Renovating and Consuming (Part I)

Ever since buying my house - I have returned to consumerville.  I haven't actually bought anything, but in an effort to look for inspiration, I have been scrolling through pictures, 'pinning' images and searching high and low for the perfect floor tile, bathtub and fixtures. And I contemplated going to the home and garden show last weekend! What a 180 from here!

Bathroom in Montreal

Initially it felt fun, creative and inspiring to search images that made me swoon. I would close my eyes and visualise doing the work to create these designs in my bathroom and seeing the transformation take place in front of my (closed) eyes. Hairs on my arms would rise, a smile would break out on my face and a tingle of excitement would stir in my stomach. And then the feelings would dissipate - like any good junkie, I would search for those fuzzy feelings again - and back to the inspiring photo swipe. It's a vicious cycle.  

Hello Inspiration!

But what I failed to notice is that the initial photo caused the fuzzy feelings, and it still caused them when I looked at it for a second time. Sure the size of the subway tile they installed wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I didn't need to search another inspirational image to feel the fuzzy feelings. Because with every new image, the fuzzy feelings weren't as strong (the first high is always the highest right?) Every incremental images had diminishing "fuzzy" returns... But really what's the harm in looking at one more image?

Starting to all look black and white

Then I found myself up at 11pm at night rapidly scrolling through images of bathrooms I had seen many times before, numb to any excitement, just waiting for the perfect image, the one that would bring back the fuzzy feelings... I was in compulsory consumption mode... but it sounds a lot like withdrawal from an addiction. 

The issue is that this addiction is at my fingertips. I don't need to know a guy who knows a guy who has some special stuff, and I'll meet them at the corner with shoes on the power lines and then I'll pay cash in small bills... No, that effort is why I'm not addicted to illegal drugs. But this, this is free, and readily available. I can scroll on my elevator ride to my office, while waiting in line, while sitting on my couch at the end of a long day. 

"maybe black tile on the walls?..." *start search over*

Additionally, google searches are reinforcing.  I like one bathroom with white walls and then I am offered 1,204,394,349,486 permutations of a white bathroom walls. No green walls, no blue walls, just white walls with very small, but ever important variations. So the images that are at my fingertips are all pretty much the same, and are taking up a disproportionate amount of my free time. I have yet to book a bin for demo day, but I definitely know the size, colour and finish of my bathroom floor tiles. I don't know if they are available in Canada, or how much they are, but I have narrowed down that one, ever important item. In my mind. 

Or maybe black floors and walls...

But how do I get out of this cycle? Because I want to be prepared for when I do renovate, I want to know my options, and have a good vision/plan to follow. So I've started to read. Read articles about people DIYing their bathrooms, the successful and not so successful adventures, their advice to newbies, their budgets, their timelines, their experiences. I am trying to transform the 'inspiration' into 'learning and action'. And funny enough, the more research and action I take the more the fuzzies come back...