One Large Room=Design Dilemma

When we bought this house one thing we absolutely loved about it was the large family room. No worries on whether or not our couch would fit. Instead it was something like will we be able to see the tv? Haha. Not kidding. I’m still not totally sold on the layout, partially because something feels off, and partially because we don’t want to spend anymore money on furniture at this point so there remains large ‘holes’ no matter how you shake things up in there.

Within the first weekend of owning the house we were here, walls painted and Grover carpet in place:

Then the carpet disappeared: 

We added flooring and our furniture, homemade curtains, and some color with the pillows and a rug:

Things felt dark and cramped and something was off. One day, while browsing through pinterest and my Better Home and Garden magazine collection I realized an ottoman with long skinny legs rather than the big steamer trunk would really lighten the place up. The only problem was the room was so large one, unless it was as big as the trunk wouldn’t really help. And I didn’t want something that big. So I needed two ottomans.

The need for two made the possibility of finding something cheap at a thrift store or Habitat for Humanity slim to none. So I turned my sights to Home Goods, Marshalls and TJMaxx. There were pairs galore but I needed something either in a great fabric, or easy to recover that wouldn’t break the bank. Countless single ottomans/benches were great colors. But the price and the lack of a duplicate ruled them right out. Then, I found these relatively easy to recover benches, but they were in a harsh geometric pattern, complete with shiny nickel nailhead trim around them. And the price was exorbitant, $299 a piece. So I kind of gave up on the idea and pushed it to the back burner. A few weeks later I went back to browse and they were still there, taunting me. This time the price had dropped to $149. Still, for both that would be $300 + tax and that too was way more than I could spend. So once again, even while I hated leaving them behind I did just that. I called the store though when I got home and asked what their sales schedule was, thinking I’d plan on coming back in whenever the sale day hit and scooping them up then. They said those two pieces were already marked down as far as they would go. Dejected I hung up. Guess it was back to square one.

Once again, a few weeks later I found myself back at HomeGoods, this time, somehow they were still there (ok well maybe that isn’t so surprising since they were very intense) only now they were marked down, all the way to $69 a piece. Still higher than anything I could have bought at the furniture thrift store, at a savings of $460 I scooped them up and brought them home where I began the task of painstakingly pulling out the nailhead trim and removed the crazy fabric. I did not photograph the process because it was hours of using a flat head screw driver and needle nose pliers to pull out the hundreds of staples and nailhead pins. My wrists ached for days. But to commemorate the crazy fabric:

 

And the new fabric:

And the new view of the room (granted this one has the Christmas Tree in it):

Now I only need to figure out what to put where the christmas tree was. Anyone have any suggestions? Below are two pics to show my dilemma. It can’t be too closed off, because the front door, and the two sets of stairs (up and down) all need walking access.

 

Enjoy the snow day!

 

 

Poppies

Well it’s about time I catch up with what’s been happening around here…over the last long long while.

In November, in  a fit of frustration I was working on loosening up my paintings. It only lasted the one painting and I’m right back where I left off with my tiny brushes, but I really enjoyed creating this painting, ‘Resolution of Poppies’. To let you in on how ‘slacking’ I’ve been on the art front, Bryan built the cradled panel for me when we were engaged in August of 2011. Yikes. I started an underpainting in our apartment in 2012, but packed it away when we moved and didn’t pick it up again until after the lure of the beach in the summer time had passed.

Well to get back to it, I’d spent a week or two on the painting and was really happy with it. Just in time for the Christmas Show at Studio33 Art and Frame Gallery so I took it in and asked Sara, the owner, if it was something she’d be interested in. She was and the next day at work we hung the show. Of course, I’d only spent a few weeks with the painting, none of them when the piece was finished and hanging anywhere I could see it and I wasn’t really ready to sell it. So rather than listing it for a price that was suggested by Sara, I decided to go a bit higher. After all, if it was priced higher than it probably wouldn’t sell and I’d bring it back home with me for a few weeks. Of course, things rarely work out the way you expect them to. Before the show officially opened, just a few days later a client walked in and bought it on the spot. I got a call it had sold while I was busy prepping food for the opening later that night. Never even got to see it with the classic sold mark on it, the red dot. So much for bringing it home after the show and enjoying it!

The colors are rich orangey reds, buttery yellows and cool blues. The movement, texture and translucency of the petals build over the soft pixelated background.

Measuring 20×23 inches with a thin poplar frame wrapping around it the piece was up for sale for $495. 

 

Commissions are always welcome in paintings and graphic design work. Check out my in progress portfolio tab for more examples of my work. Keep in mind that I am available to teach art lessons as well in a wide variety of mediums. Email courtney@bottledsunshine.org for more information!

Bedroom Wall Saga

By now you may have forgotten that in June we began to take down the weird textured  80s wallpaper that was on one wall in our bedroom. Other than that and cleaning the carpets and removing the electric baseboards we hadn’t done much.

