I have a knack for going overboard on house projects before hosting parties. I come by it honestly though; it turns out I have my dad’s bone structure and my mom’s vision for perfection.
Over the weekend I hosted a baby shower, and in the week leading up to it all I saw was the dust in our home, chipped paint, dings in the doorways and scratches on the floor. In preparation we buffed and refinished the polyurethane on our hardwood floors that was starting to wear thin. We dusted the base boards and washed the walls. We moved all the furniture out of the house, then back in one piece at a time. We sanded and repainted end tables and a kitchen prep table, and refinished an old chair in need of repair. We worked right up until people arrived for the shower, not because we truly needed to, but because we were on a roll.
After the shower ended I finally took the time to stop and just look at our home. Nothing had been completely transformed, but somehow I’d stopped focusing on what earlier I’d seen as imperfections. The dings in the doorways and the scratches in the floors all faded into the overall character of our 90-year-old home. Sun bounced off the walls instead of illuminating things I didn’t want to see. I’m not big on celebrating the New Year in any grand fashion, but getting our house ready in preparation for this shower, as unintentional as it was, seems to have been the perfect way to ring in 2013.
I know I’m a little late on this, but here’s wishing you all a fresh start for the New Year.
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