Renovation and Revision

By AnnetteDashofy

I confess. I’ve become addicted to HGTV. 

I sit entranced by the renovation shows, amazed at how a crumbling “fixer-upper” can be transformed into a gorgeous dream home. My hubby has admitted to being worried that I will want to pour money we don’t have into our little log cabin. He may have good reason!

But honestly, my favorite takeaways from these shows involve the small changes. Making better use of space. Adding or subtracting elements to improve flow. When you live in 600 square feet as I do, every little bit counts. So yes, I’m making changes, some big, some small. This summer, I plan to sand and paint my kitchen cabinets. I already have the new hardware. I would love to gut it and start over, but that’s not in our budget. A little DIY project will have to suffice. My BIG expense for the kitchen re-do is the counter. My old one is shot. I want quartz. I may need to sell a lot more books to swing it, but for now, I can dream.

Most of what I’m doing though will cost little or nothing. I plan to rearrange my home office by moving a small cabinet into what is now wasted space, then moving an Amish-made rocker from our cramped living room into the space the cabinet occupied, thereby making myself a reading nook. In the process, I’ll free up some much-needed floor space in the living room.

Once the weather warms up and we can take stuff to the flea market, I have an oversized knickknack stand that I intend to get rid of, again to make more space in the living room. The problem becomes what to do with the books and DVDs currently populating the stand. I need to talk nice to Hubby so he’ll build me more shelves that hang on the walls. I also need to declutter, which is the hardest part.

It struck me that reimagining my living space isn’t much different than the revisions I’m starting on my current novel. I’ll copy and paste paragraphs from one spot to another, so the words make more sense. I’ll delete all the overwriting and over telling (clutter), which means slashing words and scenes that I love as much as my extensive DVD collection. I might even add a few words of clarification where needed.

When my critique group or editor points out what appears to be a major problem, often the solution is simply the addition of a few words of dialogue or the deletion of a sentence. Revising, like renovation, can be a simple matter of moving something we already have to a space where it works better. No need to knock out a wall or rewrite an entire chapter.

Granted, sometimes it does come down to that, but not as often as you’d think.

Tell me, readers, do you enjoy the home renovation shows? Have you ever gotten ideas from them? And do you have any remodeling or redecorating plans, big or small, in your future?