Our House is Special

We've been in our house for 11 years! The journey of our house was a long five months, we lost a lot of houses I really wanted, but I believe we got the perfect house for us in the end. 

My daughter and I went on a walk after lunch recently on a Tuesday afternoon on one of her home school days. I wrote about why I love the school we go to, and being able to take walks with her in our neighborhood during the week is an example of the extra time she and I have gotten to spend together. On this particular day, we ran into a neighbor one street over.

This neighbor is an artist and she showed us her latest charcoal drawing. She talked to us about the birds in their yard, the flowers she planted, and we had a nice chat together. After saying goodbye, we kept walking. I waved to a neighbor mowing his lawn outside. I don't personally know him, but we frequently see him outside working in his yard.

As we came back around to our street, we walked about halfway home and ran into a neighbor, J, who has shared so many plants with us.  

She dropped this off for us this past Christmas.

As we got to her house, the neighbor across the street had just parked their car.  J called them over to our side of the street and introduced us to each other. After our brief meeting, J explained to me how they got into the neighborhood. Their parents and siblings were down a few streets over in another part. This house was the closest they could find for their other son whom I had just met. 

J and I talked and shared some life moments. I gave her the 5-minute synopsis of my latest and ongoing family stress. She shared with me her mother had just passed. We bonded over an eternal joy and hope which helps us to keep our eyes on the prize.  

As our conversation wrapped up, the neighbor who lives next to us was walking his dog by. I noticed only one dog. I asked if they had to say goodbye to Allie. They did. She was 15. After a brief conversation about plants, we both said goodbye to J and walked down the street to our houses. This neighbor is 79 and turning 80 in June. 

By the time my daughter and I returned home, it was nearly 2:30. Being that I start work in the afternoon and work through evening hours, I have to watch the time on my "fun" to make sure I can get to work on time. Although I wasn't late by any means, it was much later than I had anticipated on making it back home. Our walk lasted nearly an hour and it was getting hot outside. 

Although I returned home physically tired and a bit stressed at having to teach 4 hours of lessons that afternoon and evening, it was joyous. I love getting to walk through my neighborhood and smile at neighbors I know and have conversations with them and share life. I love feeling the comfort my neighbors bring when I see them and being able to enjoy their company. I don't take this for granted because I know not everyone has this or feels this way. I know I didn't grow up with it in either of the houses we lived in when I was a child. 

Our house is very special. 

A Decade of "Home"

We're celebrating 10 years in our house today. The previous owner only lived here for 4 so we've been in this house 2.5x longer than they were. We bought this house as our forever home with the intention to stay here until we died. That's stayed true until recently when we saw a house that was almost "perfect" on paper. Larger square footage. Has a pool - this one gives me mixed feelings. Completely updated. 

We contacted our realtor who scheduled a showing for us. She showed it to us and we walked around. 

Kitchen - almost every single cabinet had slide out drawers. Storage galore.

Living area with built-in shelving. I love built-in shelving.

Guest room with murphy bed and Elfa wall shelving which was going to stay with the house.

Enclosed sunroom. 

I was so torn after seeing the house. It was definitely bigger than our house, but it didn't "feel" bigger than our house. My kids loved the pool. I've always wanted a pool since I was a little kid (and I've never gotten it), but it's a dream I'm willing to relinquish because after seeing the cost of pool maintenance, I would like never to own one. The fact that the pool came with this house...was a neutral aspect to me. 

The laundry room was so much larger than our current one, probably double. Much more storage space with room for a second refrigerator. Also, you won't believe it. This house had FIVE TOILETS. Yes, you read that correctly....five toilets. Every single member of my family plus a guest could use a toilet simultaneously. 

So what was stopping me from immediately buying this house? You'd be surprised, there were some things.

The largest setback was the master closet. The bathroom was updated, and it was nice, but the closet was about 1/3 of the size of our current master closet. For such a large house with so much square footage, I was severely disappointed in the size of the closet. The owners had added a wardrobe into the room which was going to remain with the house, but it still wouldn't compare to what we currently have at our house. 

The second largest setback was the garage. It was a nicely done garage, but still only a two-car garage. Our garage fits three now. My husband really loves our garage and it would take a lot for him to give it up. I don't blame him.

So did we buy the house? Are we leaving our "forever home" after a decade of renovations and memories? Did the kitchen with slide out drawers in 95% of the cabinets convince me it was worth the trouble to move? 

Nope. 

Revisiting these pictures still makes me think what a beautiful house it was. It was move-in ready. There were so many things I liked about that house. But there are still things I like about our house which that one lacks. I don't think we'll ever be leaving this house without a reason of necessity, but you can never say never with absolutely certainty either. 

We Got a New Microwave!

So typically, I enjoy house projects. I like picking out new things and doing some minor construction. However, I don't enjoy it when it happens unexpectedly. Therefore, I did not enjoy having to replace our microwave when ours started to die. 

It began one evening when we were microwaving food for dinner, and suddenly, the normal "heating" sounds didn't come on as we hit the start button. There were lights, the turntable rotated, but we could tell something was off. 

The next day, I tried using the microwave again and it seemed to be fine. This lasted about a week until it happened again. This time, we told ourselves it was time to get a new microwave and say goodbye to this one. It has served three owners well in its 20-year lifetime. 