Stripping the wallpaper took many many hours. Heat didn’t work, Fabric Softener barely worked. Muscle worked. But then Muscle got tired. We finally got the last of it off and it stayed in that state for a while. We bought the paint for our bedroom, and kept the furniture away from the wall, but I think we had spent so much time in there we were through with it at the time. This week we decided enough was enough and we were painting our bedroom. So Monday night we washed the wall down, removing every last bit of wallpaper glue getting the wall prepped and ready for spackle. Then while Bryan got the last of the glue off the wall I removed switch plate covers that had been painted over 4-5 times and were literally painted into place. Several of those broke from the exertion. And yes, I scored around them to try to speed up the process. I also removed the various picture hanging hardware, and curtain rods. Then, since it seemed there were holes everywhere, I counted them. There were holes from previous sets of curtains, venetian blinds, and hooks. Random holes for cable and telephone wires to come through. We finally took down the old alarm systems control panel, removed an electric box for audio (the speakers no longer existed), removed a box for a really old telephone jack (the 4 prong one), not to mention the 4 holes a piece for the sconces over the bed. That sounds like a lot of holes. But I bet you wouldn’t believe me if I told you there were 200 exactly on the wall behind our bed, and around the rest of the room and the bathroom the total went to 221. That’s a lot of holes.

Thankfully when I got home from work late last night Bryan had already patched the 4 big holes to replace boxes, and the shoddy previous patch job and started on the rest of the holes. They are all plugged up! Sanding and then painting and our room will look like a whole new world. But for now, a glorious picture of our wall. It probably doesn’t show you much, but this picture had to outlet boxes removed and several holes for cords spackled over. 

Tonight, we sand! It’s hard to believe this saga is almost coming to an end. Sure the faster way would have been to buy the thin drywall, and cover this wall up. And goodness know that in a room this size that wouldn’t be noticeable in the slightest. But we are on a budget after all. Muscles are worth something 🙂

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Summer is one of those season I’m always sad to see leave, especially when August wasn’t as hot as usual. Granted, Fall is the other season I get sad to see leave, but much less so than summer. I am glad I have no part of the ‘back-to-school’ thing this year. So glad not to be getting ready for classes or preparing to teach.

We crammed a lot into our summer though. Countless days on the beach, many days sailing, four weddings, in three different states, only one of them in Connecticut. (One more wedding to go a plane ride away.) Home improvement projects out my ears – window replacement, window cleaning (it counts!), wall paper removal, making a hidden kitty door from the kitchen to the basement for easy cat access to the litter box without a cat door or leaving a door open. New family room rug, rearranging furniture in the family room, power washing the house, stripping 6 layers of paint off the old front door and repainting, adding new door hardware, painting the garage doors (4 coats of paint), adding some new plants, cutting a bedspread down to size and finishing it to match the other bedspread. It’s getting there. Of course all of those summer accomplishments doesn’t count the couple of BBQs we hosted, 8+ weekends with house guests, or the canoe trip with Bryan’s parents or the beach trip with mine. Whew. Busy season.

Still not ready for it to be over though. I need a few more good beach days. Maybe this weekend.

Today I’ll leave you with an updated snapshot of the front of the house. Spoiler- it’s not done yet. Paint has been bought to paint the concrete, and we are casually browsing for a replacement light fixture.

It’s looking pretty inviting for all of you who haven’t come to visit yet! *wink*

Window Repair…Replacement

We bought a house with wood windows. Some of those windows were in better shape than others. Those others needed peeling paint and bits of rot chipped out and re-puttied, painted and sealed. Being the sensible people we are (ha), we planned to fix the windows to make them last longer until we could afford to replace them. There were two sets of awning windows in the office/library that we hated. Some didn’t open, some didn’t shut; it was a hot mess.

Three weekends ago while I was working on painting the garage doors, Bryan was working on the windows. He’d spent a while scraping everything he could/should off of the windows and was going to start working on the sill. To do so he needed to take out the window sash. Catastrophe struck. The window, though definitely not to heavy for him, was heavier than he expected and it slipped the 5 inches to the deck and shattered. He came out front to get me and show me what happened.

At this point, we were experiencing two very different sets of emotions. He was ticked, angry, annoyed and all bent out of shape because it was (in his words) stupid, aggravating, annoying, and an expensive mistake. I was calm and unruffled. Why? Well I hated the windows as much as you can hate an inanimate object. They were eyesores and ugly. I was excited we’d get to put something nice in their place, but slightly worried about the cost, and how we would go about doing it. I also couldn’t be doing fist-bumps around the library yehawing like a crazy person because Bryan was upset. So I just said, ‘hey, it’s ok. It’s only a window, and we aren’t going to the hospital right now.” Then I added, “besides we didn’t like them anyways so think of it as a good thing.” All the while the Hallelujah chorus is blaring in my head. I kept a straight face through all of this, I have a very good poker face.

