House
Evolution of a home – living room.
Sep 1st
One of the benefits of buying a home that is For Sale By Owner (FSBO) is that you get to know the owner/seller. I realize that some people may not view this as a benefit, but it our case it was a huge plus. They were extremely helpful and very informative through the entire process. They answered every single question that we had to the best of their knowledge. As the new owners of the home it’s great to be able to get in touch with them if we have any questions (and we have). They moved out of state but they’re the type of people where if they’re ever back to visit, we’d love to have them over for dinner!
Anyway, another added bonus of “knowing” them is that they were gracious enough to share with us pictures of how the home looked when they purchased it. This was very neat to us. It has also allowed us to see how the home has evolved over the years. It’s quite awesome. As I mentioned before, our house was built in the late 1960’s so even though it’s new to us, it’s not really new. The previous owners had the glorious job of removing all of the old wallpaper and painting all of the wood trim white. Both of which I am extremely grateful for! When we moved in, most of what we did was cosmetic.
I’m going to share with you bits and pieces of the house as it has evolved through the years. First we’ll visit the living room. I call this room the conversation room. It’s attached to the dining room and off of the kitchen. We don’t have a TV in this room and it’s used more for sitting and talking or reading. Our computer nook is also here though our laptop floats around the house with us most of the time. Anyway, here is what the room looked like, sans furniture, when the previous owners first purchased it a little over five years ago:
It was carpeted, had dingy walls and the window casing appears to be beige. What you can see is that the bay (or is it bow) window is a huge focal point. What you can’t see is that there is a beautiful fireplace on the wall to the right of the window. Otherwise, pretty basic and boring.
Here are the pictures of the same room from when the previous owners lived here:
Here you can see the work that the previous owners put into the room. They put a fresh coat of paint on the walls, painted the trim and window casing white, removed the carpet and refinished the hardwood floors. They did an amazing job! You can also see that fireplace that I was talking about. And notice how the window lets in a TON of natural light?! I love it!
When we moved in, we originally had our sectional in this room. It didn’t fit and was too overbearing here. We intended for it to go in the family room, but that room was a work in progress and we needed a couch somewhere! Once the family room was finished, we moved the sectional down there and were left with an empty space. The girls loved it because it meant more room for them to run around in and create a mess, but we knew it was temporary. Eventually we purchased furniture for the room and I’m happy with how it’s coming along. Here are pictures of how the room currently looks:
I took these pictures at night so there’s no sun coming in through the window but you get the idea. We’re planning to paint the wall behind the love seat and the wall where the fireplace is a lighter shade of green. We are also currently looking for a new, larger area rug. I’m sure I’ll put some pictures or something on the mantle eventually and I have to do some decorating in the desk area (pictures/cork board/etc). Oh and we need to get a more beefy looking curtain rod. The one that is there looks a bit too wimpy for the window. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with how it’s coming along! What do you think?
The visitor
Jul 14th
One day last week I was out in the yard with Brinley. She was beating the heat by lounging in the pool and I was soaking up some sun in a law chair. It was nearly 100 degrees out and extremely humid. At one point I went over to the garage to throw something away. When I got back Brinley said to me, “Mom, I just saw a shadow back in the woods. It had a black and white tail.” Now Brinley has a very vivid imagination and often makes up stories pretends silly and unusual things happen. Since I’m familiar with her grand imagination, I often play along. So, I replied, “Oh really, was it a skunk? I bet he’s trying to keep cool under the trees.” She just looked at me and then said, “No, mom, I think it was a raccoon because it had a long, skinny tail.” I said, “Oh yea, you’re right, it probably was a raccoon.”