 

 

 

Goodbye.

 

 

 

It took a little bit of online searching to realize that built-in microwaves are really just countertop microwaves with trim around to make them look built-in. After we made this realization, it was much easier to shop for one as countertop microwaves are aplenty. We purchased one and were able to pick it up that same day.

Out with the old....in with the creativity.

Putting in the new microwave was not as easy as it was cut out to be. The old trim kit had a base riser which the old microwave sat on. Well, lucky for us, the new microwave didn't work with the same base riser because the legs of the microwave were positioned differently. Unless we wanted to spend another $150-$300+ dollars buying a new trim kit that may or may not give us more grief in installation, we were going to have to get creative to find a way to sit this microwave at the proper height.

This is where we went into the garage and dug around to see what spare boards of varying thicknesses we had. Surprisingly, we have quite a few. The difficult part was finding just the right combination of boards (because we didn't have one at the thickness we needed) to raise the microwave enough to get the trim on properly.

 

 

 

This board was removed from one of our new bathroom vanities during a bathroom remodel because it interfered with the way the plumbing came through the back. It came in handy this time and served as one of the layers of our base riser.

We kept the front plate from our existing trim kit to use around the new microwave. There was a lot of test-fitting and pulling the new microwave in and out to see if it would fit. Perks of renovations and construction. Doesn't this make you want to get your hands dirty in some house projects? No? Me either.

We started this project on September 30 and finished on October 1, but it only took us 4.5 hours. How was this possible? See if you can read the clock.

We felt very accomplished after finally getting the microwave in and properly fitted with our existing trim piece. It was also very late and we were tired. We're happy to have a working microwave again and hope it can give us a good 20 years just like the last one. I told my husband, the next time we need to replace our microwave, we're going to turn the opening into a shelf so the microwave can sit inside it and there's no need for trim pieces or getting the microwave to sit at a certain height. 

Or we'll move before it happens. 😂

The Gift of Time

My memory is not as good as it used to be. I still probably remember more than the average person, and more in the specific areas I choose to remember, but I'm definitely forgetting more these days. Facebook reminded me of a memory from nine years ago during the first year we owned our house. I had actually completely forgotten our house came with a deck, a really ugly deck. 

 

Our house has a roof overhang running along the edge so the raised decking board made the entrance to the deck very low - I believe it was less than 8 ft from wood to wood. This was undesirable and we weren't going to keep it. Mentally, a bit part of my thinking was also I didn't want to keep anything left from the previous owners. We weren't going to keep it, so in the fall when the weather cooled down, we took it apart with our own two hands.

This was what it looked like once we'd gotten rid of all the above-ground parts. My husband and our neighbor eventually pulled each one of those concrete posts up one by one with a farm jack we'd borrowed. 

For a while, sitting on our patio meant this was our view. I used to close my eyes and imagine what I wanted our backyard to look like. I wanted to see a fence that wasn't oxidized. I wanted to see a cozy place to get together. I wanted to see love flourishing. I wanted to see a freeze-frame of life being lived to the fullest. And for a long time, when I opened my eyes, all I saw was an aged fence and some stretch of grass. 

A lot of love has been put into this house. I've blogged about it over the years. You can revisit them at this link if you wish. For the longest time, we put off the outside because it was "less important" than the inside. This was mostly true for a long time until our kids came along. They needed a space to play, a place to be free to run around, and a place to explore. After we had a patio paved in about 1/4 of our yard space, everything else snowballed - the playhouse, the plants, the toys, etc.

I snapped this picture of my children playing outside together one afternoon. Our backyard is not magazine worthy. It's not designed by Joanna Gaines or Shea McGee. And it almost always looks a bit disheveled and awry. But this picture completes my vision from years ago I used to merely imagine with my eyes closed. I love getting to watch my children play together and keep each other company. I love that I can grow herbs, vegetables, and flowers right on my patio. It's so satisfying to be able to walk outside with a pair of kitchen scissors and a bowl and return shortly with freshly cut green onions, basil, or peppers.

As I get older, I'm reminded of the passing time by my greying hair, added wrinkles, and joint aches. It's easy to forget how time can change things for the better, especially when it comes to inanimate or intangible things such as feelings and spaces. Over time, this backyard will continue to evolve, and one day, the playhouse will be gone. One day, the sandbox will be a relic of the past. One day, there will be four adults from our family sitting on this patio enjoying this space together.

That's the hope.

Another Cabinet

We have a running joke of tackling one house project a year. In the beginning of the year, we finished our bathroom cabinet. The year trucked on and we didn't think much about doing anything else around the house.

During the summer, I brought up the topic of painting our built-in cabinet located in our breakfast nook to my husband. We had put this off when we originally painted the kitchen cabinets...because the kitchen cabinets were already a monster to tackle and took a lot of time to DIY. This built-in was also located away from the rest of the cabinets so it could stand alone as a piece of furniture. The second reason we put it off was because the top cabinets have glass so you can see into it. This meant a more time-consuming prep and painting process.