Thankfully, even though the glass shattered, they were double pane windows and there was only one small sliver where the glass fell out in both panes, so we packing taped that window up and shut it for the time being.  (Here is where i should have at least one picture, but I deleted them thinking I had already uploaded them. Just picture a large grid (80″ x54″ total) of four windows that crank out. Hideous. Expensive. We knew we didn’t want awning windows anymore, but to replace just that sash from Anderson was $400. Heck no. We could buy a really nice window to replace a pair of awning windows (turning them into one double hung) from Home Depot for $317 (the only option in our size, just glad there was one!), or Home Depot could install one not as nice double hung window for $800). That’s not even getting into what an 80″x54″ inch solid pane window would cost. (We have two of those in our kitchen, praying now they never break!)

So what did the two of us who had never replaced a window decide to do? Watch some installation videos for replacement windows and get to work ourselves. Dun, dun dun.

So Sunday afternoon (never start a major home renovation project on a day when you work the next day) we started on the windows. We decided we’d work on just one window at a time, to make sure we didn’t have a huge hole in the house when it was time for bed. We quickly removed two sashes, and hardware and started cutting center bar of the frame out so the window would fit. We were set to go, our rough opening matched what the window needed. We opened the box and once we got over how much nicer this window was than the ones we just removed we realized this wasn’t a simple replacement window where you install inside of the existing frame (making a smaller window) this was a full frame replacement. And to do this right we needed to remove the entire 4 sash window and lift up some siding and really tear our house apart. At three thirty. And we couldn’t just put the windows back in because we’d taken out the hardware and the crosspiece. It was scary. And overwhelming. And we already had the hole in the wall so I couldn’t just curl up in the fetal position, we had to get to work.

So we re-did our measurements. Watched some Anderson full frame replacement windows for the 400 series windows we had. Bryan sent me off to Home Depot to get some 2x4s to frame out the windows, some flexi seal water barrier, some roofing nails, and a miter box. Right around this time a been-there-done-that couple from church reached out to see how we were doing with the project. I told them we were caught by surprise with the full frame replacement, that I was heading out for more supplies, and if they had any tips we’d love it. They did one better and offered to come help. Not sure if this was a we’d-like-to-come-help offer, or a we-are-being-nice offer, we replied, “we had watched a couple of videos, but would certainly welcome your tips and advice but we don’t want you to make a special trip for it.” They said they were on their way. WOW! We just went from to pretty near clueless and relying on help videos to a veritable pro helping out.

By the time I got home from HD, Bryan had gotten the entire window out of the wall, and our friends had just shown up. Not only did Bryan get a hand from someone who actually knew what they were doing, I got to hang out with his wife and two sweet kids. Together the guys installed the windows, getting them to the point they could be left for the night, and we celebrated with some take-out pizzas. Certainly not payment enough for their help, but it’s a start at least.

Last night Bryan did the final waterproofing and stuck the existing trim back up. It’s ugly, but it does look a little more finished that totally exposed flexi seal stuff. Though the grubby areas where the previous owners caulked with off-white are pretty bad…. still it’s infinitely better than before! And we are at a good place to figure that out. No holes, no leaks (it’s rained both of the last two nights) We have working windows!

So, in a nutshell, unless you have friends who are going to show up and help who know exactly what you are doing, don’t tackle major home repairs like this one on a Sunday afternoon. Hopefully I remember that. We do have another set of these awning windows on the other side of the room, but they are not broken (well cracked, some still don’t close all the way, or open) so we aren’t fixing them. Yet. Maybe next month. Maybe in the spring. When the budget allows, and we are feeling up to it. It was trial by fire, but I’m sure Bryan could do it again.

Anyone have any crazy, survived home repair by the skin of your teeth stories?

Happy Six Months Little House!

 

Yes, I was one of those weird people that kept track of ‘versarries’. Date we met, first date, etc. I get a major kick that we got married four and a half years after we started dating. To the day. It’s probably the only way numbers mean things to me. I really was never very into math. But I digress. Today marks 6 months to the day from when Bryan and I became home owners.

It was the morning of the blizzard of ’13. The day we found out the furnace was running, but the blower motor was shot, the day his parents left PA as soon as his mom got out of work at 7 am. The day we got snowed into this house with the windows not all the way shut because we couldn’t shut them from the inside and Bryan went outside in the middle of the night, middle of the blizzard to push on them while I tried to flip the locks. It was the start of the weekend where we went from blue shag, pink walls, and fuzzy wallpaper to a freshly painted (ceilings, walls, trim and subfloor) family room, guest bedroom, guest bathroom, and de papered and re-spackled (removing 3 layers of painted wallpaper removed parts of the plaster walls) half bath. It was the weekend my mother-in-law ran the carpet steamer all weekend long, cleaned all of our carpets at least two times and saved us the expense of replacing them. It was also the weekend of the ‘you’re going to pay for this’ neighbor. Read all about it here, then here, and wrap up here.

