fair though, we did do a few fall things and they were GLORIOUS!

Friday night Lobster dinner with the Dufurs

Apple Picking with family

Uncle Dandy, Eloise & Curly

Beautiful Old Stone Orchard

Sweet Family Time

Piggy loves Uncle Dandy

All hopped up on sugar

First marshmallow for Benedict's 9 month old birthday! Delicious