We revisited this conversation of painting the cabinet this summer. We talked about painting it white to match the rest of our kitchen. This idea was halted when we realized we'd need to purchase a new gallon of white paint because we didn't have enough leftover in our existing gallon to complete this project. We also discovered the lip which secures the glass will not be able to be painted. So if the cabinet surface was going to be white, the lip underneath the glass would still be wood-colored. That nixed the white paint idea.

We discussed scrapping this project completely due to this hiccup, but then I brought up painting the cabinet in a dark blue paint. This paint was a random $9.00 purchase from the "oops" paint shelf at Home Depot our first year of living in this house. It's an exterior-grade oil paint, I liked the color, and we originally purchased it to repaint the trim around the windows on our back porch. As we remodeled and replaced exterior patio doors, I continued to use this paint for the doors as well. I even used the same paint to paint over some beige tiles on our window ledge. 

We made the decision to go for it and paint the cabinet blue. Walking into this project, I knew I was going to be the one painting 100%. I actually enjoy painting, and now since getting AirPods, I can knock out a number of audiobooks while painting which makes the entire process a lot of fun for me. I will forever remember Me Before You by Jojo Moyes as the book which grounded this entire project. 

Cutting in for this cabinet took hours.

The cabinet box and shelves took two days to complete - one for primer and one for paint. Painting in between all the shelves was the hardest part because none of the shelves in this cabinet are removable. Because of the glass doors on top, I had to make sure to cover every nook and cranny including the undersides of every shelf. 

Originally, the project was supposed to start after we returned from our trip. Due to having some extra time, I actually finished the inside paint and primer before we left. This ended up being a much-needed change because the fumes from the oil-based paint were heavy. This was the second time we had used this paint indoors and the fumes this time were probably 2-3x stronger than previously because there was so much more surface area to cover and much more paint used. Coming back from our trip to a non-fume-filled house was a breath of fresh air, literally. 

After our trip, I had to finish painting the doors. This took one day and I was able to paint everything outside.

I spy some creative drop cloth weights. 😅

We finished this project in three days (of actual painting) with a total cost of $0. All the materials we used were purchased from previous projects or reused multiple times. The one expense we did purchase for/because of this project was a gallon of paint thinner. I did that in order to save my $10 Zibra Triangle paint brush from being ruined by oil paint. But the actual cost of this project is still $0.

I absolutely love the finished results.

I'm really happy with the way this project turned out. It's not perfect by any means and there are visible flaws, but for the amount of time spent and the cost of the project, the results far surpassed what I thought could be done. 

My favorite part of completion was actually purchasing risers to display our little trinkets on. My mini snow globe souvenirs can proudly be displayed in the cabinet now.

A sample of my snow globes and global trinkets.

Time-Saving Changes

We recently made a change in the house which has had a huge impact on my day. Years ago, we turned our dining room into a playroom for the kids. They've happily maximized this space and played to their hearts content. However, as time passed, their toys would gradually leave the playmate and infiltrate the rooms around. Any fellow parents out there understand how this works. 

Dealing with this tornado every day I taught was really annoying.

Last weekend, we moved all the toys into a bedroom. The dining room still isn't back to being a regular dining room, but I'm okay with it. We still have a table for the kids to do homework. There's a lamp in the corner with an armchair. And the rest is empty space. You know what? I want to leave it empty.

The styrofoam wanted the spotlight.

We moved all the toys into a bedroom, and I no longer have to corral toys before my afternoon teaching. I really love it. Cleaning up after my kids really stressed me out and made me unhappy. The irony is, the mess looks the same. It's just moved into a different location in the house, one which can be closed off and hidden from view.

This is so much more bearable for me to look at.

See, I'm not kidding. It looks the same, just in a different location. But looking at their toys in my dining room made me resent them. I didn't enjoy the creations my children made. It stressed me out to see everything not put away neatly in the storage containers and clear boxes I purchased specifically to house them. 

But now, when I see their toys in the bedroom, I get excited to see what toys they pull off the shelves to play with. It's fun for my eyes to dart from one area of fun to another. I don't need to destroy their Hot wheels garages constructed out of Magnatiles because they can simply just stay put.

So I'm excited for this year because it means I don't have to do a mad dash of cleaning around my house in the half hour before my students begin arriving for the day. It means I don't have to force my children to disassemble their precious creations. It means I don't have to resent their mess of creativity and entertainment. 

That's Valuable. 

A New View

Nearly five years ago, we put in new windows for the first time with a company. We were excited. It was fun to get new windows for the house and replace the original ones. But the process was a nightmare. Our first job was scheduled to start in the afternoon, and they didn't even arrive until about 2-3 o'clock in the afternoon. They didn't leave until 8:30 that evening. New windows? Yay. The install? Terrible. 

However, we did enjoy the new windows and ended up scheduling another batch later that year. This install was much better. I requested to be scheduled as the first job of the day, and we were very particular with the installers about details. After this second batch of windows, we were done for a while. 

The windows which have always stood out in our house were our living room windows. We had repainted the wood paneling on the inside when we purchased the house, but the windows stayed the same dark brown frame with grids.

The color difference provides contrast, but I've never liked the grids.  
If it were an actual pure black color, I'd be less likely to complain,
but it was the original dark brown/copper tone.

