Temporary Changes: Investment in Where You Are Now

One internal debate that is common when moving into a new space or planning for a long-term project is figuring out what is worth investing in while waiting for major renovations down the line.  I'm a big advocate of understanding where you live before making major changes and improvements, but that doesn't mean I think an as-is purchase needs to remain as-is completely.  

In that sense, once a house has a secure structure and safe, operating systems, what's next? What happens when most of your purchase and repair budget is gone, but there are still things that you just... hate? 

​Make a Temporary Change!

Go for it!  Make a temporary change to your space.  Buy a few gallons of paint, and refresh what you have.  In the same sense as dressing the body you have, live in the spaces you have now too.  If there are things that you are really struggling to live with (like the MDF cabinets of our first kitchen), don't be afraid to spruce it up, knowing that down the line you want to change it later.  

There are two really good things about doing a temporary fix: You can get the space clean and help it reflect your style, and you can start to understand what works and what doesn't for the space.  Had I not spent three years in the blue kitchen, I may not have kept the stove on the same wall or enlarged the window over the sink.  It gave me the time to plan for cabinets that could fit my variety of cookware and baking supplies, and I could figure out what access I wanted around the sink and in the blind corner cabinet.  If I had rushed through the process, I'm not sure I would have landed on all the upgrades I wanted, and I definitely wouldn't have been able to incorporate the vintage and antique fixtures that landed here.  

There is also something really comforting about getting a space cleaned up to live in.  And nothing makes me clean as thoroughly as getting a room painted.  To turn our as-is-kitchen into the blue one, we painted the cabinets inside and out, bought new hardware for the cabinets, and painted the obviously-fake brick white or covered it in bead board paneling.  I don't think I spent more than $300 refreshing this kitchen, and while it still struggled functionally, those few things made it workable and bought us time while giving us some pride of ownership.  Three years later, I was really able to give this house the kitchen it needs.