Posts made by author 'Paige O. Roberts'
17
Another Home Project
There is this content creator that posts videos about his old house and fixing it up, except he does so with self-deprecating humor and many clips of him crying in the car on his way to Home Depot. Albeit filled with profanity, his videos are very relatable, and they do make me laugh. A few weeks ago, I felt like I was a special guest on his YouTube channel as my boyfriend and I finally addressed the bowing boards on my front porch. I had ignored them all summer and tried to pretend that they would just go back to normal. I was wrong, obviously.
I've peeled away enough layers of projects on this house by now to know that if I prepare for a one-day project, it will double at the very least. My front porch was no exception. As we ri...
10
Vacationing to Maine
One of the many reasons I love living in New Hampshire so much is because it offers so much without needing to travel very far. We have the mountains and we have the ocean, lots of lakes to swim in, trails to explore, small towns with vibrant art scenes and local businesses, all while still being within driving distance to cities like Boston or even New York. We also get to experience all four seasons—although winter tends to last much longer than any of the others. I rarely take trips outside of New Hampshire, because I've always been able to find everything I need right here at home.
It's no secret that I am a self-proclaimed homebody, but on occasion, I will find a reason to travel. It's a little embarrassing to admit, since it's so close, but I realized recently that I've only been to the coast of Maine maybe once in my entire life, and I was too young to really even remember it. After having arguably the busiest summer of our lives, my boyfriend and I decided to book a trip a few hours up the coast of Maine and take a true, well-deserved vacation.
26
Thinking About Floors
I never would have expected that in my life I would think so much about floors. At some point, something ignited within me that now causes me to examine the floors inside practically every building I enter and compare them against the floors in my own home. Most of my floors are pine, and I like them well enough, but I am jealous of beautiful old maple boards. Pine is a softwood, so they scratch and scuff easily, though it doesn't bother me too much. I try to find the silver linings, like how they pop and creak in places when I walk on them—I honestly love that they have that rustic charm. They certainly aren't perfect; nails pop out in places and the boards are further apart than I'd like, allowing for dirt and dog hair to get into all of the seams (but of course not far enough apart for the vacuum to fit into!) Still, they've held up fairly well over the years and make sense in my little house.
19
Heating And Cooling In The Northeast
The weather has been hot lately, with no end (or rain) in sight. On one hand, it's a nice break from the early summer rainfall we were seeing through June and most of July, with thunderstorms rolling through every single weekend, but it feels a little unbearable to exist in temperatures hitting over 90 degrees every day. I am not much of an outdoorsy person in the summertime anyway, but even the most simple tasks like preparing to take recycling and garbage to the dump can feel like something better suited for the early morning or late afternoon, just to avoid even fifteen minutes of walking to and from the car and house in the heat.
I recently met some folks from Arizona, and they were commenting that even though th...
5
Cleaning House
I am in my declutter era—that goes for my house, mind, email inbox, and Facebook friend list. It is so easy to just become surrounded by stuff, even when you're trying to be intentional about doing the exact opposite. Recently, I cleaned out a kitchen drawer that had become a graveyard for plastic grocery bags. Some had receipts in them from almost 10 years ago! The truth is, I hadn't added to that plastic bag stockpile for some time—since the local food co-op stopped offering them and reusable bags have become the norm—but I also never got rid of them either, for fear of being wasteful. It took all of 10 minutes to take them out of the drawer and Google a place nearby to recycle them. I couldn't believe how much lighter I felt after that, and that is what kicked off this decluttering journey.