This year, we revisited the new window conversation. My husband had always said our bedroom was particularly warm in the summer - it was. We have a south-facing window in our bedroom and it would raise the temperature by about 7-8 degrees compared to the rest of the house in the summer. I think after this year, he'd finally hit his limits and wanted to do something about it. So we called three companies and got quotes from them on the same day. 

The first quote was from the same sales rep we'd worked with before, but he had changed companies. We figured we'd call him out and see what the new company was like. It was more or less comparable to our original company. We were feeling pretty good about committing with them but wanted to wait until after the other two quotes. 

The second quote was from the same company we'd worked with before (now with a new rep). I really just wanted to see how their prices compared to five years ago since the economy and pricing has changed drastically in the last few years. He came and left within an hour.

The third quote we scheduled was with a company that had "very expensive" windows. The sales rep we'd worked with before asked us what other quotes we were getting. We told him the companies and when this name was mentioned, he immediately said, "Oh, they will be double our prices." I took this into consideration as I knew they were not going to be the cheapest company. However, I wanted to see what they offered. 

When the salesman arrived, you could immediately tell it was on a different tier of company because he came dressed in a suit and dress shoes. He did his sales presentation, brought his sample window, and we went through more or less the same spiel as the other sales reps. When he presented the numbers, he did something different than the other companies. He gave his first number which was the "actual cost" of the windows, like MSRP. Then he told us he could apply this first discount, and another discount, and then gave us the final number. Yes, it was significantly higher than the other companies, but there were a few different points he emphasized in his sales pitch which stood out:

1. They use licensed installers to install their windows - I'm pretty sure this is a stretch because there is no "license" you obtain to install windows. He had used the examples of carpenters/tradesmen to back up this claim, but I don't 100% buy it. 

2. He talked about the quality of the window and the different parts involved to keep the window insulated. This, I liked. I saw the difference in their window compared to the other window samples we'd seen before as well as the other new windows already installed in our house. I even tried to bend/manipulate the vinyl in the frame, and it was definitely stiffer than the cheaper companies.

3. He sold the install as a "sit back and relax" experience. We are in the stage of life where this is what we want. I want to allow someone to come in, fix or change something for me, and I don't have to micromanage them to make sure they're doing their job properly. If I have to pay a slight premium for it, so be it. 

4. They accepted credit cards on the entire balance with no extra fees. This is huge in today's world because when I can earn credit card rewards and points on my expenses, it adds a huge benefit, even if the actual amount I pay is greater. 

He left us alone to discuss with each other for about 15 minutes. We both agreed, we liked the quality of these windows better than either of the other two companies. However, the number he gave us was much too high. So we discussed what our bottomline would be for us to sign with this company. We arrived at that number and when he came back, we pitched it to him. 

His response was, "Sorry, I can't do that. I've already given you as many discounts as I can." And we understood and let him pack up his things and get ready to go. Then, he stopped mid-packing and said he'd try to run the numbers again and see what he could do to get us our ideal number. He got really close. He asked if we could come up $83. Sure, we could do $83. 

So right then and there, we signed contracts for windows with the most expensive company we received a quote from not intending to actually buy any windows that actual day. I made sure he understood very clearly my expectations: smooth install. no payment until everything was to my satisfaction. best crew assigned to our job. He told us the windows would be ready in about 4-6 weeks, and he was actually right. Only 24 business days later, I received the phone call saying the windows we ready. We installed a week after that. 

I have to give it to him - most of what I asked for was completed without a hitch. Did we hit some bumps during install? Yea, we did. But that's almost always the case and should be the expectation. But I'm quite impressed with the sales rep and his overall demeanor. He handled everything very positively (even though he may have been secretly scowling at me through the phone). But any form of communication with me was made in a way to make me feel like I was the most important item on his agenda. And that is a special talent which even I do not possess. 

And let's not forget, we really love the windows. 

One of the six windows we replaced. These windows do not have window
treatments so it is actually refreshing to be able to see completely out with a well-blended
white frame to match the rest of the interior. 

So how did they perform on their original claims sold by the sales rep? Pretty good actually.

1. The installer - I don't know that he actually had any license, but you could tell he was knowledgeable and knew what he was doing. We had a one-person crew come out to install our six windows and he did it in about six hours. I'm impressed. For the quality of the install and to be able to do it in six hours, you have to know what you're doing and be deft. He did just that. So I'll give it to them - at least one of their crew is a competent installer. 

2. I already felt the quality of the windows on their sample, but once installed, still nice. I also was able to see the fit of the windows during installation, and they fit very well for the measurements taken. I have a feeling one of the previous window installs we did with the other company did not do a great job of measuring....

3. Honestly, the install was as close to a "sit back and relax" situation as it could have been. I don't think I can ever fully relax when someone is working in/on my house, but it was almost. I was able to get other things done and not feel like I had to constantly keep an eye on him to make sure he wasn't cutting corners. And if you know me or have read my blog, you'll know we've had our fair share of working with contractors and the full gamut of "quality" that exists. 

4. It's true, they don't require completed payment until everything is done to my satisfaction. I've currently not paid yet because they have to come out and fix some things from the install. 

Everything in this experience has told me that spending the extra money to go with a different company instead of the cheapest one out there is worth it. This has been my mentality lately since having children because spending the time on extra hassles isn't worth saving the money. 

