Another Door Opens

21 - Resolutions

- EDEN -

I've been living in my house for almost a week now, and I honestly don't ever remember feeling more at home, even if I am still effectively living like a runaway adolescent while I get it all sorted. 

Luna and Wolfe ended up gifting me their spare bed as a house warming present considering they needed to get rid of it anyway to make room for the crib and change table Wolfe and Mason made for the baby, and refused to accept the money I tried to offer them for it. I ended up just buying them a voucher to one of the nicest restaurants in town when they repeatedly gave me back the cash I tried to leave at their place multiple times, so they had no choice but to use it or it would go to waste. I thought it was genius.

As did I find my ingenuity when I watched various YouTube tutorials about how to spruce up linoleum flooring with paint and vinyl 'floorboard' tiles. I managed to get rid of the black and white checks by first covering it with black paint which dried in no time considering the heat, and then painstakingly laying chestnut brown wood-effect vinyl stickers. It was so simple to do, and much cheaper than ripping the original linoleum and starting fresh. 

I had also completed the process of patching up, sanding, and re-staining the kitchen cupboard doors to match the colour of the floors. I even went all out and removed the door and drawer handles, and replaced them with fancy new gold handles instead.

And, while I was on a roll with the painting, I chose to also patch up the walls and repaint the kitchen and living area a gorgeous, bold, forest green colour. When I showed Graham and Penny the colour swatches I was considering, they liked the deep, rich green the most, and had a giggle about how I was transforming the unit into my own little indoor Garden of Eden.

Between the brown floors and the green walls, I can definitely see where they're coming from. I can only imagine how much more it will make them chuckle when I start bringing some actual indoor plants into the mix too. 

Next up was patching up the walls and painting both bedrooms in a neutral off-white with a burgundy-plum coloured feature wall, and the bathroom a deep ocean blue. The colours would admittedly be quite dark in every room, but I don’t think it will feel dark when I finish it all considering how much natural light there is all through the house. I think I’ll even try to figure out how to regrout the tiles in the bathroom, kitchen and laundry, which had all been updated in the last couple years so didn't actually need to be replaced, just spruced up, which I think I’ll use black grout to tie the light tiles and darker walls together nicely. 

My friends, who had all taken some leave from work between Christmas and New Years, were a massive help, as was expected considering how kind and generous they naturally are, and how much they want to make this transition back home for me as seamless and successful as possible. Between Luna being an absolute doll and sewing me some new curtains using the fabric I purchased, Wolfe and Mason lending me both their tools from work and their large cars and larger muscles to go pick up the extra furniture and appliances I'd purchased online, and Nella helping me find all the homeware bargains in her favourite stores in town, everything was coming together much quicker than I expected. 

I'd eaten into my savings a bit to pay for everything, feeling uncomfortable taking Graham and Penny's money, but they too found ways around that like I had with Luna's spare bed, contacting their bank to reverse the payment of my rent and bond that I'd paid to them when I moved in to cover some of the costs of the paint and flooring, and said they'd refuse the next month too considering they did a walk-through of the unit on New Years Eve and were blown away by the changes I'd made.

My body was exhausted from all the manual labour in the past week to get my house comfortably liveable and feeling like my own. I refused my friends' help to actually do most of the upgrades, wanting the pride in being able to say I did it all on my own without much help from anyone. I will say though, I have an altogether new respect for Wolfe and Mason who do this kind of physical work day in, day out. Of course, their bodies are conditioned to it and they probably feel it half as much as mine right now, which only typically works out the muscles in my fingers and hands when I'm cutting hair all day.