She continued swimming and I continued sitting on my ass lounging in the chair. Seconds later I heard a rustling sound coming from the woods. When I say woods I’m referring to the tree area part of our yard that separates us from our neighbors to the back. It’s not a deep forest or anything. Anywho, after a minute or two of the rusting, which I assumed was just a squirrel or chipmunk, I turned to see a freaking raccoon emerging from the woods. In shock, I stood up from my chair, but then quickly stood still afraid that it would attack me. I mean it was during broad daylight. The thing must have been rabid, right? I didn’t want to scare Brinley so I didn’t tell her what I saw. I didn’t want her to freak out and cause the raccoon to go nuts and bite us. Ok, I guess I sound a little paranoid here.
Well, the raccoon was looking me right in the eyes and it slowly walked into our back yard, around to the side yard, continuing toward the front of the house. When I lost sight of it, I tried to walk over to the side of the house to see where it went, but I lost it. So I went back over to where Brinley was figuring it just went into the woods or across the street. Just as I was sitting back down I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was the raccoon!! I was now in the driveway walking by Scott’s car. It kept going past the drive way and over the small, tree filled hilly area and into our neighbors yard where I again lost sight of it.
I know I probably sound like a freak for being so afraid of the raccoon, but for some reason it just seemed strange to me that it would so casually walk through our yard in the middle of the day. I’m almost 100% sure that there are other raccoons that live in our woods and it doesn’t alarm me one bit as long as I don’t see them. I mean they’re nocturnal, right? So why should I see them unless they’re rabid! I should probably do some raccoon research before I keep making these claims. Our little visitor seemed completely innocent and didn’t bother us in the least.
It shouldn’t be sew hard.
May 5th
Why is it so hard to find decent curtains and valances? We have a lot more windows in our new house than we did in our townhouse. And it’s just different here so I don’t want to just put up some of the old ones we had. We found so great sheers for pretty cheap for Brinley’s room and I love the way they look.
Nora only has one window in her room so I decided to try my hand at sewing, and made her valance out of her crib skirt. With the style of the crib that she has, the skirt barely showed through anyway. Since her bedding set came with it, I figured I could cut it up and try to sew a valance. If it came out horrible, then the only thing I’d really have lost was the time it took me to make it. So, I called up my mom to see if she still had her sewing machine kicking around (she used to make lots of stuff back in the day, including dresses for my sister and I). I was in luck, she still had it.
Last week I busted it out and went to work. I haven’t touched a sewing machine since 8th grade Home Economics class. However, by some miracle, it all came back to me. I even remembered how to refill and empty bobbin! This was a pretty easy project though because most of the hems were already sewn since it was a crib skirt. I just cut off the longest sides of the skirt and sort of overlapped them and made a rod pocket. A few pins and stitches later and ta-dah! I had made a valance! It’s nothing fancy or special but it does the job and cost me nothing. It doesn’t bunch up as much as I would have liked since the window is really big and the length of fabric wasn’t very long, but I like it and I’m happy with how it turned out. (I will put up some pictures once things are finalized in the room.)
So now I’m left with a double window in the dining room, a bathroom window, a kitchen window and a door that are still left bare. I know I’m putting too much pressure on myself since we just moved in a little over two weeks ago, but I just can’t stand the sight of it looking so unfinished. I reused the scarf valance thing we had over our living room window in the townhouse in our bay window in our new living room and I hate the way it looks, it’s not long enough. So that will be replaced too at some point. It works for now.
For some reason though, I am just having terrible luck finding anything that I like. I’ve looked at Target, WalMart, JC Penny, Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock.com, Sears and just about everywhere that I can think of that sells curtains and valances. I don’t want to spend an arm and a leg, but they don’t have to be super cheap either. It just seems like all I can find for kitchens is stuff with fat chefs, wine bottles, or fruit on them. If I had more time (and patience – since I totally sucked at making a straight line) I’d sew some more myself but it would be easier for me to just buy them (and I’ know they’d look nicer).
So, help me out here. Where can I find some decent window treatments without breaking the bank?
Raking, Mowing & Mulching – Oh My!