About the children....what were they doing for six hours while our windows were getting installed? Well, they wanted to play outside, but they didn't like the noise or want to be by the installer. So they moved all their "furniture" to the other side of the house and set up shop by themselves. 

They're so creative 😍

Subtle Reminders

The blog has been quiet lately because life has been crazy. I've been smirking at myself this entire year because in the middle of January, I distinctly remember sending one of my friends a text message: This year in 1/24ths over. And over the next few months I recalled this text with her a few times and the fraction kept getting larger and larger.

And here we are in the middle of November. The year is 21/24ths over. 

I was washing the dishes today after we returned home from school. The groceries went into the fridge, the laundry went into the dryer, and the kids were playing by themselves. My son was already outside playing in the backyard and my daughter wanted to join him. She came up to me as I was washing and told me she wanted to go outside. I told her to put her sweater on and she ran off to do so. 

After a moment of quiet, I called out to see if she was still getting ready or if she'd already ran outside. She told me she was getting her shoes on and within seconds, I heard the door open and shut. She's only five years old, but it's already happening. In my mind, I was picturing a teenager grabbing her things to leave and drive herself somewhere. Honestly, the feeling as a mother is exactly the same. I just got a sample of what is to come. 

After finishing the dishes, I cleaned up our back hallway which becomes the dumping grounds for everything when we come inside. As I brought the kids schoolbags back to the table, I happened to glance at the window and noticed a tear in the curtain. 

And just like that, I was transported back to being the mother of young children who are totally oblivious and unaware of their surroundings at times. I could almost guess exactly how this curtain came to be ripped and why the kids didn't even notice.

They like to climb on the window sill and look outside for fun. We have a table placed against the wall adjacent to this window. A portion of the table overlaps the window. It is very likely as they were playing by the window and the curtain that the curtain got shoved up against the corner of the table and tore without them even knowing it.

I'm not actually mad about it. These were the first curtains I ever bought for the house when we first moved in. They're nothing special to me. It is inconvenient that they're now ripped in the middle, but I'm not even going to bother replacing them. We also have extras anyway from when we replaced the window treatments in my studio. 

In a way, it was a nice reminder I still have little children in my house. And part of me would like it to stay that way a little while longer. 🥰

Part Two: Foresight

This is part two of a two part series. To read part one. please catch up here. 

Years passed. The Small Table was still outside on the patio. By this time, his wood was stripped on the most exposed side. The once shiny, polished finish had turned black in areas. Dust and pollen accumulated on top. The Small Table was losing hope. He had waited through many changing seasons, and still, nobody came for him. 

One day, Foresight entered this house. Foresight surveyed the area. Foresight looked inside the pantry. Foresight looked in the refrigerator. Foresight looked in the freezer. There would be a time and place for dealing with these areas. By chance, Foresight opened the blinds to the patio door and stumbled upon The Small Table. 

Foresight asked The Follower if The Small Table was being used. The Follower did not use him. There was no need to ask The Fool as that is why The Small Table was rejected in the first place. Foresight cleaned, wiped, disassembled, and transported The Small Table away.

The Small Table was elated. He was so happy to be found. He was so glad to be rescued from the patio. He was ready for his makeover.

Foresight had a vision of the beauty which could be revealed from The Small Table. There would be a new coat of paint. Choosing the color would be slightly trickier. Foresight debated white. Gray. Navy. Even a bright shade of teal was considered. But in the end, Foresight made the decision to leave the top natural and stain it. The legs would be painted white to create an elegant, modern look. 

It's so nice to have a covered workspace in the garage, even with two cars inside...😊

Of course, the actual transformation process is never easy. The Small Table had to endure a generous layer of sanding to remove all the damage and ensure an even coat of new stain and paint. On went a generous coat of stain as well as three layers of poly to protect the surface. The Small Table would be protected and taken care of. 

The first coat of primer never looks like much, but you have to trust the process.

Each of the legs was meticulously primed and painted white with a satin finish. You would never have guessed what The Small Table had been through from seeing it now. 

The Small Table hopes to be able to listen to children laughing. The sounds of voices in conversation. He wants to be colored on, be painted on. He wants to be the surface to rest bowls of freshly cooked meals. He wants to soak in the smells of various cuisines. He wants to support the pages of a book or the paper in a notebook as someone studies, completes homework, or writes for fun. Yes, he wants to be used and worn over time in these ways. Yes, he wants his surface to be occasionally scratched or marked. 

These ways, however destructive they can be, are much better than being left outside to the mercy of the weather. These ways, however destructive they can be, are much better than suffocating under a pile of things. These ways, however destructive they can be, are much better than being rejected. 

Because these are the ways in which love and purpose happen. And Foresight was able to see it. 

Part One: The Fool and the Follower

The Follower lived in a beautiful house with not so beautiful things. There were not many and the house felt sparse, but The Follower didn't care. They worked, they sufficed , and there were no complaints. One day, The Fool entered this beautiful house. The Fool took a look around and considered. This house was not beautiful enough. It needed more beautiful things. 

So The Fool went shopping and purchased items. Beautiful items. New items. And in they started. At first, it was different. Different was not something The Follower was used to. The Follower was discontent and voiced this discontentment. The Fool didn't listen. In came more beautiful things. Beautiful things became just things. The Follower slowly lost a voice, lost the discontentment, and let it happen. 