Ironically enough the same neighbor is re-cemmenting her garage floor and starting at 7 am all week there has been the glorious sound of jack hammers, big trucks, and who knows what 30 feet away from my bed. Ah well. At least I’m not getting told I’m going to pay for anything.

Looking around, it’s hard to believe what we’ve accomplished in the last six months, it’s also hard to believe what we’ve spent:

Beyond unpacking…

Our Bedroom: pretend the wallpaper is removed, because it is in real life We’ve removed the wallpaper, cleaned the carpet, buy and have installed new 8′ sliding door, added shelves to the closet, switched the ceiling light, recaulked some of the bathroom buy and hang new towel bar, hung some art, rip out 5 electric baseboards. (Admittedly not much was done to this room)

Library: hung art and photos, bought and put together ikea loveseat and chaise, rip out 5 electric baseboards, broke window (oh boy)

Kitchen: touch up the paint, bought cushions and pillows for the built-in bench, buy, move the electrical ceiling box four feet, hang a new light in the breakfast nook, patch the old lights 2′ x 2′ square hole in the ceiling (not a typo) buy and hang a new light over the table, build the table (yes, Bryan in awesome), buy and put together ikea kitchen chairs hang art, place new rug

Half Bath: strip wallpaper, remove and replace the toilet, paint walls, trim and ceiling, stencil walls, buy and add towel ring

Stairs: Remove all carpet, padding, and tack strips, fill and sand steps, paint steps and trim

Family Room: Paint ceiling, walls, floor, trim, buy ans have installed new hardwood floors, sew and hang curtains, buy and put together ikea tv stand, buy loveseat, place new rug

Guest Bedroom 1: Paint walls and trim, buy and hang art and curtains

Guest Bedroom 2: Remove wall-paper, paint walls and trim, buy bed frame, bedding, art,

Guest Bath: Paint, paint, paint. (It took three coats of white paint and primer to cover the chalky pink walls, buy floor mats, shower curtain

Art Studio: Not a blessed thing

no photo. sorry not sorry 🙂

Basement & Crawl Space: buy washer and dryer, fix both furnaces (credit from the seller), three times total, buy and have installed new water heater (credit from the seller), catch squirrel in have a heart trap

this is definitely a work in progress photo….the doors need a few more coats of paint, the window needs paint, the concrete steps and garage pad needs paint, and the front door needs to be scraped the rest of the way and painted. We do think the mint and blue garage doors will blend better, just wait and see 🙂

Outside: buy and use pressure washer, rip out 16 yards of gravel, rip out old overgrown weeds and trim back bushes, plant new plants out front, mulch the front, build raised garden bed and plant blueberry bushes, peach tree and grape-vine, paint garage doors and scrape paint on front door, fix hot tub, do a ton of electrical work (thankfully we got a credit from the seller), fix gutters, install rain barrel.

The crazy thing is we have done this conservatively, on a major budget. And waited to do a lot of it, or did it ourselves. The sliding door [the old door had a failed seal and was not insulating well], hot water heater [not up to code, inefficient] fixing both furnaces, and the electrical work [electrical panels in bathrooms? duct taped wires externally not in conduits?] were unfortunate necessaries, and things we trusted to the professionals. But we are so relieved they are fixed and working as they should. All the rest makes the house a home. And we love it.

Wow. Just writing this up has made me exhausted. That doesn’t include the hours we’ve spent at our jobs, the vacation with my family, long weekend with Bryan’s, the housewarming party, or the fact that every weekend from May 11th til September 14th had house guests, weddings, or major time fillers that didn’t let us accomplish things except 2. That’s right, 2 of 17 weekends were packed almost solid. That’s more exhausting (a good solid though, we loved having visitors and celebrating happy times with friends and family). And that’s not thinking about all there still is to do. But it is pretty cool to think of where we could be in six more months.

So, there you have it. 6 months down. Who knows how many to go. But I think it’s pretty safe to say the house won’t be changing as fast in the next 6 months. A lot of the other projects on our to-do list involve a lot more money (think bathroom and laundry room renovations), time (think lots of fiddly things like switching out the outlets and switches for ones that match), and time (like having any time to do it all when we both work, and the long list of stuff we have to do). Yes that’s right. Double time and money too.

What did you accomplish in your first 6 months of homeownership?

(Please forgive my slightly disorganized home, I realized mid post I didn’t have enough pictures already on my computer so much of the home is shown how it appears right this second, complete with rain outside, and I was not tidying up the rest of the way without more coffee, likewise for any slightly blurry photos 🙂 )

Family Room Progress

Did you have a good weekend? I did. Mostly. My two do list though was finished the curtain hemming. Didn’t finish yet and I’ll tell you why, but you will still get to see where we are in family room.

But first let’s remember where we were when we moved in:

 

I took this picture during a walk-through before all the renters stuff they left behind was removed.

