friday fotos: i love my house

Tonight I got to teach a mini-class on budget decorating and remodeling in my home. It was so much fun to remember and share everything I did to this house. It was an intense two months of remodeling four years ago, then just tweaking and refining since as funds, time, and energy have allowed.

I love my front yard..... The Lavender in bloom. The Russian Sage reaching clear to the windows. The weeping Cedar tree growing bigger every year....

The path into my backyard where the Daisies grow 4 feet tall.

And the backyard "kid zone" where there's always room for friends and family and a game of catch the football. Vegetables in the garden. Cherries in the tree. Herbs in the pots.

*sigh*

I am trying to come to grips with the fact that I probably won't get to keep this house much longer. It was supposed to be my "carry me out feet first, I'm dead" house. The one my kids made memories in and brought their kids back to. Maybe a tree house in the Willow tree as soon as it's big enough. Maybe a wedding reception in the backyard. A story behind every ding and nick. Home.

But it's a sad fact that, in all likeliness, I will not be able to afford the payments on the salary I'll have post-graduation. There may even be graduate school in my future which means packing up and going to wherever will fund me. Probably living with myself and 4 kids in an apartment.

I know a house is just a shell. The people inside and the love we have for one another is what really makes "home". Still, yeah, ugh. It will be so hard to leave this place and all it represents. It's mere presence and consistency was such a blessing to my children and I after the divorce. With so much change and turmoil....it was the place that stayed the same.

I want to always remember what it looks like to walk in the front door....

Dishes drying on the counter from the batch of cookies we just made. Bills being paid at the table where I can keep an eye on everyone. The sound of laughter (or sometimes fighting!) that always fills my ears as I step inside.

I know I should save my miracle praying for big things--life or death things---but if there's no limit on 'please send me a miracle', then I pray for a way to stay here. Amen.

Hope that wasn't too deep for Friday Fotos! I wish you all the best and ~Happy Weekending!~

it all started on easter... (a makeover story)

My brother and his wife were over for Easter dinner and remarked on the ever-worsening state of my hot tub cover. "Yeah, I know" I answered, "I'm not sure that I want to invest $500 to buy a new one when no one seems interested in getting in there anymore anyway. I think I'd like to get rid of the whole thing soon...."

Well--that's all it took. With one phone call, my sister-in-law had a friend of hers who refurbishes and sells stuff like that lined up to come haul off my hot tub the very next day. Bye-bye old hot tub!

Ready or not...it was time for a backyard makeover!!!

I had a $350 dollar budget and one Ninja to help me out. Score for me!--When they removed the hot tub, turns out there was a cement slab under it! So, now I would have use of two patios. It was going to take dismantling part of the existing deck and shoring up the other part to make it work thought. Here's the "during" photo.....

Nearly one solid week of work later and TA-DUM!!!..........

Looks pretty amazing if I do say so myself :) ! I added one $90 outdoor ottoman. Two $25 dollar outdoor chairs. A $70 outdoor umbrella. And a few outdoor cushions and pillows totalling $80. New pots, big glass candlesticks on clearance from Pier 1, screws, and some 2X4's took up the rest of the budget. The blue "Oh" chairs by Umbra were in my boys room and never used so they came to join the party. And I already owned the little outdoor table and the dining set so no money spent there.

When it was finally done, we celebrated with a barbecue and a fire in the fire pit. Aaaah....can't wait to enjoy many hours out here over the next three seasons!

I'm glad one comment on Easter propelled this project forward!

And just in case you don't think there was THAT much change....here's what the backyard looked like when I bought the house 3 1/2 years ago----

Yeah. It's come a long, long way, baby :).

once upon a time there was an ungly laundry room...

It was functional, yes--but SOOOO ugly. I took the worst *before* picture I could to show you..... The mountains of clothes on the floor are actually clean--I often times just plow through as many loads as I can in a day and leave the folding after the kids are in bed when I can spread it all out and watch a movie. The walls had not been painted since 1988 (when the house was built)....well, except that you can see I STARTED painting them a little over 2 years ago. Ummm...I didn't get very far. And since I mostly just went into this room, used it, got out, and closed the door---I didn't feel a huge urgency to finish it. Still, this eyesore was visible from my living room and I decided in my Spring Cleaning frenzy to get it finished. Lucky for me, Green Eyes volunteered to come help move out the washer/dryer and be my painting buddy.