Slowly, the house of not so beautiful things that was sparsely filled became the house of overcrowded beautiful things. Items which individually could have been decorative, beautiful, lovely, now became a plethora of things, overcrowding countertops. Storage was needed to store the excess items. Beautiful things became forgotten because they were piled on top of each other. You couldn't even identify one item at a time. It was all so overwhelming to look at. 

The beautiful things all together became not so beautiful. And slowly, this once beautiful house with not so beautiful things became an ugly house with ugly things. But The Fool did not notice how ugly the things were becoming. The Fool wanted more and more. In everything came. An item here. An item there. Slowly, steadily. And The Follower did not say a word. 

In the midst of this infiltration, The Fool became discontent with a table. This table was too small for The Fool. It wasn't large enough to hold all the things The Fool wanted to display. Display is an understatement. The Fool asked for a Larger Table and The Follower obliged. 

Now The Small Table was one of the few "beautiful" items in the once beautiful house. It was a table of solid wood, kept in very good condition for its age. But The Fool didn't want it. And The Follower didn't see it. In barged the larger table. Next to a wooden shelf. Next to a baker's rack blocking a wall of windows. Next to a floor filled with wastebaskets, four on the floor within a 25 foot distance. The empty space around what used to be the smaller table lessened. The space felt even more cramped and uncomfortable. 

The Small Table was unwanted. The Follower did not know what to do with it. The Fool didn't want it. There was no space in other rooms for the smaller table to live. So you know what happened? The Small Table was relegated to the back patio. To The Fool and The Follower, it was problem solved. They didn't want it, they didn't see it.

The Small Table was now exposed to the elements. He saw the hot sun of summer and the cold snow and ice of winter. He felt the strong winds brush against his surface. A wasp made a home underneath an eave. Dust and pollen blew around him, settling on top. The Small Table stayed like this for years and years. But you know what? He was happier outside exposed to the elements than he was inside. Because inside the once beautiful house was suffocating. Inside the once beautiful house, he went unnoticed under and next to the piles and piles of things. 

Outside, he was in plain sight. Yes, he was getting weathered by the elements, but he was visible. And the smaller table made a vow to persevere until someone noticed his beauty. 

Years later, Foresight came upon this house....

Part Two

Maintenance

Every now and then I take my house for granted. I forget to appreciate the actual aesthetic beauty that it is. I forget to remember the glass mosaic tile that is in our bathroom shower. I forget to appreciate the house for what it looks like now vs what it used to look like when we bought it. 

I said to my husband recently, “Our house is in much better condition now than it was when we bought it.” His reply was: Oh, definitely. 

Now our house isn’t newer than it was when we bought it. It has aged another almost eight years since we took over ownership. And our house is entering its fourth decade since being built. The previous owners also only lived in the house for a mere four years. So how is it that it looks and feels so much newer than it did? 

Well, the easy answer is we renovated. We painted. Replaced flooring. Changed out tile. Smashed bathtubs. Removed cabinets. And made it look the way we wanted to. The hard answer? We took care of it. 

Regardless of how the house looks, care and maintenance is crucial. Without care and maintenance, a magazine-worthy house can turn gruesome in a very short amount of time. The kitchen is one of the hardest places to keep clean. Every time you cook, grease splatters, water spills, little bits of food fall out of the pan. It’s inevitable that your counters, stovetop, and probably your kitchen sink are going to need a good cleaning every so often. Growing up, we papered the back of our stove. It prevented grease splatters from staining the backsplash. I continue this tradition now and have repurposed years and years worth of brown packing paper. 

 

This is what our stove usually looks like. Brown paper on the back, dirty pots (only when I cook!) on the stove and some splatters here and there. The brown paper gets really messy after a few months and I do change it out regularly. That’s when the magic happens. 

When I remove the brown paper thats’ stained with splashed grease oil, and overall yuck, once again, it reveals the beautiful clean backsplash being protected behind it. 

If my kitchen looked like this all the time, we'd be starving because in order to keep it this clean, I'd never be able to cook.

Whenever I see the kitchen clean and uncovered, it reminds me why I put up the paper for the majority of time. I know I can’t enjoy all the backsplash behind the stove, but realistically, if I didn't put up the brown paper, the backsplash wouldn't look like this without it. I am preserving it for the next owners. I have no idea who they might be. It might be my children. It might be a complete stranger. But either way, they won’t see the remnants of life stories we lived in our house through fat, oil, and grease.

A Wood-Filled Weekend

With a sequence of events, we need to clear our some more space in our garage. One of the main things that needs to go is a bunch of wood we've saved up over the years from various projects. Before just getting rid of all of it or giving it away, I thought we should try and finish some of our own projects which have been on our to-do lists for years and years now. We accomplished both of these projects this past weekend:

1. A "box" to cover the vent hood pipe that goes into the ceiling in our kitchen. 

In April of 2021, we made the decision to vent our range hood vent outside instead of having a recirculating one. It was one of the better decisions we've ever made for our house because I love it so much. I can cook and vent the smells outside and you can't smell anything after a few hours. I don't regret anything about the project except the person we hired. For the last 1.5 years, we've been staring at a really ugly ceiling patch where the pipe connected into the attic. The pipe is also not centered, but that is secondary to the ugly ceiling.

