The Vision
The vision is there, you can picture it. You can imagine what the renovation will look like when it’s all said and done. So clean and beautiful, and organized and new and livable. But did you forget to picture all the headaches along the way, the mess, the dust, the inconvenience of it all. What about food. People need to eat and cook during a reno.
Concentrating on the disasters that will occur during your farmhouse renovation will paralyze you from moving forward. Do not get stuck there. It will make you stop the entire renovation. It will put holds on decisions. It will stress you out to the point of not even doing the project. But you can think proactively about each of those situations. By this I mean with a goal in mind for each stressor. Where there is stress, come up with the solution quickly.
That is the beauty of renovating, finding solutions to the many hiccups along the way. You know there will be dust and rubble. So how do we achieve success with this?
Achieve Success!
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” Thomas Edison
Lets take advise from the man who invented the light bulb! Hard work is essential to any renovation. Not a weekend will pass without working on the house in one form or another. Edison was right to say that in order to achieve anything worthwhile you have to stick with it. Renovating isn’t something you do one day and decide half way through that your tired of it and don’t want to do it anymore. It’s a commitment. You have to have stick-to-it-tiveness!
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Bill Gates
Keep the goal in mind. Go ahead and continue to Imagine what it will be like when the project is all finished. Imagine all the life you put back into the home for another hundred years because you spent time taking care of it. Imagine all that you learned by working at everyday. Little by little you will achieve success! Don’t be afraid to celebrate often for it is earned!
Renovation Blinders
When we began renovating, we went in blindly. Not really realizing what sort of mess we had gotten ourselves into. Plaster walls are not fun. Not one bit. Sure, in the early 1900’s plaster was looked at as having money, but I am here to tell you that plaster, slat walls and vermiculite insulation is a royal mess. A royal pain. And never fun the clean up.
Don’t skimp on the mask. When you are working in the depths of dust during renovation, don’t just wear an N95 mask. “Plaster” you face into a painters mask. This way, nothing sneaks past the paper mask and into your lungs. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and try it for your self. I have been lazy and used the N95 masks, just for lack of wanting to find the painters mask and the discomfort of it. I paid a pretty little price for being lazy. Weeks later I finally quite coughing. This isn’t the same for my husband, it doesn’t bother him as much. No one is super human, and everyone should wear a mask in the depths of dust when renovating the farmhouse.
Beware of Led Paint
Led paint. That is all I need to say. Led paint is dangerous. All those beautiful pictures of rustic old house in the Country Home magazine are loaded with led paint. This is not a toy. It is very bad for you and your children and your childrens’ children if they are even able to reproduce any after being exposed to small amounts of led based paint. Do all you can to secure the area with plastic to keep the led dust from spreading throughout the house. Keep the kids out of the area until it’s cleaned up and aired out. Do not play with led paint. Take it serious, do your research and understand that it actually is not good for anyone. It is in your walls if you are renovating a home that was built before 1978 when led based paint was finally banned. Can you imagine the paint they used in the early 1900’s!
The dust will eventually go away. Either that or you have become so accustomed to it that you hardly notice it any more. Then one day the sun shines and you look and see the dust that has accumulated once again. No worries, keep cleaning, when the project is finally finished, it will dissipate. The mess will grow into cleanliness. We have learned to have a lot of house plants.
House Plants Are Not Irrelevant
Have you ever learned about why you might have house plants other than the fact that you want to bribg the outdoors in. House plants account for oxygen in the home. House plants are free cleaners in your home. Okay so yes, they get dusty too, im so sorry. Everything will be dusty, even your hairbrush. The beauty of the plants is that a plant with about 20 leaves releases 100ml of oxygen every day in your home! Imagine if you had a few of these in every room of your home during renovation. They give you fresh oxygen in a dusty environment. It’s just a thought you may want to consider.
Deep Dust During Renovation Under Control
Now that you have a little more of a grip on the ugliness of reno, you will better be able to approach the job with success. Expect hiccups, dust and led paint. Battle these disasters with stick-to-it-tiveness, masks and house plants! You’ve got this!