Pretty Soon…Everything’s Different – Addicted 2 Decorating®

Yesterday, I was working on projects for the dining room and thinking to myself how it seems like this room is taking so much longer than it should. And then I had to laugh at myself when I realized that this happens during every single room makeover or room remodel that I do. Things start off great and I feel like I’m making good progress, but eventually, I start to feel like I’m living in the movie Groundhog Day, and I feel like the room is never actually going to get finished.

When I start feeling that way, it’s so helpful for me to take a little trip back in time and remind myself that things do actually happen, and projects do actually come to an end. It’s one of those “gradually, then suddenly” types of things. Of course, that quote is attributed to a character in an Ernest Heminway novel when he was asked how he went bankrupt, so hopefully it’s not exactly like that. 😀 But I think we can all identify with the general sentiment. So often, we feel ike things happen gradually, and then suddenly.

Perhaps a better quote, which I’ve always heard attributed to C.S. Lewis, but I learned this morning actually comes from the cartoon Calvin & Hobbes, is this: “You know what’s weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon… everything’s different.” (I have to laugh at that misattribution. How in the world did a quote from Calvin & Hobbes become attributed to C.S. Lewis? 😀 )

But that quote pretty much sums up the last 13 years that I’ve been remodeling our house, decorating our house, and working on projects for our house. Day by day, it’s hard to see a difference, and it feels like nothing is changing. And yet, everything’s different. The last few years have been especially busy, and when I look back on them, I’m amazed at just how different everything really is.

We’ve been in our “new” bedroom for less than a year. And yet, somehow, it feels like so much longer than that. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that I was still working on this bedroom at the beginning of this year. When this year started, I had gotten a lot done on the room, but I still hadn’t even started on building the bed.

In October of 2024, just two years ago, my workshop was built. Take a look at what it looked like on the day they finished building it.

Also during October of 2024, we were in preparation mode for having our driveway poured. When I looked back on these pictures, I couldn’t believe this was just two years ago this month. This truly feels like a lifetime ago that the side of our house looked like this. There were trees grown up on the side of our property that made it feel like we lived on the edge of a forest. I was driving and parking on dirt that would turn to mud when it rained hard, and if I wasn’t careful, my car would get stuck in the mud.

I was still mostly parking right in front of my studio, which was originally the garage, on the last remaining remnants of a gravel driveway.

And the side door to my studio had cinder blocks as steps and a concrete pad that led to nowhere.

I can’t believe those pictures were taken just two years ago this month. So much has changed since then! While I can remember those days of parking on dirt and gravel, it seems like so much longer ago than just two years.

And as of just this past summer, my side studio door has proper steps that actually lead somewhere.

While my workshop is still just a big storage room at this point, at least the outside is cute!

So it has only been in the last two years that I’ve started almost every single day sitting at my desk in my studio. And yet, it feels like so much longer. It feels like this has been my routine for a decade. The passage of time is such an interesting thing. When we’re in the midst of something, it feels like it will never end. Or when we’re longing for something to happen, it feels like it will never happen. But then when it does actually happen, and you look back on it, it feels like it’s always been that way. “You know what’s weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon… everything’s different.”

Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.