We (encompassing Bryan and I, and his parents) painted the walls, took down the vertical blinds, removed the carpets and old carpet pad and tack strips, and painted the trim the first weekend we owned the house (while simultaneously painting several other rooms, removing decades of wallpaper and steam cleaning all the carpets (minus this blue one) in the house).

From the second weekend of February til now we painted the sub-floor to live with for a while as we decided which flooring option we were going to buy, we hung curtains (still aren’t hemmed, yikes!) and then eventually bit the bullet, got some gorgeous dark oak floors installed, added an area rug and still never updated the blog.

Back to the back story: While I was at work Saturday, Bryan’s co-worker dropped a dog off at our house to watch for the day, Bryan had breakfast with a good friend, and the love seat I bought off Craigslist after I wrote Friday’s post arrived. I’m typically very very leery of second-hand furniture, but this was touted as being hardly used, sold to make room for a child’s play room, from a smoke and pet free home in Mystic (ritzy street address), free delivery and we steam cleaned and disinfected it anyways.

 

It’s a warm but neutral tan, and definitely a traditional style. Which our dark gray charcoal couch is neither warm, or traditional. But somehow I knew it would work. Bryan was all for it, and then he realized new furniture means rearranging the room. Not exactly what we had planned for Saturday afternoon, but it worked and we had fun. And now we like our family room even more than we did when I wrote last week that we were pretty near satisfied.

Here is the view from the front door:

 

We tried the big gray couch all around the room before we finally settled on the back wall of the house. We plan to build a sofa table behind for glasses, some small decorations, you name it. We love this rug and really wanted a lot of it to be visible, but because we have the funky shaped couch, to have all the front legs on the rug a big portion of it would be under the couch and we wouldn’t get to see it as much. So we decided to run the first leg of the chevron strips parallel to the wood floor.

 

View from the stairs leading to the guest bedrooms. The trunk is moving to the mostly empty corner of the family room, where you can see the entire light in this photograph, I just need Bryan home from work to move it for me. The yellow leather chair isn’t staying there, but we need to fill the hole somehow.

The yellow chair might be brought back to this table, (which is the one we have on our to-do list to paint) and the other side of the table will most likely be framed with a tree of some sort. Here is where you can see the curtain length best, and unfortunately these are the ones I didn’t hem (I might just switch these panels with the ones I did hem and call it a day!

 

So there you have it.

1) hem curtains (half done) or just switch them with the hemmed curtains…. I think it’s ok to be ‘lazy’ in some aspects. 

2) sand, fill, and paint trim and door jamb (now that the door is in we have some filling, and the installation of the wood floors nicked up the trim a bit)

3) hang new fan (get rid of the shiny brass and faux wood from the seventies) see it now? yuck.

4) paint console table

5) love seat for more seating

6) new coffee table? Perhaps something light and airy. The plan now is to move the trunk to use as an end table, and perhaps get two long benches, ottoman height and reupholster them in a coordinating fabric. Then they can be split apart to use as ottomans, tables or additional seating around the room as needed.

5) art for the tall wall. Actually now we need art for behind the sofa/love seat. The paintings that are up near the tv will most likely stay, though they need to be re centered around the tv now. 

6) art for sofa/love seat wall. Something fun and a little out there. Probably not something in a frame, and an object instead.

We didn’t get as far as we wanted in our weekend to-do list because a window broke. Yes, I was just waxing eloquently about how amazing Bryan is cleaning the windows and one has broken while we were trying to fix it. Thankfully it’s an awning window that we hated much more than the old-fashioned double hung windows, but it looks like a new window is in our future. Guess it’s a good thing we cleaned the windows ourselves and saved the money, since we’ll be spending it on replacements. Such is the life of a homeowner of an older home. But in spite of it all the expenses it’s still definitely worth it. I’m thankful for a roof over my head, and the ability to fix the things we can fix. The jobs to pay for the things we can’t fix ourselves and each other. After all, it’s just a window. I’m just super thankful Bryan didn’t get all cut up when it broke. I’d much rather spend the money on a new window than have had to take him to the ER. Probably a blessing actually since I really hated those windows.

What do you think of the family room?

It’s a Jungle Out There Part 2

The last time we talked about our back yard we talked about the massive overgrown bushes that filled up the backyard. I talked about how overgrown they were, and how we would have so much more yard if we got rid of them. But other than tackling the thorn-bush (mostly, but we tired out before we got the roots hacked out and it’s starting to grow back, most take care of it ASAP), and planting a small veggie garden we didn’t get much done.

So I’m back. To show you a photo from the deck along the back of the house towards the right. Prepare yourself. It’s really a jungle.

Right in front of you is a ginormous rose bush…that clearly thrived without any attention. Abutting right up to it is a hydrangea about to bloom at any time. Behind the hydrangea (you can’t see it for the massive rose/hydrangea in front of it) are a tiny (smothered) Japanese Maple, and a huge prickly (I hate it) evergreen. Blech. Then there is one of the air conditioning units, and our house. The little bump out is actually the stairs from the garage to the house, thankfully closed in at some point. Right in front in probably the only patch of sunny grass that’s in the back yard is our vegetable garden. Peas, asparagus, strawberries lettuce and tomatoes are growing now…more will hopefully fill in. And the blueberry bushes are doing great.