My husband has mentioned wanting to build a box around it to hide the pipe from the beginning to fix both problems. We were finally able to use some leftover MDF board from previous projects to build a three-sided "box" to place in front of the pipe on top of our cabinets. I had used play-doh a long time ago to trace the edge of the trim against our ceiling so we could cut the appropriate edge to cover there as well. 

After a few coats of paint and primer, we had ourselves a white cabinet box to make our kitchen range hood look centered and neat. 

We will hopefully add some trim around the top of the box to match the traditional style of our kitchen as right now it looks too clean and modern. But for now, this box fixed our main issues. Total cost* of this project: $0

2. Utilizing the other half of our second blind corner cabinet.

For my birthday in 2020, I bought blind corner shelf pull-outs and had them installed. To this day I still love using them and they have been super helpful. We have one other blind corner cabinet but the same pull-outs would not work in the other cabinet because it was a smaller cabinet. 

However, this cabinet had space behind it we could use.

The open cabinet is the one with the blind corner.
We've never been able to fully utilize that space. 

This is the backside of the cabinet which allows us to
make a cut to use the blind corner.

We had talked about cutting a hole from behind and adding another door to create another cabinet in our kitchen essentially. This project never came to fruition because I wasn't convinced we had a way to cut open the cabinet to make a clean rectangular opening. This past weekend on Friday morning, I asked my husband again if we could do this project. I was also more convinced to want to do it as a way to use up some of the wood we had stored before we got rid of it all. 

By Friday evening, after the kids went to bed, we got right to work. It took us the entire evening to get the hole measured, prepped, and cut, but we did it.

Really clean cut with a multi-tool he purchased last year.
I have no problem with spending money when it can earn its value.

The next day, my husband spent the whole afternoon making drawer boxes for me. That evening, we had one installed with the sliding tracks. It took much more time than we anticipated because the drawer slides were nearly impossible to separate. We looked up Youtube Videos from different people with three different methods on how to remove them. After a lot of pulling, tugging, and frustrated grunts, we were able to separate the slides and have them installed on their respective halves. 

On Sunday afternoon, my husband finished making the cabinet door completely from scratch! We used an old piece of plywood originally from the house we had saved from a previous renovation. We added some trim to fit with the style of the rest of our house. I primed and painted Sunday evening and by Monday morning, everything was installed and complete. 

Comparable pull out shelves like this would cost $100+ each...(yes, we've looked into it.)

Yes, I've already filled them up. Will need to reorganize the
pantry now that I have more space. 

The secret passageway has a proper entrance! 

Total cost* of this project: $30.90 

I'm really pleased with the way this project turned out. I know we waited years before turning this cabinet into a reality, but now that it's completed, it's really exciting to add another 4 cubic feet of storage space!

*Cost refers to new dollars spent. All other materials we had leftover from previous projects.

Why Your Child is Fat

Last week we went to tour some model homes in the metroplex. No, we are not buying a new-build, but it was highly entertaining to be able to explore the house and indulge in the free drinks and snacks with someone who was looking. 😁 Our kids were highly entertained for an afternoon. 

We went upstairs in the model home. This particular house had a game room, separate media room, and three bedrooms upstairs with two bathrooms. In the game room, they had decorated it with some shelving and decor.

It looked fine, but upon closer inspection, I noticed a lot of the decor was created from very simple objects. I noticed there were a lot of blank books. I got curious because they looked like books with covers torn off. However, it may have been a very rustic version of bound blank paper. 

My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take one of the booklets off the shelf and flip through it to see what it was. Somehow by divine intervention or otherwise very "strange" luck, I flipped it open and  landed on a chapter title: Why Your child is Fat.

Just my luck.

After discovering this was in fact a real book with the covers torn off, I went to the front of the book to find out what kind of book I was actually holding with a chapter entitled "Why Your Child is Fat."

Ah, that clears it up. 

Clearly this was a book that ended up in the bargain pile or at goodwill and someone was looking for an inexpensive way to decorate a million dollar model home by ripping off the cover and displaying the blank page. Little did they know some overly curious visitor would dare to flip through one and reveal their secret! 

If you choose to copy this inexpensive design hack, I hope you keep in mind the curious people like me who will discover your secret. Choose wisely. 😂

Converted

I am known for my practicality and frugality. Over the years, my habits have morphed a bit to adapt to changing life stages and needs, but for the most part, these two words still describe me very well. Whenever I text my husband after a shopping trip whether for groceries or fun, he never seems too shocked. Apparently I'm not capable of spending an absurd amount of money that would actually scare him. 😂 I'll take it as a compliment. 

My husband bought me flowers this year for my birthday. Flowers have never been my "thing" because I always viewed them as spending money on something I'd throw away. So why bother? While there is truth to that, I failed to factor in a lot of other points. Fresh flowers add to the overall ambiance. They bring joy when you look at them. And they actually last a long time when you take care of them properly.

This photo was taken on day 17 of displaying this bouquet. Not bad, right? You can definitely tell they're not fresh flowers by any means, but they still bring a bright cheeriness. On the flip side, keeping fresh flowers for 17 days is no easy task. You need to cut the stems regularly, change the water regularly, and remove dying foliage to prolong the life of the blooms. It's like owning a temporary pet. 

