File this post under “Things I Know Now that I Wish I Knew Then.”
Once upon a time or yesterday, I realized that getting your first set of house keys messes with your brain. The words “closing” and “homeowner” and “mortgage” cause you to break into fits that can only be described as symptoms of “New Homeowner Euphoria.”
Symptoms include (but are not limited to):
1) A feeling of being superhuman, like you can knock down walls and closets and put up new drywall all in one day and still have time to watch Titanic that evening and maybe even get in a round of Monopoly.
2) A haphazard approach to list-making, characterized by overly general “things to do” such as one: remove carpet; two: stain floors; three: move in furniture; four: *accessorize*!! :).
3) Severe decorating ADHD, characterized by flitting from one project to the next before finishing the previous. Characterized by conversations such as “What would you think about porcelain tiles in the upstairs bathroom?” “That would be great; when should we knock out that wall between the kitchen and the office?” Characterized by the cracked windowseat still not being sanded and painted after you wood-filled it four months ago…
…BUT you somehow found the time to sew a pillow for your bedroom in that span of time.
4) An insatiable desire to paint every wall in the house, fulfilled by slapping some Valspar on any wall in the house, with no discernible thought about why you are choosing those colors.
5) Impulses that make you take photos like this and post it on your blog, and then post it on your blog again in a post about the disease that made you do that in the first place.
What does it take to be cured of this disease, you ask?
1) Own a house for more than a year.*
*Results may vary. 2 out of 2 recently surveyed homeowners** found that one year of home ownership was enough to quell the unbridled insanity with which they once pursued home projects.
**Only two homeowners*** were surveyed.
***One of the homeowners was a pharmacist and, therefore, you should trust him.
Did you succumb to New Homeowner Euphoria, or did you get your vaccine? Is there anything you did right away that you wish you didn’t, or have since changed? Better question: have you gotten over it if you’ve owned a house for more than a year?
Oh my gosh, this is so true! I have to admit, though, that I've owned my house for almost 6 years and I still have project ADHD. I fear it's terminal. :)
ReplyDeletethe first two times i was worse... this time i am going a little slower. :) but i am always looking for more projects. :)
ReplyDeleteBahaha. I don't think your stats are misleading at all. Who needs randomized control trials?
ReplyDeleteWe had it different with building. We had to work like crazy/mad people. Once we moved in we did nothing for about a year. So I guess it's about the same.
I agree with Michelle... Building must be slightly different. Now that the appraisal is done and we're off the clock, we've been doing a lot of sitting around and eating. Hence my lack of housey posts.
ReplyDeletePS - I know I say this almost every time I come here, but I love your blog. Love. It. Makes me laugh. :)
Aww thanks Amy! :)
DeleteEating is important. Necessary, even, I’ve heard. ;)
I must admit that I still suffer from project ADHD two years in.... I fear that it may be incurable.
ReplyDeleteI am with Amy- love your blog! Always makes me smile!!
Oh I feel so much better now that I know what was wrong with me for the past year! I have definitely suffered from this problem. Hence the dining room that I decorated and now hate, the tile that I really wish I hadn't chosen and the mudroom that I am currently making over after I originally made it over.
ReplyDeleteI've got a bad case of this. And it's been a little over a year. Actually, I think it might be getting worse? Where can I get this vaccine you speak of?
ReplyDeletehaha um...vaccine...I'll get the resident pharmacist on that. Or something.
DeleteHA! I love it. Thanks for making me laugh today =) I wish I had gotten the vaccine!!
ReplyDeleteI love it!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually the opposite - although I have a million and a half things I WANT to do to the house I normally wait a few years before doing ANYTHING. The three years we lived in our old house we never put any frames on the walls and only painted two bedrooms. It's been a year in our new house and I FINALLY bought new curtains to get rid of the old granny ones that were left behind, still haven't painted and I am trying to decide where to hang the frames.
Where can I get a vaccine? I have a feeling I'll need one when we buy a house (hopefully) this year.
ReplyDeleteYikes! We'll be closing on our first house in just a couple of weeks and I have that week off to get as much done as possible! What are some ways to temper the crazy ADHD? Suzanna :)
ReplyDeleteI think our biggest problem was just not being realistic/not knowing what "realistic" meant. Hence this post, ha. Just try to take your time, as hard as it is to resist the urge to do a million things! And start small with things that NEED to be done, making sure to think through the things that DON'T need to be done right away that you'll only end up wanting to change down the road, like painting.
DeleteIn other words, don't be like us. :P
I understand! We need an AA club of sorts for homeowner ADHD! I am always jumping from one project to another or working on several at one time!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I dont know when it happened but I love the new layout and the phrase "Two hammers aren't always better than one" :)
Haha! This is so funny and so true! My brother and his wife close on their first house today and they have a lot of projects they want to do. I sent them the link to this post.
ReplyDeleteI especially like point number 4. We painted everything right after we got the house and we have repainted almost all of it because we ended up hating the colors. :)
There is a VACCINE FOR THIS?!