Beyond the garden is a bit of patchy grass, and the tree that dropped a limb the first night we owned the house that caused us the first neighbor grief. In fact if you look close enough you can just barely see (before the fence is obscured by bushes) the lighter toned fence panel that we were ‘going to pay for’. Thanks to USAA, we weren’t.

Along the back of the fence is a few rhododendrons, some evergreen bushes, and a super scraggly cedar tree. The pathway between the rose and the bushes is almost non-existent. But I’m a bit worried if I prune them at all I’ll kill them. Eventually I’d like to clear out all the saplings, trim back the bushes, and even clean out under the bushes to make it a cleaner and less scruffy yard. But, like everything else that will take time.

Now for a bit of a ‘tour’ of the backyard for all you folks back home who have no clue what it looks like out there…

From the french doors that open out of the library we have this view of the deck:

You can see the comparison of the rose-bush (which is taller than me) to the giant rhododendron behind it. The deck is about three feet above the ground for all you math types. This deck was power washed and pristine right before Tropical Storm Andrea came though…not only did she dirty up my deck she proved the worth of my downspouts and gutters. And even though we (Bryan) had cleared out the gutters twice already this season (thanks to the neighbors huge tree) the down spouts had apparently at one time gotten blocked up enough that torrential rains from before I woke up to after I went to bed was enough to make them into fountains. And at 9 or so at night Bryan was out there doing some minor surgery and a Mcguyvered set up to keep the crawl space from flooding. (Hurray it worked and here’s the set-up)

To the left of the deck (what was behind me when I took that first picture) is this brick patio, our charcoal grill (and the one left by the previous owner chill out here with their friends the weeds. (I really have tried getting them out and given up after frustrating failure. Any weed tips?). The offending gutter is the one that’s disconnected. It was meant to go under the patio right passed the crawl space door and out the other end of the house (this is the master bedroom wing FYI). Surprisingly Bryan’s balancing act with the sticks and the green bucket directed the water out away from the house and saved the day. Hooray!

Here’s a better view of the side yard, which really has the ‘backyard’ feel. There’s more grass, and it’s the nicest grass on the property.

This lovely hole (really the gap in the bushes from the rhody to the evergreen) was where the ginormous thorn-bush was. The short mini bush is it valiantly trying to come back. But we aren’t going to let it. Someway, somehow this sucker is coming out. And in the process all of these stinky weeds are coming out and we will seed with some more grass. 

Our house from the farthest corner of the property. The deck, the patio, the second air conditioning unit. It’s all there. The two tall skinny windows are the ones that flank our bed. And the lovely pains of glass are the 4 foot wide sections of the sliding door that we replaced. Hopefully the contractor is coming back to get them like he said….Oh, and up front? This is the first of hopefully many fruit trees (to add to our garden). I’m standing down just a bit of a hill and we plan to eventually terrace this bit of a hill and move the garden over here. Especially in conjunction to pruning back and even removing some of the overgrown bushes this will give us more yard.

More of the grass and side yard. With the thick planting of evergreen trees it’s pretty private and quiet back here. Oh and you can catch a glimpse of our first ‘ripped out of the yard and no place to put it’ pile.

And from the other end of the yard looking back. I know I just mentioned how private it is back here. And You are all thinking I’m crazy because there obviously is a house that looks out onto our yard, but it’s actually the garage of the lady whose fence our tree killed a section of during the first weekend. And all of the scruffy stuff that’s growing along there is on her property. Why she has a 4 foot deep section she can’t access I’ll never know. Eventually our forsythia and lilac bushes ( there are three mini ones planted that you can’t see in the photos) will help block out that mess.

Taken from the same spot as the previous picture I’ve pivoted to show you the front, and yet another (much smaller) ripped from the yard pile, part of the fence, the overhanging arborvitae (thankfully are the neighbors), an azalea, and then the rhody next to the front door along with the front beds.

More of the front

From the front right hand side of the driveway, just a glimpse of the Japanese Maple.

Looking towards the right side yard (and there’s the tree that knocked over a section of the neighbors fence). Oh and my patch of wildflowers…a bit random but the yard was bare there…down the road those two evergreens will come out and softer bushes will replace them. The front one is one of those prickly kinds, and the back one would stay but it was damaged with the storms and is actually tied upright. It’s half as big as it was since it lost so many branches, but it helps soften up the house and hides the electrical boxes and trashcan from view so it works for now.

Right now this is our junk area. Un-used flower pots, trashcan, tomato stake, it all hides here. But, we are down to our last few rolls of carpet (been throwing away the blue carpet and carpet pad, along with all the other trash that comes along with moving bit by bit in whatever room was left after we threw away house-hold trash. Then we can do a massive garage clean out and start fresh. The flower pots can relocate to the garage and it will be much nicer, and hopefully less buggy.

