The Beauty of Choosing the Fixer
I didn’t get the shiny new build in my twenties. No pristine countertops, no flawless drywall, no perfect little boxes waiting to be filled with furniture.
What I got instead was a house that groaned with every step, windows that let in more breeze than I’d like to admit, and walls that hadn’t felt a fresh coat of love in a long, long time.
But I didn’t care. The first time I drove by this house, over 8 years ago now, I remember thinking to myself, “I’m going to live in that house someday.” It wasn’t a complete thought. More like one of those that feels like a “wish on a star” kind of thoughts. And then, one day, there was a FOR SALE sign in the yard and it felt like it was meant to be ours.
Top left: our entry way (paint color: Simply White by BM); Top right: our kitchen/dining room; Bottom left: our living room (paint color: Whisper White by Behr); Bottom right: our dining room (paint color: White Dove by BM and wallpaper from North & Finch)
It wasn’t “move in ready” by any means but that didn’t matter to me, didn’t have the “updated” (literally) anything. And at the time, some of that felt like a compromise. But now? I think it was the beginning of something better.
Because here’s what no one tells you: the fixer-uppers teach you. They remind you that homes aren’t built on perfection, but on the stories tucked between the cracks. A creaky floor isn’t a flaw — it’s proof that life has been lived here before. A drafty window isn’t just a frustration — it’s an invitation to layer, to problem-solve, to create comfort.
The first winter we lived here there were “record breaking” cold temps. And the house got so cold because of the original windows and the boiler couldn’t keep up. I think at one point the inside of the house wouldn’t get passed 56 degrees. My parents were in town visiting that weekend, and we were so embarrassed we had to keep telling them to grab another blanket! LOL Let’s just say…we replaced all the windows that year!
Left bedroom paint color: Light Blue by Farrow & Ball; Right bedroom paint color: Just Rosy by Pittsburgh Paint
Slowly, these quirks became less of a burden and more of a teacher. I learned how to live with imperfection, and even more than that — how to love it. There’s something quietly sacred about not rushing. About living with chipped trim for a while before you decide what to do with it. About layering warmth into cold corners until they feel like your own. About tackling one wall, one corner, one creaky step at a time.
And maybe that’s the gift of a fixer-upper: it forces you to slow down. It teaches you that home isn’t about how fast you can “finish,” but about how much you can love the process.
It took us 5 years before we turned one of the rooms on the main level into our home office because it took us that long to figure out the functionality of it.. But the longer we lived in this house, the longer we realized how we as a family functioned in each space. And we ended up making a lot of mistakes trying to “force” a room into being something that wasn’t practical for us.
Our home office paint color: Pewter Green by Sherwin Williams
I used to think I’d missed out on the dream house. Now I know I’ve been living in it all along. Not because it came perfect, but because every ounce of progress has our fingerprints on it. And when I hear those floors creak, or feel the cold draft sneaking in, I don’t resent it. I smile, because this is our story — and stories are worth far more than perfection.
Are you living in a fixer season too?
