Lynn’s Small Recollections & Reflections #11
The Happy Housewife?
After we got married, I moved into the house that was bought for us to start our lives together.
It was a cute split level in a very track home community and we were lucky to be homeowners.
Decorating the House
While we both worked full-time, I spent much of my free time painting and decorating our new house.
Flooring
Under the carpet in the main part of the home, there were hardwood floors which I was thrilled about.
The carpet was the first thing to go and we had the floors refinished.
In the kitchen, there were old linoleum squares that had a black tar-like substance that was holding them to the floor. I spend countless hours with a blow torch and a chisel scrapping them off the floor.
Then we had new flooring put down. I can’t really remember what it looked like be I know it was better than what was originally there.
The flooring on the lower level was the worst. The previous owners had animals who clearly weren’t house-trained. No matter how many times I washed the floors the smells would come back.
My dad suggested that we seal the floors which is what we did and that made all the difference and then we had new carpeting put over the floors. I turned it into a cute little TV room.
The Furniture
My then mother-in-law gave us a lot of old furniture that once belonged to her mother. I had a love for old things even then so I was thrilled. We had a sofa and a few chairs reupholstered for our living room.
We bought an old dining room table and chairs at an antique store.
We also were gifted an antique 5 piece bedroom set that we used in a guest bedroom.
Other Home Renovations
We had four bedrooms in this house so we turned one of them into a closet. It wasn’t anything that you couldn’t easily change back but that is where our dressers lived and racks for our hanging clothes. I also added a desk that became my makeup station.
The upstairs bathroom which was closest to the primary bedroom needed a facelift. We paid a contractor to give us a new updated bathroom.
All of the upgrades that we did to the home were all great returns on our investment. We weren’t in the home very long when we decided to move.
We were flippers before it became fashionable.
Moving On
As I said, we didn’t live in this house very long. I don’t know if it was even a year.
The house was broken into twice. The first time it was ransacked and the second time, they knew exactly where to go to find treasures so clearly the same person or people.
That was enough for us. We put the house on the market and as luck would have it, it sold in 3 days.
A New Home
We had to quickly find a new place to live. We found a really cute cape cod in a charming village and fell in love with the house. The only problem was the sellers didn’t want to move out until September 1st and it was spring.
We found a short-term apartment rental and put most of our stuff in storage for three months.
It was worth the wait. I loved the new little house we were going to move into. The three months gave me time to dream, plan and start buying things for our new home.
Life changes happened in that small house and I’ll share that with you next time.
Peace & Love,
A Few of My Favorite Things from Target
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#1 – The Introduction
#2 – My Parents and Their Friends in the 60s
#3 – A Lonely Kid
#4 – The Day I Ran Away TO Home
#5 – The Tornado
#6 – Moving Away from My Friends
#7 – The Summer of 1975
#10 – The Wedding