And here’s almost back where we started. You can see the garden, the air con unit, the evergreen, a sliver of the maple, and then the large and overgrown hydrangea and rose-bush. On the right is the overwhelming (in that we aren’t even near 10% done clearing things out and the pile is already so large) pile. But the garden will move to the small hill in the yard, and as the fall comes upon us and it’s a good time to prune things we will. Hopefully, this time next year things will look much more manageable.

Can you feel it? I’m not typically the claustrophobic type, but when the branches close in around me, and I walk through the inevitable spiderweb even though I’m flailing my arms wildly to prevent it, without fail I can always feel it on my face. Ugh. But I walked through that tiny pathway between a prickly rose-bush and a holly tree just to snag these pictures for you. LOL. But seriously. That was me outside twenty minutes ago.

That’s the end of my very long outdoors tour. I’m kind of impressed with myself that I followed through and did it…and that I actually took more pictures than I used (and you thought this was a lot!).  You are welcome. all three of you lovely readers. And Aunt Jani who always loves my posts, Hope you enjoyed the little tour!

Homeward Bound

What a great movie. I was always a fan of Sassy. And that Chance was annoying, but I digress. Today is not a ‘home’ post, it’s just going to be a re-cap of our trip home, and the accompanying emotions.

This past weekend Bryan and I went home, to my parents, for the first time since Christmas. It was great to be back in the area where I knew all the roads and could get from point A to point B without consulting my phone. It was great to see my family face-to-face instead of via picture messages.

 

We were able to fit in a wedding (Congrats Karstie and Chris!); my little taller brother’s birthday (yay Alex!) Can’t believe you are 15, and almost as tell as Brandon! Bryan and I are soon to be the shortest of the family. And we also got to fit in my sweet cousin’s 30th birthday celebration (you looked gorgeous Em!) It was great to see my sweet cousins, don’t see them near enough and we were so glad we could make it.

I have years worth of memories of us playing on the beach, making plans that someday our kids would play on the beach together, like the big family groups with lots of adults and tons of kids. Maybe someday we will actually fulfill it!

Those two family events made it more than worth the 8 hours in the car. And the two hours of traffic. Seeing my mom, dad, brothers, sister, grandparents, cousins, and aunt made it such a great weekend. We missed a few cousins, and an aunt and uncle, wish they all could have come. My family is small, very small, and those who have passed away left behind holes that can’t be filled, but I am so thankful for the few I still have. *tear

It was fantastic to visit my parents church. The new building was fabulous, but the people that make the church were even better. The church we attend here in Ct is great, but there is nothing like knowing so many of the large congregation and being greeted by them. I’m part of the family there. It’s a stark reminder of how much nicer everyone is in PA compared to New England. Sure, we have the ‘stand up and greet one another time’ here but in spite of my best intentions no real connections have been made through that. Yet, in five minutes at FBC we met a great couple, who I have no doubt we really would have become great friends if PA was still our home.

But thankfully, there is technology where I can live far away and connect to the people I left behind. It’s a real blessing. All of you who comment, like, message, and text me are appreciated more than you know.

I know I am very blessed by my life, my family, my husband, his and my jobs, and our house that we are working very hard to make it into a home, but the depth and breadth of our families, church connections, and dear dear friends makes it so very hard to leave. In fact, every time we come home, definitely including when we go to my in-laws and their church where I don’t have the connections I have at my parents, it’s hard. We struggle with not wanting to come home, because it makes the pain of leaving again so very fresh. I cry. I cry for the first ten minutes of the drive and then I’m ok. Bryan is of course much less emotional, and I try hard not to be upset, because I know this is where we are supposed to be, and I don’t want to burden Bryan down, worrying unnecessarily about me.

I’m happy to be with Bryan going back to our house. But that doesn’t mean I miss all of those in PA any less. It doesn’t mean I didn’t wish for those connections here. Because I do. It’s hard to know I’ve lived here a year and though there are some good connections, they aren’t the ones I left behind. I know it will take time, and prayers. Both of which I have been, and will continue to invest. We know this is where God wants us, even if we aren’t sure of why things are the way they are.

But don’t worry about me, even though this post wasn’t all happy, I really am ok. Even in the land of Bottled Sunshine, there has to be a few clouds, otherwise we’d never see a rainbow. My parents went through a similar time when they lived in Germany. Sure it’s a great place to live, and nice to travel and see the sights, but just like Pastor Jon said yesterday in church you need fellowship with God, and other believers equally. So we just need to work on our fellowship with others locally.

I wasn’t intending this post to be written like this, but me, and the few readers who like to keep up with our life in Ct, this post seems right. If you are the praying sort, and I pray you are! Would you pray for Bryan and me? Pray that we can make some deeper connections, pray we can get even more involved at church, and pray that even if connections like those we leave behind in PA every time we come home aren’t going to be made here that we can just keep moving on, with our chins up, satisfied that this is what God has for us? I appreciate you more than you know, and am so thankful for the ways we can interact and stay in touch.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with more home stuff.