Apr 28th
Townhouse living certainly had it’s perks. I watched out the window each week as the landscaping crew came by to rake, mow and mulch the property. When it snowed out, the plow was there bright and early to clear the lot. If we had a lot of trash for any reason (big purchase, party, holiday), we had the luxury of just tossing it all in the dumpster. Of course there were also plenty of cons about living in a townhouse with two small kids. The two biggest negatives – all the stairs and no yard.
Our townhouse had three huge flights of stairs. Each probably had at least 16 stairs (surprisingly, I never counted them). To get to the main level of the house, you had to go up a flight. So when it was grocery shopping day that meant multiple trips up the stairs with arms full of bags. Not to mention the every day haul up and down the stairs with 20 pound Nora + diaper bag in one arm and 35 pound Brinley in the other. (Yes, she could do the stairs herself, but she always complained about it. So in an effort to get out the door faster I’d often just carry her down.) The main level had the kitchen and living room. The bedrooms were up another flight and then Nora’s room (a loft converted into a nursery) was up yet another flight. Then if I had to do laundry I had to go back down to the ground level (where the garage and laundry room were). The one benefit to all of those stairs – nice calves! To put it bluntly, I do not miss the stairs one bit.
The townhouse also lacked a yard. There was common space outside but it wasn’t very close to our unit and there were always cars coming and going so it didn’t seem very safe to be out there with the kiddos. We went to the park A LOT! Not that I mind going to parks, I’m sure we’ll still go plenty but that meant an trip away from home and packing a bag with kid stuff and maybe not having a potty accessible for Brin. Now we have our very own playground right in our backyard! 
While having all of this right outside our back door is awesome, it also means more work! As if I (we) didn’t have enough of my plate already we have new chores now. There’s raking and mowing and edging and mulching and trimming and watering and…. I spent two whole afternoons last week raking up the lawn. I even have blisters to prove it! (I quickly went out and bought some yard gloves the next day.) Scott then spent two evenings mowing the lawn. We laid 10 bags of mulch (and that’s just the back of the house). We looked forward to the rain yesterday when we’d typically frown upon it. Why? Because we wouldn’t have to water the lawn or plants.
Don’t get me wrong, I love our yard! It’s amazing having all of this space. The girls absolutely love being outside. Brinley can play with all of the outside toys that have been stored in our garage for the past few years. If we’re out playing and someone needs a snack or a potty break we can just go right inside and not have to have preplanned for any of it. This might seem old hat to many of you, but it’s a huge change for us. I’m sure the novelty will wear off at some point, but I’m actually enjoying the yard work so far. It gives me a huge sense of pride. I’m just worried that it’s going to be hard for us to keep up with it.
So, do you have a yard? How do you keep up with the yard work? Any tips or tricks to make it stay fun?
In 65 days..
Feb 8th
We will be closing on our new house in 65 days. In some ways that feels like a long time. It’s over two months away. A lot happens and changes in two months. Nora will be almost a year old (yikes!) and Brinley will be just over three and a half (OMG!). In 65 days the weather will be nicer (we hope) and the days will be longer. April seems lifetimes away right now with snow still on the ground and bitter cold in the air. But then again, 65 days is not very long at all when I think about all of the packing I have to do and cleaning and organizing and purging and… Aaahh! When I look at it that way two months does not seem like enough time.
My feelings are very bittersweet. I am SOO excited to be moving into a HOUSE. A single family, stand alone house where we won’t be sharing walls with anyone else. A home with a yard, with grass and a swing set. A home where the girls will each have their own bedroom. A home in a neighborhood with kids and friendly (I hope) neighbors. At the same time, I can’t help but feel a little bit sad about leaving our townhouse. This place hold so many memories for us. We moved here six years ago, back when it was just Scott and I. It was our first home together. We went through so many life changes while living here. We got married in July 2005, Brinley was born in September 2006, Scott started his new job in February 2007, and then Nora was born in May 2009. But the time has come where we have simply outgrown this space and we need to move on.
So, in 65 days we’ll sign all the papers and get the keys to our new house. It will be a new beginning for us all and I am so excited. Who wants to help me pack?
