Wanted: Fairy Godmother

Some days, living in an old house, I wish I wish I wish I had a magic wand. Or a great deal of money-that would work, too. I would love it if we could be the people who moved in and instantly got to work gutting the kitchen, putting up a pretty new privacy fence, installing the beautiful landscaping that I can so clearly picture in my mind, putting in windows that actually open and close, building a lovely pergola for a shade room behind the garage, and completely starting over with each bathroom. Brendan and I know both know how this house should be, should look, should function. Getting from point A to point B on the roadmap to awesome house is not as easy as one would hope.

What we do have is love, determination, and a lot of sweat equity. We are our own free labor and we have learned over the years (this is our fourth house, after all) that we can learn to do anything. We also have an acute appreciation for the age and character of our home; we want to keep all of the quirky details that make it cool while updating the "improvements" that others made over the years, many of which simply do not do the house justice.

I have been working on the kitchen for a few weeks now. We replaced hardware on the cabinetry earlier in the spring and that alone made an incredible difference in the overall appeal of the room. Now I am painting the walls and trim, covering up the blue and gold that predominated the room and reminded me of a high school pep rally (go Spartans!). It has not been easy, nor fun, but the results are a soothing reminder of what will one day be the "heart" of our home. We're using Behr's Green Tea for the walls and Ultra Pure White for the trim, doors, and banquette.

While the room is going to feel a whole lot better just with paint, we're also saving for new appliances and lighting. Have we mentioned our stove? It's an old school JennAire with a grill on one side and two electric burners on the other, and no hope of buying more burners because it is so old. We plan our meals around how many pots it will take to cook each dish...I am serious. The oven door doesn't close so when we want to bake something we have to jam an old wrapping paper tube between it and the opposing cabinetry. Have we mentioned our fridge? It's a reasonable appliance, though oversized for the allotted space such that the trim was ripped off so it could be shoved into position. It is a double door monstrosity that emits the lovely aroma of cigarette smoke when the door is opened and sports the largest rust spot I have ever seen on an indoor appliance.

We make it work. We have dinner parties and laugh about the state of our kitchen; we live, eat, breathe, dance, and play in this room and it works, whether it looks pretty or not. And though I wish we had that magic wand, and often, I still know beyond a doubt that the true heart of our home lies not within cabinetry and walls, but within the family that lives together beneath this old slate roof.