In the Double Digits

When I was 10, my brother was born and I moved into one of the two upstairs bedrooms. Both half-dormered with angled walls, the other room was a combination guest room/home office for my father. My parents, students of the 'out of sight, out of mind' school, really didn't care what I did with my room. They also didn't think much money should go into it, so the room was basically furnished with hand-me-downs.

I discovered an innate sense of creativity. Whenever I became bored I would rearrange the furniture (a habit that died hard, apparently, as years later somebody I was dating hated getting up in the middle of the night because they never knew where the couch would be). A pair of curtains and matching bedspread were found in the clearance corner at Newberry's. One day, while on a construction site with my dad, I found a half-gallon can of paint in an interesting color that seemed as if it would complement my linens. So I took it when nobody was looking, and painted as many sections of the room as I could until the paint ran out. Who knew I was creating accent walls at age 12?

In college I did what I could to personalize concrete-block dorm rooms and an aging frat house. Paint, salvaged carpet cut into area rugs, artfully arranged furniture - you always knew when you were in my room and my roommates never seemed to mind.

After college I moved back home, where my parents were about to embark on building on a family room and making a few other changes to the house. Being around a lot I was able to oversee the construction, and here for the first time I can publicly admit that I managed to get the original estimate of $12,000 (1982 dollars) up to over $30,000 by the time the work was finished. Again - I should have paid more attention back then.

In 1985 I bought my first co-op, where I discovered the joys of wallpaper, creating built-in bookshelves, even re-facing kitchen cabinets. About 11 years later, my future husband and I moved into a slightly larger apartment where the whole process began again. We even re-did the entire kitchen and bathroom. Then, in 2001, it was time for a bigger canvas, which brings us to The House.