And here are the yummy, chocolatey-brown results.....



By day:





And by night:

How fabulous is my little crystal bedecked chandelier?!?! I know! I've been storing it in my garage for 3 1/2 years now. When Mom and Dad Peterson built a new house, I asked (begged) to have it out of their old one. It used to hang in their bedroom and I would lay my babies on their bed beneath it. The way the light would dance through the crystals mesmerized them. It held good memories, and I knew it would be an unexpected twist to find a pop of luxury in a laundry room :).

The 'curtains' you can see cover up all the tools and cleaning stuff I store on the shelves in there. They're actually made from two pillowcases hung with clip rings and strung up on a tension rod.

And here's the one wall that has anything hanging on it.....

The bird and house picture is a segment I cut out of a Pottery Barn bag from 2-3 years ago. The mirrored butterflies are from Umbra through Target. Love the girly feel they add! In a house full of boys, it's important for me to have a little girly :).

So now I get to wash dirty clothes in a posh space....and (bonus!) I get to leave the door open!

Now wait till you see what I did with this space..... COMING SOON :)

jennifer p.'s super ultimate spring cleaning chore checklist

Sorry about missing Friday Fotos .... I was a lottle busy! With the variety of activities and commitments I have going on lately--kids, homeschooling, church, my own schooling, internship, making writing deadlines, social life-- it was clear the one thing that was being given up to make all the other things possible was my poor, poor house. It got picked up daily (several times daily) but it was getting harder for me to do much more than that and fix it/ clean it projects seemed to be piling up. Being the minimalist I am, deep and regular purging is a must. I'm of the opinion that you use and appreciate everything more when you have less of it. I also find I am more creative, work better, and am just generally more happy when I have a nice, organized space to move about in. So, once a year I go through and do a deep cleaning and re-organizing. This year the boy squad spent from Wednesday at 4:30 to Sunday at 1 with their dad. It was the longest I'd ever been away from them and it wasn't easy but boy oh boy! did I ever keep myself busy!

Thought I'd share the Spring Cleaning chore list I use every year and over the next few days I'll share some fun before and after photos of projects I accomplished. If you haven't done it yet---throw open those windows to let a little fresh air in, crank up some good music, and CLEAN with me :) !

*STORAGE ORGANIZING (45-60 minutes a room--moving fast). This is a big one for me. I do every drawer, closet, and plastic storage bin in my house. I shake out all the items and either keep, throw away, or put them in a "donate" bag, wipe out the interior of the drawer or cupboard, and put what I've chosen to keep back in. You'd be surprised how much junk you've got just laying around :).

*MATTRESS FLIPPING (8 minutes a mattress) Strip all the sheets, throw them in the washer, and flip your mattress. If it's a non-flip kind, at least rotate it.

*CLOTHING SORT (45 minutes per closet) If you haven't worn it in a year or it doesn't fit---donate it! Rotate in your lighter clothes and move winter stuff to the back or to storage.

*KIDS STUFF (90 minutes) Be ruthless! Collect toys, games, equipment, etc that are no longer used or are broken and throw them away or put them in a bin to be donated. Give everything a quick wipe down and replace any batteries that need it. Gather small toy pieces in clear plastic bins and put as much within kid reach as possible My kids don't miss what I give away at all!

*PAPERWORK REVIEW AND TOSS (90 minutes) Check insurance policies and the like, toss what you don't need, file or scan the rest. Hopefully you already have a working file system. If not--this one might take longer, but you'll be happy you did it when you know where everything is!

*MIRRORS AND WINDOWS (5 minutes per surface). They're just going to get dirty again, so don't kill yourself with this! Give them a quick wipe down. Plan to at least clean the exterior ones a little better when summer sun can help dry.

*WASHING THAT STUFF THAT NEVER GETS WASHED :) (about 6 loads of laundry--time varies) Wash pillows, mattress and duvet covers, blankets, dust ruffles, bath mats...anything that you can throw in a washer--throw it in there!