ReplyDelete#2 on the list cracked me. Our lists looked just like that, which made finishing the house look so easy! Just complete these easy four steps and you'll have a beautiful home:
1. Gut everything.
2. Buy replacement parts.
3. Install them.
4. DECORATE! :)
Easy peasy.
Haha this is so funny. Honestly I understand, we are even saying things already like Oh we will get that fireplace stoned this weekend and the retaining walls the following weekend. LOL no.
ReplyDeleteLol! Welcome to home ownership! Only crazy people need apply. Loved this post!
ReplyDeleteNope, I've never gotten over it after nearly 14 years of homeownership! I still start every project like a crazy person suffering extreme bouts of decorating/project ADHD and finish about 25% within the year. Many times I've even forgotten where I was headed on a large project only to "wake up" months later and wonder why I did or didn't follow the original idea. Let me know if the pharmacist recommends anything curative or even therapeutic! ha!
ReplyDeleteOh Erin, how I've missed you and your crazy posts (crazy in a good way, of course!) I've been a homeowner for 13 years and that includes 5 homes and varying degrees of reno. I still think I can paint a house, make a tasty dinner and be well dressed for cocktails on the veranda at 5pm:)
ReplyDeleteWe totally succumbed! But the day after we closed, we hired everything out, and we had the entire house painted, new floors, countertops, backsplash, and light fixtures put in and a hole in the wall fixed within a month. So we got to move in and not have to do anything... because someone else did it for us! It cost a little more, but with 4 little kids running around, we did NOT want to have to live around painting/construction for the next year or more. And my husband is a p-e-r-f-e-c-t-i-o-n-i-s-t and doesn't even like to let me walk down the paint aisle for fear that it will entice me to do some homemade project (he's right... it will), so there was no way he was letting us paint the whole house ourselves.
ReplyDeleteHilarious!! I was laughing out loud because every BIT of it was TRUE! We were exactly the same way!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I found your blog!!! Every posting brings a smile to my face and a giggle to go along with it.
ReplyDeleteHomeowner euphoria - always have it - this is my 6 or 7th house and I still walk around it thinking big ideas. And the point about ADHD - have it.....my guest bathroom which was finished in March still only has primer on the trim. One rainy day it will get done.
You're supposed to be able to get over this stuff? I wouldn't call it anything nice as euphoria, but have suffered from #2 and #3 almost every day I have owned any house, no matter how long.... at least in recurring waves throughout the years. But I think I may be getting over #4 in our latest house. After all, I currently want to repaint ONLY 2 of the rooms, and one set of cabinets!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if it's a cure, but when I think about how much money I put down, how much I spend each month on the mortgage, it slows my ability to spend money on more stuff for the house. It might be like morphine for a (whatever other slightly less bad drug that I can't think of) addiction.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you so funny? Ricky's t-shirt cracked me up, too...not to be outdone by his musical pants. (Please note: I'm referring to the picture of the intricate closet design. Lol.)
ReplyDeleteI barely had time to have homeowner's euphoria. We filled the house with kids so fast! Besides, Justin didn't even want me to paint the walls for the first two years! Are you kidding me??? It was torture having all white walls and giant white ceilings. Once he finally "gave in" and let me paint he realized he had been ohhhhhh so wrong. ;) Now he trusts my judgement like a good boy. ;)
There's always a sense of excitement every time we get something new for ourselves. We enjoy having that sense of ownership. That is why we keep on personalizing every inch of it, just like a new home. There's a certain kind of rush when you see your renovation project unfolding before your eyes, as you relocate furniture and replace pieces that don’t fit the overall design. At the end of the day, what we just want is a relaxing home to stay and bond with our loved ones. How to be freed from the euphoria? I guess there's no way. Jut set limits. When you think it's a bit too much, evaluate if what you are planning is still needed. Have a happy and safe home, guys!
ReplyDeleteHaha! You guys are so hilarious! I admit my husband and I may have experienced the same thing during the first few months in our new house. Unloading all the stuff is indeed very tiring, but we did settle in a bit quick. You see, we had our house inspected thoroughly. Before we officially moved in, we fixed it up first for weeks. It was much easier to work since there was no furniture yet to move. It’s tiring, but it was all worth in the end. =)
ReplyDeleteRenovating a house is indeed a daunting task. With vast options available nowadays, new house owners can get really confused as to which theme they should adopt in designing their house. In that case, I think it's best to communicate and plan first. This way, you can avoid re-planning or re-designing the house during, or worse, once the renovation is done.
ReplyDeleteThanks to the internet, finding a reputed homeowner list broker is not going to be challenge. You can use any search engine to find a list of all the reputed list brokers. However, before you sign any contract with them, ensure that they have prior experience in providing leads for your line of business. To further check the competency of the list broker agency, you may go through the reviews of the agency's previous clients.
ReplyDeletenew homeowners list