For those of you who check the blog periodically, you may have been wondering where I've been this past week. Hiding out in a closet somewhere?
Nope. Eli's grandparents were visiting and my awesome father-in-law jumped in to help me power through a huge to-do list of house projects. (Insert Snoopy happy dance here.) I'll show pictures soon.
Happy Labor Day weekend, everybody!
Cozy hardware? What?
I was just musing today that it take a lot of attention to detail to make a new house feel secure and cozy. It seems like I'm forever hopping in the car to make yet one more trip to the hardware store. Today I got tired of the sofa always sliding backwards on the carpetless floors. Solution? Rubber stick-on pads. And the little Japanese bucket I use to rinse the shower doesn't have a permanent place, so I picked up some Command brand no-adhesive hooks.
One of my main problems is making sure the basement is safe and secure since Eli's playroom is down there. I bought multi-packs of night lights to make sure it doesn't feel spooky. But how do I keep kiddos from playing hide-and-seek in every single corner? I got a few ratchet locks as well as flip locks to make sure kids don't venture into closets with cleaning supplies, paint cans, or hidden Christmas presents. And then there's the potential problem of kids locking themselves in one of the rooms. The upstairs doorknobs can be unlocked with a wire coat hanger, but the basement ones can't. Thus I bought a super-skinny flathead screwdriver that can open any indoor lock in the house. (Click HERE for a post about making sure kids can't get locked into rooms and making sure you can't get locked out of the house. And if you'd like to read about my Chuck Norris moment of breaking down a door to get to a friend's kid, click HERE.)
Gratuitous cozy images for your viewing pleasure...
(P.S. The picture above was taken at a favorite local barbecue place, not our new house. See what I mean about gratuitous?!)
Yeah. Okay. Getting the curtains put up isn't earthshattering news.
But it sure makes new homeowners happy!
The living room has come a long way...
Last night I dutifully clicked off the light and slid down into the cool, crisp covers. Huh? My eyes popped back open when I realized the room wasn't very dark. A light left on in the living room? No. It was moonlight pouring through all those windows in the back of the house. As of yesterday we've lived here a month, so it is funny the moonlight is just now a problem. It's been such a rainy and overcast summer that we haven't had a chance to see the moon's best efforts!
I looked up at the ceiling for a while. Humph. Then I rolled out of bed to find my camera and tripod. Out on the deck, I found a landscape where Bela Lugosi would have felt right at home.
I trooped back inside and fell asleep in fairly short order. This morning after I dropped Eli off at school, I decided it was time to get the living room curtains hung! Of course, when you are a bit behind on sleep, the plastic screw anchors will squish sideways rather than go into your pilot hole and the first curtain rod bracket will end up crooked. An hour later...
I think I feel a nap coming on...
We're still slogging through cardboard boxes, but after a week and a half in the new house, I'm thankfully past just figuring out where the beach towels get stowed. I love putting together the details that make a house a home. Now there are places for the heirloom items I saved from my grandparents' kitchen and bits found at antique stores over the years...
Here are antique cookie cutters dancing over the doorway. Like the rolling pin, most of them came from antique stores. The star in the center with the green handle, however, belonged to my great grandmother.
Over the other doorway, I hung up sets of measuring spoons that I've collected. (My first one came from my mom and once belonged to her Aunt Bessie.)
I'm not done yet. Here are some antique kitchen batter and egg tools that I haven't found the right place for. Hmmm...
My spice rack is an old Coke crate that long ago came from the general store in my grandparents' tiny hometown. (And my aunt gave me the tiny wood crate with miniature glass bottles when I was a girl.)
Vintage cookie cutters marching across the backsplash...
Fine tuning the kitchen isn't just about decorations. I set aside a whole cabinet for a favorite hobby. Ahhhh. Now when I bake, everything is right at hand.
And here's how you can tell I'm a baking geek. I temporarily took down the shelves in the cabinet and got busy with my tool box...
On big baking projects, having all my measuring spoons on rings meant running out of the size I needed and rewashing. So I took my spoons off their rings and hung them on hooks by size. (Insert amateur baker happy dance here!)
Off I go to work some more...
This summer's smells: damp earth, cardboard, drying paint, cleaning supplies, and rain-soaked leaves.