*LIGHTS (30 minutes) Take down your fixtures and wash the dead bugs out of them already. Oh yeah--and the blades of your ceiling fan probably have an inch of dust on them--just so ya know :)

*OVEN CLEANING (time varies) Hopefully you can just throw on the automatic oven cleaner and call it done. Do it before it gets too hot outside. You won't want to be creating that much extra heat then!

*STOVE AND FRIDGE (60 minutes) Pull them out and see what kind of treasures you find under there! Vacuum, mop and move them back. Take everything out of your fridge, throw out all the old stuff, wipe all the surfaces down (or do what I do and remove the shelves and drawers and clean them at the sink), put it all back together. The angels will sing when you open the door to your immaculate fridge :)

*UPHOLSTERY AND RUG CLEANING---You COULD take the 3 hours to rent a machine and do it yourself, or be like me and just bite the hundred or so dollar bullet to have it professionally done. They'll always do better than you can do anyway :)

*WINDOW COVERINGS (15 minutes per window) Yes you!...dust those blinds already! This is one I pay my kids to do for me.

There ya go! Are you tired just reading it? I promise you can knock it all out in 1-3 days and the results will last nearly a year. Happy Cleaning!

doing my best to answer your decorating dilemmas

I think I have passable answers for everyone....except you LeeAnn--yours is going to take up all of tomorrow's post since you were serious enough to send me pictures and all :) . For the rest of you, here's my two bits:

SUSIE--you asked about huge blank walls and tall ceilings. Here's a post I did about the beauty of a hollow core door (MUCH cheaper than canvas!). My *door art* is just leaning, but the guys at the home improvement stores know all about what to use to hang stuff like this if that's what you want. Also, I LOVE using wallpaper as a filler on one wall. Like this:

or this (See picture 3 where the paper is framed, a good option if you don't have mad wallpapering skillz :) ) ....

Or this.....

Choosing an oversized pattern of wallpaper and painting adjacent walls a coordinating color is a great way to make a huge impact. Once it's up, the wall really doesn't need anything else on it!

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"T" asked about what to put over her bed and gave me the options of artwork, canvas, or photography. I say any and/or all of those would work! Over the bed is one of those great spots where you can be as personal as you want. Beyond keeping whatever you hang in proportion with the size and headboard shape of your bed, the rest is all up to you! But DO put SOMETHING up there for heavens sake :) !

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SISSY asked about the lettering I had on my old bedroom wall (another good idea for something to put up above your bed!). Here's the post link! I have never found a vinyl letter person willing to do them that size for me again--but I don't think it would be impossible. Just be SURE to have two people available to get the lettering up. It's a big job!

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My real life friend TINA in Brooklyn asked about how to class up her slum apartment. And I say...YOU CAN DO IT! Think BoHo! What you have is "vintage chic" not junky! Design Sponge is a great website for garnering ideas about big city living, as is browsing Anthropologie pictures. Some people would probably pay a lot of money for that gold couch and green curtains :) ...plus, with a husband who's an artist, you probably have some pretty cool stuff laying around!

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5 KID FAMILY asked about storage systems you can take with you. And I say...you can't beat the folks at Pottery Barn Kids! They know how to build a storage system that makes prime use of space going out and up.....

I know a lot of their stuff is overpriced, but it's a good jumping off point. Look at how they're doing it, and then think about how you can replicate it. I have paid local furniture builders to make me PB Kids stuff for a LOT less. Doing the painting or staining on it myself saves me even more.

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AMBER--I will be messaging you about your plant shelf dilemma (stupid dust catchers!) , but I'm still trying to track down the photo of what I did with the little buggers at my last house.

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One more day of great (or at least good!) ideas for a making a new Craftsman house feel more lived in. Then it's back to real life for me! I love talking about decorating again, but it FOR SURE takes more time to do than the straight up writing stuff! I might consider making a "help me with my decorating dilemma" a monthly post though if I have some interest in it. Anyone interested? Let me know!

Happy Monday! :)

everyone loves a good before and after...

At least I do! I'm going to take the weekend to do a little more research on the questions you asked me and post them on Monday. So for today... we're going to look at some more pictures of my last house and the makeover it underwent. I hope if you're in the middle of your own remodel or redecorating, you'll glean a few usable ideas!

