10 months and not counting...

Welcome to the story of my home. A comforting and terrifying spot of land in Oak Cliff (Dallas), TX. This is my house, my hobby, my potentially lifelong craft project.

The more stories I hear and shows I watch about people fixing up their houses, the more I cringe when they talk of "flipping" it... finishing in 2 or 3 months and selling it as quick as they can. It's not that I don't get it... that's how you maximize your profit and minimize your risk if you're in it for the money... it's just that it sounds like you're taking something that could be incredibly fun and fulfilling, and turning it into a horrible stressful mess. This is not that kind of project.

You won't see me use the word "flip" on here... because my priorities are totally different. All day long at work I fight impossible deadlines with ridiculous budgets working for evil developers that have sucked all the life and joy out of what we do. So this project is my escape from that world where time is money and quality is an afterthought.

Now that I get to call the shots, this is my pledge:

- No fast track schedule or rush to get finished...
- No cutting corners to save cash on things that actually effect quality...
- No stressing out or pushing things to the point that this feels like work.

I bought this house, this wonderful, yet in places tragically flawed house, knowing that it needs work, that it needs improvement, that I could spend the rest of my life fixing it up if I wanted to. Updating outdated things, Polishing the good parts, removing the bad, and cursing the ugly. Fixing, designing, experimenting, and all in all, just spending time actually doing what I love doing: learning, designing, building, sweating, and just enjoying creating something. and if those things aren't reward enough in and of themselves, their result is that I'm shaping my home. In my book, there's no better hobby than that.

It should definitely be noted that this is my first blog. I've never been able to really sustain any kind of diary / blog / live journal / etc. because I lose interest really quickly, and I figure if I'm losing interest, why the hell would someone else want to read this? I think it's because I never really felt like I had anything to write about, at least not that I wanted to share with anyone on such a mass / open bookish style. But now, I guess I feel like I do.

I'll try to can some of the sentimentality and embody the adage "a picture's worth a thousand words" whenever possible. I'll get some photos posted soon, to get you caught up on what's been going on over the past 10 months.