{"id":9803,"date":"2012-03-17T16:49:29","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T20:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/designing-saratoga\/2012\/03\/the-saratoga-house-mr-right-vs-mr-right-now.html"},"modified":"2017-11-08T13:16:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T18:16:51","slug":"the-saratoga-house-mr-right-vs-mr-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/designing-saratoga\/2012\/03\/the-saratoga-house-mr-right-vs-mr-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saratoga House: Mr. Right vs. Mr. Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happens when your design aspirations and your budget don’t get along??<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Let me go ahead and say it…this spring, I just wanted to
\npaint my house. <\/p>\n

Do you walk up and down the streets of Saratoga staring at
\nthe gorgeous Victorian houses that make our town unique on a regular
\nbasis? I do, in awe–and for the past 18
\nmonths, I’ve been fixated on the paint jobs, color schemes, and exterior
\ndetails. I’ve taken pictures, scribbled
\nnotes, raided the paint chip sections of every supplier within a 10 mile
\nradius, and who knows what else building the perfect vision of what our house
\ncould become. The only problem is that painting
\na 3-story Victorian home with all its peaks and porches and accents costs about
\nas much as a family of five going to Disney World…twice. <\/p>\n

When my family and I moved to Saratoga Springs, I was
\nthrilled at the prospect of decorating our home, inside and out–for months I
\nhad been tearing out catalog pages, sketching floor plans, and collecting colors as if I were on a religious mission.
\nNothing deterred me from dreaming of all the improvements I would be
\nmaking…until I started to add them up with a calculator. Even for those of us that consider DIY to be
\na way of life, every project has materials that need to be bought, and possibly
\nexperts that need to be hired, so unless there is a money tree growing in the
\nbackyard (and believe me, I’ve looked), most of us do not have the HGTV budget
\nto do everything we want, exactly when we want it. <\/p>\n

So how do we resolve this impasse? Sometimes it is a matter
\nof accepting Mr. Right Now when we are in pursuit of Mr. Right. We might not be
\nable to knock down those walls and refinish the hardwood floors, but other
\nminor changes can go a long way to achieving the ultimate goal. Can’t afford
\nthe stainless steel appliances and new countertops for your kitchen? As opposed to sinking into deep depression
\nevery time you go to make a sandwich, it might be time to spend $200 instead of
\nover $2,000 by changing the door hardware and painting the walls. The master
\nbath may be a gut job, but a good scrubbing and new towels may just get you
\nthrough until the bathroom budget is in the bank. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"fireplace.jpg\"<\/div>\n
\n

This fireplace is crying out for cararra marble and a restored antique mantel, but other home items are currently higher on the priority list, so I’ve settled for taking off the doors on the side built-ins and painting the back of the shelves a sky blue, and accenting the shelves and mantel with things that we love…favorite books, the kid’s pewter and silver baby cups, monogram letters, candles, and a beautiful photo from the track taken by our babysitter<\/i><\/p>\n


<\/i><\/p>\n

Of course, even Mr. Right Now has some ground rules to
\nadhere to, because though we might convince ourselves to be satisfied with
\nsimple changes, our ultimate goal is still the big reveal. In light of this, I like to keep these things
\nin mind: <\/p>\n

1.
\n<\/span> Keep Your Eyes on the Prize<\/b>. Even though you cannot currently afford to
\nmake the big changes you’ve dreamed about, make sure the small changes you
\nstart with are a step toward your final result.
\nFor instance, if you are dreaming of the day you can paint the outside
\nof the house (like me!) but settle on decorating the front porch and painting the front door, do it in the
\ncolors you inevitably want to paint the house in–that way you aren’t wasting
\nmoney on items that will be obsolete after your big plans go into effect, and
\nyou are able to get a taste of what’s to come. <\/p>\n

2.
\n<\/span>The End
\nwill not Justify the Means if You Cut Corners<\/b>. In the pursuit of our home dec dreams, we are
\nall tempted to go the cheap route to quickly get the end result we want–but don’t do
\nit. Taking the lowest estimate even
\nthough the contractor seems shady, buying the el-cheapo products instead of the
\nquality materials you need for the job, etc. will only end up in money misspent. Better to save up and do it right than have
\nto redo it later on…because in the end, if you cut corners, the bottom line and
\nthe stress level will inevitably be higher. <\/p>\n

3.
\n<\/span>Make a
\nStrategic Plan and Try Your Best to Stick to it<\/b>. Even though you don’t have the funds to do
\nwhat you want to do currently, you can attain your goal in the future –if you
\nplan for it. The only way that the Mr.
\nRight Now design is going to satisfy you for the moment is if you know deep
\ndown that in a year or 5 years you will be able to make the major change. You need a concrete timeline as opposed to an
\nabstract idea of when you can do what you want, so budget, plan, negotiate, and
\nsave for what’s to come…and give yourself a deadline for doing so. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"front<\/div>\n
\n

This grey, white, and black color scheme with a pop of fire engine red will be on the rest of the house…soon!<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So this year…no painting.
\nAnd although that is a disappointing reality, it is a sensible one,
\nespecially when it comes to being smart with our money and not overextending
\nourselves. But never fear…I’ll still be
\nworking on the smaller exterior paint and design projects I can do myself (or
\nforce my husband to do with\/for me), and in 2 years, my master plan will come to
\nfruition. Patience may be a virtue, albeit
\na very tough virtue to put into practice…the least we can do is make it a
\nlittle less painful by bridging the gap! <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens when your design aspirations and your budget don’t get along??…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":13791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,56,100],"class_list":["post-9803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-budgets-transitional-designs","tag-home-decorating","tag-saratoga-springs-historic-houses"],"yoast_head":"\r\nThe Saratoga House: Mr. Right vs. Mr. Right Now - Designing Saratoga: A Saratoga Springs Interior Design Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/designing-saratoga\/2012\/03\/the-saratoga-house-mr-right-vs-mr-right-now\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Saratoga House: Mr. Right vs. Mr. Right Now - 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