Here was my DINING ROOM BEFORE. Just days after we moved in--things looking very new and bare still:

(sorry again about the Christmas decorations! These were the only ones I had without people in them!). DINING ROOM AFTER:

*the chairs got easy slipcovers and I added two new end chairs. *the shelf got "beefed up" with some new molding. *The walls got a stucco finish., and *because I believe every room deserves a touch of black to "class it up", a new black chandelier replaced the old brass and alabaster one.


KITCHEN BEFORE:
Standard builders oak cabinets, laminate counter tops and flooring. Every surface I picked out ended up looking a lot more pink than the brown it appeared to be in the samples. This was the room I wanted changed most of all, but knew it COULD be the most expensive to re-do too...so I rolled up my sleeves and prepared to do most of the work myself and fill in with creativity:

KITCHEN AFTER: *It took me 3 looooong months, but I hand painted all my cabinets and finally got the white kitchen I'd always wanted! *Cutting out the center of the doors on my dish cabinet and adding hardware cloth (thick mesh screen) gave me a lot of style for not much money. *Wide plank laminate flooring ("Distressed Heart Pine" by Mannington) unified the living/dining/ kitchen areas and was a nice, grounding contrast to all the white. *Wrapping the bar in beadboard added a customized element. Beadboard at the top of the backsplash saved me a lot of awkward painting in small gaps (I painted the board before I put it up!) *Napoleon Brown Marble tiles on the counter gave me a granite look for a LOT less money. *probably my favorite part of the room: the new handles, a mix of bin pulls and handles-- and the new gooseneck faucet. Giving thought to details like that really finish a room off right!

(you can click on any of the pictures to see more detail...but forgive any messes you might see :) ).

***If you want to read about and see more of my adventures in remodeling my current home, visit here***

What decorating or remodeling project are you in the midst of?

show that furniture who's boss! making it work for you no matter where you live:

In furnishing a house, you have two avenues you can take: 1.) Go to the nearest furniture store and buy the matching couch/loveseat/chair/coffee table/end table/lamps OR 2.) furnish it over time mixing bought, found, and inherited pieces.

If you haven't guessed--I'm kind of more for avenue #2. Homes that can successfully blend pieces in a variety of styles, colors, and textures seem (to me) more inviting and reflective of their owners. It is a process though. You'll often find yourself "making due" as you save for or try to hunt down just the right piece of furniture or accessory. Over the last 15 years, I've lived in 5 houses and 2 apartments--and my furnishings have moved and adapted with me. Have a look:

This was my house in the country circa 1996. It was the first one I lived in after getting my design degree. I painted all the surfaces (including the fireplace) a creamy white and (you can see it reflected in the mirror) one wall in an oversized checker pattern. I worked retail for 5 months to save up enough for the Ethan Allen couch--worth every cent! Having run out of money after the couch, I supplemented with two (then) $80 wicker chairs and and $40 wicker table from Pier 1. The dark wood table was inherited from my Grandma, and the olive suede ottoman we made out of plywood, upholstery tacks and imagination. Besides having a little too much gold accenting going on (and the gray-blue carpet!), I think this home would still look new and fresh today:

This was the closest thing to a rental home we ever had--living in my mom's house for 6 months while she captained her boat around Alaska. It was wonderful to have such an open, light-filled space! She let me move in all our furniture, and even paint my beloved square pattern (turned harlequin here) on the stair wall. But--we had to just make the white walls work. The couch, wicker chairs, and ottoman made the move. We kept her oversized leather chair and barstools. And you can see our dining room furniture--a table we built with my Grandpa's help, and 4 chairs I found on a close out for $50 a piece at the Big Lots. I liked that the chairs were a lighter stain than the table:

Here was the house we built in the "big city" in 1999. This was just a few days after moving in and it for sure had that "hello! I'm new and bare!" feel to it. The first ottoman we built had broke and we were in the process of building another (I was waiting for the material on order to finish the top!) We got the Mission-style rocking chair from my sister-in-law who worked at a leather furniture store. The living room was for sure the smallest I'd worked with and it was confusing to figure out where to put everything since I had what equated to a traffic path running through the middle of it:

