Baseboards. Most people wouldn't consider them to be an important aspect in a house. At least, not a very important feature. If we were looking at houses to buy I certainly wouldn't rule out a home due to the condition of its baseboards. And I didn't. There they are.
The baseboards and cracked tile floor are one of several things I would like to improve in our kitchen. There's also the fact that the counter is not attached to the wall all along the upper edge.
For a while after moving in these flaws really bothered me. Sometimes if I'm honest, they still kind of do.
We painted all the rooms in the house before we moved in, well most of them. We'd been given the advice to try to paint as much as we possibly could prior to moving. A friend who had already bought a house told us that once we moved in, inertia was likely to set in and it would be much harder to paint with the job of having to move furniture and deal with little ones who wanted to touch wet paint, etc..
There were two rooms that didn't obtain a new coat of paint before we started living in our home. It has been almost three years and those rooms are still unpainted. When we moved in I got over zealous and tried a lot of different paint colors on the wall, but never selected any of them. So, my walls look camo-ish.
And then, there are the curtains.
They're mismatched all throughout the downstairs. I want white curtains in the front and green curtains in the back, but I don't have enough of the white to cover the windows in the front.
Most of the time I don't give these little aesthetic issues space in my mind, but there are moments... Several times I have said, "Let's just remodel the kitchen now!" or "I'm going to buy curtains today." to my husband, only to talk about it briefly before deciding that we definitely need to wait longer. It's the smart decision.
It's not that we can't do these things, afford them, etc. It's that we actually have several other (bigger) projects too. Those projects take precedence. Instead of running out and buying up the kitchen section of Home Depot we have decided to work on these projects when we are done with others. So, these smaller flaws sit and wait and I see them and want to change them. It's so hard to be patient.
Intellectually I know that it's wiser to wait and to take care of the other big things first - like the deck that needs to be replaced and the insulation that isn't really doing its job. I look at the tile and the baseboards and I get distracted with the surfacy stuff.
Part of it is that I see my baseboards and think that it says something about me. That desire to depict myself in a certain way to others starts to seep out and the discontentment quickly follows.
I want to change the outside because I believe that it will make me look better, instead of waiting until we've finished working on the less obvious, but more important repairs. Baseboards and curtains suddenly become far more important than they need to be.
A beautiful remodel is so much more fun than the dreary maintenance of projects like insulation and painting trim.
And I start to realize that this is true of more than my baseboards. This is true of most things. Liposuction and diet pills are successful because people don't want to take the time to eat good foods and work out for as long as it will take to get healthy. It's a lot easier to get your eyebrows waxed than to pluck them on a weekly basis.
Fast is better. Or, at least that's what we are told.
When all is said and done, it's not really the baseboards. It is my human nature, my desire to come across a certain way. I want my house to look good - which in turn makes me look good, and not in a couple months, now.
Waiting - being patient is difficult. I'm still trying to learn this truth. It really is funny to think that something as inconsequential as broken tile and baseboards are a tool that God is using to sharpen my aptitude for restraint. But He really can use anything, right?
So here's to ugly baseboards, old tile, and camo splattered bathrooms. Because really, in the scheme of things these are first world problems (not really problems at all).
Today is the first day of Transparent Tuesday!
I invite you to link up and join me in an effort to cast aside the filters we use to depict our lives as always being perfect. We all have a story to tell. The best stories are those where ordinary people rise up and work through the tough situations, the ugly moments, the mundane, and the unglamorous.
1. Either merely post a picture that depicts something in an honest way (just for example it could be a dirty room, or a selfie with you without your makeup on). Write a small caption to go along with your picture. OR, instead of a picture you can write a post that gives an authentic glimpse of your life.
2. Copy the url for your post (not your site) in the link below.
Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you do link up in the future! :) Recovering from having a baby is no cake-walk that's for sure. My baby is 14 months old and it definitely took some time. Rest up! It's so nice to meet you.
I really do love this idea! Thanks for putting it all together.
Your post on baseboards and window treatments and such REALLY hit home for me! There are so many little things that I'd love to fix.
Valerie, thanks for linking up! I'm so excited that you did!!
Great post! I'm hoping to link up some time this week.
I'm looking forward to seeing your post!
I love this, and enjoyed the other posts in the link-up as well! These definitely gave me an idea for a post, so hopefully I can get it written up, maybe for next week. Thanks for doing this!
I am working on a post and will try to get it up soon! It is so encouraging hearing about the things we wish we could change buy are waiting for the "perfect" time that isn't happening on "our" time. It is crazy how God uses things like this to help us grow.
Sounds like a great idea for a link up. I frequently write about my house being messy in passing and about neglecting this in favour of sewing time or outdoor fun time with the children, but I'm not sure that anyone really appreciates just how messy my house is when I say this! (other than friends who see it in person of course!) Although just as it's quite hard to capture a beautiful image sometimes, I'm not sure my camera would manage to capture the full extent of mess either! And you might not be entirely happy with your curtains, but wow, what gorgeous windows!
Thank you. Those windows are my God-send in the winter. They let in the full morning sunshine into a bright yellow room. It gives me a dose of summer every day.