Closing complete, we have a new house!

New House

One of my favorite movies is Under The Tuscan Sun.  Buying my new old house, I have remembered one of my favorite lines:

“The trick to overcoming buyer’s remorse is to have a plan.  Pick one room and make it yours.  Go slowly through the house.  Be polite, introduce yourself,  so it can introduce itself to you.”

From afar, and in walkthroughs, it was a bit of a dream.  Now it’s a big empty house, but not a home.  In this in-between state, it seems like I start to see all the faults and miss the charm that originally brought me there, and it’s a tad scary.  The prospect of all the work left to do still seems daunting.  Tomorrow starts my big “Painting Party” weekend, to inject some of our style and sensibility into a few key rooms.  For my office and the living room, it’s recreating my existing paint schemes in a new space.  For the bedroom, adding a cozy warmth that’s missing in my current room.  For the downstairs bath, getting rid of a rather unpleasant apricot paint scheme and laying the base for a nice beach theme.  For my husband’s office, it’s giving him a space of his own, decorated of his own choosing, that he’s always wanted.  Other rooms will be painted later when I have a better idea of what I want to do.

One of the things I like about Under the Tuscan Sun is the idea of new beginnings.  Of picking up and moving in a new direction.  Not that I think that it’s always possible, but sometimes it’s a really good idea (or a really terrible idea, don’t you just love those?).  I look at this experience as that new beginning.  Shedding off built up negativity, creating a new and positive space with warmth and charm that we can share with friends and family.  All I have to do is survive until I get there!