All I want for Christmas is home improvements

My house is old and outdated.  All I want for Christmas is some remodeling done.  The problem, in one word, is my husband.  Our house it the house that he grew up in.  So every change takes away from the house that he shared with his parents.  In the six years that we have lived there, I have been able to make improvements in a total of 2 rooms and considering that the house is the size of a doll's house, it is not a major accomplishment.  The first room that I was able to change was the living room.  Picture it, gold shag carpeting and orange and green velvet wallpaper.  A friend of mine called the wallpaper "carrots and peas."  I tore up the carpet and behold, hardwood floors! The walls are a beautiful Moroccan Red now.  He was happy with the outcome.  After a few more years, I was able to convince him to convert the old den into a home office.  Down came the textured brown tweed wallpaper to be replace with a nice sunny yellow.  There were hardwoods under that carpet too, so up came the brown and gold indoor/outdoor carpeting in that room. Again, happy with that outcome.  Now I am at a standstill and it is killing me.

You have to understand, I come from a house where my mother remodeled every few years.  My sister is constantly painting the rooms in her house.  The fact that my husband's parents hardly ever changed anything in all of the years that they lived their is foreign to me. 

So this brings me to the kitchen.  The wallpaper (yes more) is shot.  I picked out this wallpaper in 1988!  I had just met my husband and his mother asked me what I would choose.  Now, what I liked then is nothing like what I like now.  How could it be?  I was 18 years old at the time.  Small blue flowers on a white background and a chair rail of baskets and hears appealed to me.  I was in love with love at the time.  What did I know?  I also permed my hair that is curly to begin with!!  My idea is make the wall between the living room and the kitchen a half wall and then paint the kitchen and the hall.  I can't tell you how many ways that this idea was shot down.  I haven't even started on the white linoleum counter tops with gold fleck that is so old that it has lost its shine.  Or the flooring that was fixed with huge roofing nails because it squeaked.  The fridge that I have to defrost with a hair dryer every few weeks or the stove that 2 burners or no longer working.  All I want is a half wall and some paint.  WTF.

So the battle begins.

MRD