Three years later, I'd lived in the house long enough to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with it and how to make the best use of space--which meant adding a few new furniture pieces. It's the same couch, but after 7 years, it was looking a little worn. Semi-custom denim slipcovers from Todo Es extended the life for a little longer. The small cube ottomans (which served as additional, movable seating) came from Pottery Barn Bed and Bath. I ordered a crocodile-embossed leather chair using my designer discount from Norwalk (it was my "splurge" and I STILL loooove it). Taking out the plant shelves made the room appear larger AND cut down on awkward dusting. It took 27 hours of intricate painting, but I loved the stucco look I created on the walls. Wide plank laminate flooring, a small wicker chair (found for $25 at TJ Maxx--I used it for working at my computer), and black and white photos of trees I took myself finished the look:

Here's the view from the opposite side (and forgive the Christmas decorations!). My smartest purchase was two black armoires--one held my TV and stereo, the other my computer--allowing me to do everything in my tiny living room! You can see the dining room furniture is there too. The chairs got Pottery Barn slipcovers, and two galvanized chairs added to the mix. I described this style as "Italian Farmhouse".

Finally my house today. This is the most colorful space I've created for sure! My mom made me promise to buy a new couch with the money she left me when she died (that was my mom for you!), so a small scale, down-filled one from Room and Board replaced my old Ethan Allen. My once black computer armoire got a coat of bright olive paint (the other went into my bedroom). I converted an old coffee table my sister gave me into an oversized ottoman, covered in $5 a yard nubby charcoal fabric found in a remnant bin. I swapped painting for sewing with a friend and got the window treatments and slipcovers for the cube ottomans made. My crocodile chair got a pillow and throw. And finally, I found a scratch and dent model dining room table, painted chairs bought from an unfinished furniture outlet, and ordered the Karim Rashid Oh! end chairs for a mid-century modern feel. Other furniture (the leather rocker and Grandma's end table) now reside in my family room, and one of the first house Pier 1 wicker chairs is now the reading chair in my little boys' room.

WOW! That was wordy, wasn't it?! Still--just to prove that if you buy quality furniture when you can, and use your imagination to fill in the gaps--you can create all kinds of looks with the same stuff! Now--isn't that better than buying the matchy-matchy group that will probably need replacing in 5 years? (The answer is yes :)! )

Coming tomorrow and Monday: A few more before and after photos from my city house, and answers to the design dilemmas you gave me!

flower power

Since I get about 50 hits a day off my sweet friend Nester's blog, they're probably coming over here expecting to see something domestic instead of all the yap yap yapping I do :). Well, it might not be much-- BUT for all you designin' ladies, and all the rest of you too, I thought I'd show you a few pictures of my "babies"---my flowers.


peony from my yard. Love that growing your own flowers always gives you something to cut and bring inside! Because I insist on always having fresh flowers around, this has saved me a bundle :)!




In our last house, we had a couple of bushes, some climbing vines, a few potted topiaries, and bulbs in the spring---but that's about all the work I put into it since I knew we would be moving one day soon. And seven years later we did...



In this house I have discovered a new love for gardening and landscaping. It seems like such an extension of what's going on inside. Besides having a MUCH bigger yard than our last place, this home already had some defined beds and mature trees to work with. It was a challenge keeping what I wanted and ripping out the rest to make it all work with the English country garden feel I love so much, but I'm seeing it start to come together now. It will still take a few years for all the perennials to grow and fill up their spaces, but even the difference between last year and this has been amazing to look at when I compare photos!



Our front porch use to be all brick and it looked pretty gloomy. Plus I'm more of a backyard sitter-- so I ripped out all but a border of it to add something pretty to look at from my front window. Here was that spot in March, right after pruning:




water+sunshine+love, and here was the same spot last week:





My backyard had nothing but California orange poppies to work with, so it was pretty much a blank canvas. Here was the border back in March:
And the next two pictures are of the same spot now:
the poppies are still growing, but mixed with daisies, delphinium, lavender, annuals, and "maiden hair" ornamental grass.


This is my front yard border that use to be nothing but scrubby rose bushes. Now it's got topiaries, Russian sage, and this coriopsis/purple salvia/ bellflower/ and "livewire" ornamental grass combination. It's going to be gorgeous when it all fills in.