But they do still contrast nicely to the mess spread out around the table. I've just come to accept that our kitchen table and counters have stuff on them. I've tried cleaning, really. But when there's two other people living in the same house as me who aren't nearly as responsible or careful and like to bring things from one room to the next and have no sense of putting things in their place, it makes keeping spaces neat and tidy impossible. Yes, that was a run-on sentence and I'm well aware of that. The awkwardness of that sentence further accentuates the futileness and energy-sucking-tendencies of trying to keep a neat house with little people running around. 

I still wouldn't purchase fresh flowers on a normal basis, but every now and then, I could see myself buying a bouquet, bringing out our vases from hibernation, and setting out a display for a short while. 💐

New Window Treatments

When we moved in, the windows in my studio had brown faux wood blinds. After we had the room painted, the brown no longer matched the rest of the room. We also encountered a problem where the blinds were difficult to let down all the way. This was due to the fact that the windows have trim about 1/3 of the way up the bottom of the window. This caused a discrepancy in width if you were to measure at the very top or at the bottom of the window. The person who ordered the previous window treatments did not account for this and simply measured at the top where they would be installed. As a result, you could never really get the blinds to come down all the way in a smooth, easy manner. 

The original blinds (and windows).

When I was teaching, I noticed the sun would angle in through two different windows depending on the season. In the fall and winter, the sun would come streaming in through the left window. In the summer, the sun would come streaming in through the right window. Sunset in the summer months are more of a northwest sun vs a southwest sun during the winter. My solution over the years was to hang curtains to avoid the problem of the trim and to block out the sunlight during the various months.

The curtains did their job...but didn't add much for aesthetics.

The curtains sufficed for a long time, however, they've always looked unkempt and messy. They also gave the room an illusion of taking up more space because of the puffiness of the curtains. 

This summer, I was enlightened to zebra blinds. I like to call zebra blinds the contemporary version of a roller blind. Roller blinds have been around for a very long time. In fact, there was a rainbow colored roller blind covering the window in one of our bedrooms when we moved into the house. That has also since been removed and replaced. I also realized we could hang the blinds with an outside mount instead of an inside mount. This way, we did not run into the problem of the varying widths from the window trim. 

I ordered blind fabric samples months ago and we had discussed which kind of fabric and color to choose for my studio. After a while, the idea got put on the back-burner because it was a lot of money. One day, I saw in my inbox an email from the blinds website saying they were running 45% off zebra blinds! Normally, their site consistently has them at only 25% off. I told my husband and he told me to get them. I had to rummage around the house and dig for where the samples went because I'd misplaced them for a few months. After successfully finding the samples and measuring the window, I placed the order. 

On the day the blinds were supposed to be delivered, I took my children out in the morning for a bike ride around the neighborhood. When we came back, my daughter alerted me to a tag on our front door. FedEx had come by to deliver but did not leave the package because it required a signature. I was disappointed, but I made a mental note not to leave the house the next morning. 

Later that afternoon, I saw a FedEx truck stop in front of our house. The delivery driver came back and delivered it! I don't know if they're actually allowed or supposed to do this, but it was nice of him to make a second attempt on the same day. We ended up storing the blinds for a few days before we could install because it was going to be a minimum two day process. 

The first day, we were going to uninstall the curtain rod, remove the curtains, fill the screw holes, and touchup the paint. The second day, we were going to drill new holes for the new hardware and install the blinds. Everything was going great on the first evening as we uninstalled the rods and took the curtains down. Then, we opened up our spackle to fill the screw holes only to discover it had molded.

I wish I could tell you this was rocky road ice cream...it's not

In order to get our project going and keep the timeline, we needed to patch the holes so we could paint over them and let the paint dry. That evening, I tried a new trick - toothpaste! For holes 1/4 inch or smaller, you can use a white toothpaste in place of spackle to fill screw holes. Because we had small holes and we were not going to be making new ones anywhere near the old ones, we had no problem substituting toothpaste to fill the drywall holes. 

Thankfully, our five-year-old can of paint was still good and did not go bad. We do store it inside in a temperature-controlled climate rather than in the garage where it can get excessively hot and cold. Google says latex paint can keep for up to 10 years when stored properly so hopefully we can double its longevity. After touching up the paint, we walked around the house in search of places on the walls to touch up. There were a lot more than I had thought. Between stains from contractors, crayon on the wall, pen on the wall, and scuff marks, we were able to use up most of the paint I poured out. 

I forgot how beautiful the windows are exposed, but sadly, it is not practical for what I need.

The next evening, we measured, drilled new holes, and installed the zebra blinds, and by we, I mean mostly my husband. I am super pleased with the final result. These blinds do everything I want them to. They let in light so it doesn't feel like a cave of a room, but they also block out a good amount of light so my piano doesn't get damaged and I can keep the glare out of the room during sunset. 

Much more streamlined and neat.

It was a little painful to have to move the furniture back in front of the blinds because I use a round table as a desk in the corner of the room. I am now browsing various desks/secretary desks to see what I could use to better fit the space and still meet my needs for organization, storage, and infrequent writing use.

How many of my students do you think noticed and said something to me? 😆