This Old House is not a new project for us…

It is a product of our respective strengths and personalities. As a former framer and professional cabinetmaker and furniture maker, Gordon has the knowledge and skill requisite to do the work; and as a real estate and banking lawyer, I have the knowledge and skill needed to save and invest the money to buy the house and obtain the right mortgage.

Even then, it took 20 years to save and invest for the $100k to start the project (and a frightening 3 weeks to spend it), and I underestimated how hard that would be while raising our children, buying a family home, and sending everyone to college… I called it my “5-year plan”, and Gordon still teases me in frustration. But despite writing the offer for the house in April, the delay caused by my switching firms, a long closing period, and the time (and unexpected money) costs of getting the shop (and water to the house) up to par set us way behind schedule (and over budget) from the start.

Because Gordon is a summers-off school teacher and has the hands-on skills, and I have the obligation (and benefit) of going to the law firm for at least 40 hours a week, most of the work has fallen to him. Because of the growing budget requirements and shortened time frame, he feels the compression more than I do; we had to cut the professional painters, for example. All that he does (obtaining the supplies, bringing them onsite, designing, building, installing, painting and finishing) and all that I do (business plan development, website development, media, tax planning) grows with the project. We are, in a word, exhausted, feeling our ages, and have both entertained the fantasy of quitting our second/third jobs. Despite that we have pushed our internal goal to complete the upstairs reno to Labor Day, even I have felt a growing concern and exhibited a very shortened temper in the last week.

Alas, the wages of war (on an old home).

He must report to school in 9 days, so has now given up Sundays as his “squirrely day” (a more relaxed pace of frenzy punctuated by periods of rest) and is working 10 hours on the Lord’s Day, too. He wants to get as much done as possible before then, and I totally understand.

So, I remind myself that the goal of this reno is not just to create a space which reflects our personal choices and values, or which looks and feels like it belongs and was always a part of this unique and special home… but more importantly, is something we actually will into being with our minds, hearts and hands, and thus, is imbued with our very selves. I think it matters more when we expend our own caloric and metaphysical energy on an old home, particularly when we plan to live in it for the rest of our lives. We approach everything—from our conversations with neighbors and city planners, to the layout of the front garden and the cleanliness of the building site—with the greater good (ours and theirs) in mind.

This is what I remind myself today. This is what I hope This Old House will reflect.

Stay with us, friends.