This summer's textures: humid air, soggy grass, sticky painter's tape, dust, and terrycloth rags.
This summer's sounds: the hum of the dehumidifier downstairs, the squeak of glass when you clean it, echoes in a mostly-empty house (lovely for belting out show tunes), and Eli shrieking in happy circles inside bare rooms.
I think I've hauled 35 carloads to the new house now. I've lost count. The rental house is slowly turning bare while the new place is starting to feel almost livable. We don't move our furniture until July 20, but we finally got our new refrigerator. (Woo hoo! Ice water after a long morning of hauling boxes!) We hosted our first dinner party this past week, sharing a meal with dear friends around a card table while sitting in camp chairs. Tonight we had a small birthday party for Brian. The walls of this house are beginning to soak up happy memories.
The incessant rain is something of a problem at present. Our new house is snug and leak-free. (Insert thankful prayer and knocking on wood here.) And it manages to be cheerful and fairly bright inside even on overcast days. We are vigilant about mold and mildew, though. We have a dehumidifier built into our heating/cooling system, but we're trying not to run the air very much since we have to pay to cool two houses in July. The overcast skies mean cooler temperatures, less air conditioning, and less air circulating through the house. Thankfully, my brother gave us a stand-alone dehumidifier that will help us through the month. Now if it will please dry up outside in the next nine days so we can haul furniture in through the yard without churning the lovely lawn into a mud pit!
The real rain problem is with the rental house. The master bedroom developed a ceiling leak. At this point we aren't eager to have the rental company coming around. The house is clean but cluttered with boxes. Outside, the clogged gutters and weedy flowerbeds are contrary to our lease but were on hold until after the furniture move. Sigh. Before the rental company repairman could visit, I had to spend many hours on a ladder cleaning sludge and on my knees tugging roots. The lawn is a big problem too. It is far more overgrown than our lease allows, yet much too soggy to mow. Ugh. We'll be so very glad to have this rental house off our shoulders.
That's about it for the moment. Thanks for keeping up with our progress and the good wishes!
One of my happy victories in the new house... These shelves downstairs were unpainted and used by the previous owners to hold paint and tools. Four coats of paint later, they are now shelves for games and puzzles. It turns the basement into a fun spot.
In the same basement alcove, the previous owners had more tools stowed behind some curtains. I added curtain tie-backs and organized all the outdoor toys. Now Eli and I can grab what we need before heading into the back yard.
The master bedroom before...
The master bedroom after...
It is hard to tell in the photos, but it was a cool beige before and now it is a color called "Delta Moon," a creamy peach with gold undertones.
Eli's bedroom before...
Eli's bedroom after...
The previous owners used this room for their newborn twins. The mom sponged the ceiling to look like clouds and added glow-in-the-dark stars. She did a great job. It looks splotchy up close but reads as clouds when you're standing under it. We were already planning a blue-and-star room, so it was great luck to find this in our new house. Eli is very excited about his sky room. I found a pillow-like moon at Goodwill that I hung in the corner. Eli and I are working on a star mobile too.
My office before...
The room was so dark that it was hard to photograph, making this picture quite grainy. The paint was the same color as a slice of pumpkin pie.
My office after...
I struggled with what color to paint the office. I wanted green, but there is so much green elsewhere in the house. Finally I decided I didn't care since it is my favorite color and feels like being in nature. To accentuate the vaulted ceiling and arched window, I put in a dark accent wall that you see when you walk in the door. The other three walls are pale green. Love it!
If all goes well, tomorrow is my last day of painting for a while. Whew! It is a lot of work, but it sure can make a difference in a home.
Before...
And after...
JourneyLeaf is a tool to help me appreciate, preserve, and share those raggedy yet shining moments in everyday life. Joy requires practice. (To read more, click above on the word "ABOUT.")
The original words, images, and concepts on this blog are copyrighted. Please do not use them without my permission. Thank you!
P H O T O G R A P H Y
I N F O R M A T I O N
My primary camera is a Canon EOS Digital Rebel T5 with a Sigma DC 18-200mm lens (1:3.5-6.3) or Canon EFS 18-55mm lens. On occasion I also use my iPhone 6. For crisper images (when I'm not in a hurry to grab the shot), I use a Dolica Proline B100 tripod. I often tweak my images using Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.