And if any of you haven't checked out my other blog Evolution of a Home, you may not have seen the before of my house (September 2006--and this was after ripping the rose bushes out):

and the after: (still makes my heart skip a beat to think that we did all this in just a few months!) So tomorrow we'll get back to discussing life's big and not so big dilemmas, but for today: go smell the flowers!

living outside

Seems I've been doing a lot of that lately---with the blisters on my hands to prove it! I've planted tons of new annuals, moved some perennials around to places they'll be happier, learned to repair my sprinkler heads (thank you Gordon!--and Kindra for lending me Gordon!), weeded and washed and swept, and just been a general busy bee. I find it all very therapeutic---and great exercise to boot! Can't wait to show you pictures of my gorgeous flowers, but I'm going to give it another two weeks to make sure they'll all be blooming. Here is some evidence of my work though:


This was my patio in February....................






And here it was Saturday night..............

Ready for alfresco dining! I decided to string the lights up around 6 pm and finished at 8:30! Broke two bulbs, uttered a few choice words under my breath, and nearly fell off the ladder a couple of times.....but now I have my own little street cafe' feel going. Hooray!

Next I'm going to figure out how to start the grill by myself and cook up a batch of portabello mushroom quesadillas. Yummy! Pre-grilling the mushrooms while basting them in balsamic vinegar BEFORE you put them into tortillas with jack cheese makes them ever so tasty. Hey--I think I just gave you a recipe :)!

Now no more blogging your holiday away!--Go work in your yard!!!

***And thanks again for the great Saturday lunch Elena and Miki! I had such a good time--and Miki you made me feel like a celebrity........an exotic celebrity ;)!

a little sad and a lot of happy

When someone says, "I have some good news and I have some bad news" which do you request to hear first? I always ask for the bad first, so that my mind gets to leave on something positive. I think we'll do it that way here too.
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The bad news is: Both of my tests came back positive yesterday for a heart virus. It is not contagious (thank goodness!) --but it is serious. Until it runs its course (usually 6 weeks to 3 months) I am in danger of going into cardiac arrest. I can go about my normal routine--I just have to do it slowly and rest whenever and as soon as I start to feel like I'm working my heart. I am not happy about this. It's going to mean accepting a lot of help from people I would rather be helping. It's going to mean some pretty boring days for my kids. It's going to mean trying to find another outlet besides exercise (which I have ALWAYS used) to deal with stress. I'm going to a cardiologist later this week and can give you more details when I find out. In the meantime, I figure being miserable won't do me any good--and so I'm choosing to focus on the happy things around me....



First of all...I FEEL GREAT!!! For the first time in almost three weeks, my joints don't hurt. I have gone from 110 mg of Toradol (anti-inflammatory) a day (the most a body can tolerate without overdosing) to a mere 10 mg (only at night). That is pretty amazing if you ask me! If I didn't feel the pain in my heart, I would be up and dancing today! It is an incredible feeling! I am so happy that "taking it easy" doesn't mean laying in my bed all day. The doctor stressed my ability to get up LIVE--just to do it very slowly, and plan on about a quarter to half of what I would normally do.
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Second, my kids can go OUTSIDE again! It was a bit cool and windy today-- but it wasn't too horrible--and it wasn't snowing! I got to be a very happy spectator to a soccer match, trampoline tricks, and sandbox art. My daffodils and crocus are popping up, and I don't even care that the melted snow revealed the poor shape the backyard was left in this Fall ;)!


There are PRETTY FLOWERS in my house.....

I got these when I thought Lee Ann was coming for a visit--but she ended up sick with strep. Thought she'd appreciate pictures of them anyway! And flowers always make me smile!
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I also got this cute Dick and Jane BAG from my homeschooling buddy Corrie.
She owns a really neat shop called Quilt Taffy (I'll link it when she gets her internet site up and running!), and she always has the best things in stock. She knew I loved Dick and Jane and got this over to me. Jane is on the other side riding a tricycle.
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Finally, I found a screaming deal on a CHAIR. I went out for the first time in weeks by myself last night, and VERY SLOWLY walked around the Homegoods. And what did I find but a buff colored, quilted leather chair sitting there looking all lonely. She needs a little touch of love though....photos coming soon. I loves me a good deal!
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Here's to finding random happiness all around you!