Drum Roll please!

brrh brrrh brrh brrh brrh brrh brrh brrh…

What? that’s my attempt at a typing drum roll.

Yesterday was a crazy day. Something thing that made me look like this:

oh boy am I excited. (This photo is entirely staged, and it took me about 14 tries to get an ‘excited’ expression that seemed semi-acceptable

What could induce a sane person to stick a photo of themselves like that up on their blog?

have a guess?

go on….think about it for a little and make a guess…

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Alright alright. I’ll tell you.

It was a long and busy day. It started off with two hours at the salon, where I got some brief training on what I’m going to do everyday. (It’s a lot to learn)

Then I hurried next door where I did a lot of framing, etc. It was a relatively slow day customer wise until around 2. Then we were swamped.

First, a customer came in quickly. She had to catch  a ferry to Fisher’s Island in just a few minutes and quickly ordered the most expensive glass, said she’d be back to pick it up and tossed her credit card at me to ring up a deposit. While waiting for the card to process she explained she was a new principal on the island. I couldn’t help but say congrats, and then state that I went to college to teach art and am certified in the state of PA. She was excited and said she would actually be looking for a long-term sub, actually she didn’t know how long of a term it would be because the art teacher was expecting and she didn’t know if she’d come back, it could be an open position. My mouth dropped open and she signed her credit slip, said she’d call, and ran out the door to catch the ferry. Did I just get told someone (who had never met me before) was highly interested in hiring me as an art sub? On Fisher’s Island? WOW. That would be cool, but would require a 40 minute ferry ride every day, so while it’s encouraging, it probably isn’t something I would pursue. It was a happy feeling though.

But wait, there’s more. (best infomercial impression ever)

Infomercial pose.

Was I right? Or was I right? I’m channeling my best Billy Mays here.

Twenty minutes later or so an older woman walks in with black and red striped capris, tan crocs, and a gray sweatshirt. She’s pleasant and had never been in the shop before. We wander around and I tell her bits about the artists whose work she seems interested in. She thanks me and just keeps browsing. I go back to work and after a little while she asks me to ring her out. She’s holding some ‘lobster claw ornaments’ (real lobster claws bought by a lady on social security who eats the meat out of the claw, washes them, puts them back together with hot glue and paints brightly colored seaside scenes on them) that she wants to purchase. I write-up the slip and ask if there is anything else today, she wanders off and comes back holding a painting and an easel.

My painting of the Ledge Lighthouse that has been in the shop for sale since December. I gulp and say, “are you going to buy that?”

“Storm off Ledge Light”
8×10 Oil on Board
$250 SOLD

She says, well sure, unless it’s not for sale.”

“Oh no, it is. Sorry you caught me off guard, you see, because that’s my painting.” I probably was practically stuttering at this point.

“Honey! No way. You are not old enough to paint this well,” she said before rushing on to continue, “There have to be 5 other paintings of this very same lighthouse in here, and yours is by far the best.”

“Th-th-thank you.” I managed to get out while inwardly flipping out in excitement, but working so-so hard to stay calm and professional in my demeanor. “I hope you enjoy it very much.”

Before she was done she’d added other painting, and a hand-crafted wooden wagon with terracotta flower pots and walked out spending a mini-fortune.

Thankfully, at that point I was able to go back to the back room where I could relax and share my excitement with my boss. And, I’m also thankful that I was raised not to let someone appearance change how I would interact with them. If I had treated her under the assumption that she couldn’t afford to buy anything there wouldn’t have been any sales. Instead I treated her as a person, and a customer. Hoorah for respect being drilled into my head at a young age.

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So that was just part of yesterday. I worked a lot of hours. I started a new job. I met an influential person that could get me into subbing in a very wealthy school in NY. I sold my second painting.

My parents raised me in a loving, Christian home, where we were taught to give thanks to God for the many blessings poured out on us each day. When we lived in Germany, and were far away from any family my mom really grew in her relationship with the Lord. That’s where she fell in love with rainbows, as a sign of God’s promise of deliverance and hope (as well as never flooding the whole Earth again) and ‘rainbows’ have become known as ‘God sightings’ in our family. I see one and I not only think about God’s promise to Noah, but I am reminded of the many blessings I have, the infinite goodness of the Lord, my mother’s strong testimony,  and am just in awe.

I didn’t actually see any rainbows yesterday, but through all of the major events, every single thing made me literally picture a rainbow, and feel as though I given with a gift-a shining of His favor on my life, that in spite of the craziness of the past week, I’m still able and striving to discern His plan for my life and am trusting in Him, and with His help I’m doing ok. I couldn’t have used that at a more opportune time. I had felt led to make the choices I did, but yesterday was like a fleece, that I didn’t know I had laid out.