House at Tull Corner

An art gallery

2016-03-25T14:22:00.001-07:00

I finally accomplished a project that I have been planning for well over a year. I actually bought some of the supplies just before we moved into this house last year but they've been sitting around waiting for the art room to be ready.

Have I explained the 'art room' ever? It's technically meant to be the formal dining room in our house but the dining area in the kitchen is so large that I can't ever see a need to have a formal dining space. Partly because I'm lazy and don't want to drag my food all over creation just to eat in a fancy room. Partly because we are too large of a family to have two rooms for the same purpose. That's just silly. I currently have two full size dining tables in the kitchen with room for stools at the counter and the girls' backpacks hanging. There's no need for a whole other room. There is obviously a need for me to build a larger dining table to remedy the two tables situation but that's going to require me to wake up in the mood to build a table. Hasn't happened yet folks. Someday. I have the building plans pinned so it will happen. I should probably build a bed for the child who sleeps on a mattress on the floor first. I have priorities.

So we have what we call the art room. Others might see it more as a craft room. It's where we keep my sewing table and supplies which doubles as my desk for filing, the kids' easel, their coloring and art supplies, a couch for reading, and the toy box/ottoman that was never being utilized in the living room. I figure what better thing to put on the wall in the art room than an art gallery.

I'll link to my inspiration post below in case you want another take on the project but the short and simple is that I bought the clipboards in a set of 24, used a tape measure and level, tried hanging them by nails and realized that was not going to work, then I hung them all using 3M picture Velcro thingies.

I started with just the clipboards to the right of the thermostat but quickly realized that it looked silly and totally unbalanced so I decided to cover the whole wall.

I love this art gallery! There are plenty of spots for all four girls to hang their works and I can very easily rotate things out as they present me with new work. My older girls go to an arts magnate school so I get to change out the art quite often even when I'm being picky about what I put up. You'll also see that I put up a few snapshots of the kids at first as fillers but those will probably get replaced with original art soon.

How do you display scribbles in your home? Do you have any simple projects that have been sitting around for a year waiting for something to fall together? I needed to paint the art room before I could put up the clipboards. Before I could paint I had to find the budget to buy paint. Before I could check the budget for paint I had to remove the hideous wallpaper border that was gracing this room. If you give a mouse a cookie amiright?

I've been busy working on other things around the house so hopefully I'll be back soon to share some of those updates. It just always seems like I have to do 90 things before I can go back and finish the first item and obviously I can't just clean everything up and put my tools away if I'm still in the middle of a project. Even if I'm in the middle of twelve projects and don't finish any of them for several months. My poor poor husband.

Inspiration here: Baby Rabies

This slab wants to come live with us

2016-03-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

We watch a lot of home improvement shows. We hate some of the people on them but we watch anyways, maybe because we love to hate them. On these shows they always visit different specialty stores and shops that look beautiful and it makes the whole process seem glamorous and streamlined. Obviously there is some movie magic going on because that it not how the process works at all. I would love if the process worked like that just for one little project but things are always more difficult than you expect and there are always delays and setbacks and supremely unhelpful people along the way. Ce la vie!

Last week we got the chance to visit the stone yard and check out our slab o' granite. I expected it to be like on tv where they have tons of slabs to choose from and you pick the one with the veining and inclusions that you like best. Sadly, we learned that that isn't the case. Sad panda. But the people we worked with were very helpful and knowledgeable and really helped me stop freaking out about the counter business. We met in the showroom area where they had an island with each of the finished edges they offer and our guy made sure we wanted to stick with the edge we had chosen. He said that he was the last stop to change our minds on anything so we should make sure to check everything out and ask questions. We were very happy with our choice of a half bullnose edge. The saleswoman at Lowes had told us that a full bullnose has some drawbacks when you spill anything that goes off the edge as it will follow the full bullnose around and drip more on the cupboards where the half bullnose drips straight down. That's something I never would have thought about but, especially with four children in the house, it's a little thing that can save a lot of hassle down the road. I actually waffled for a little while because I liked the look of the square edge but I remembered how often I have to clean cemented on cereal off the edges of the counter and decided that more of a curve was only going to help me out. Neither of us liked the look of the Ogee edge. I feel like it would look best in a fancy powder room maybe. It definitely didn't fit my goal of more clean lines in the kitchen.

Our guy then took us back into the warehouse where they did have awesome rows of stone. Unfortunately, in the color that we had chosen, they only had two pieces of granite available and those were going to be the two we were getting. He explained that when they order a bunch of slabs they all come from the same rock and basically all look exactly the same so even if there were more slabs, there wouldn't be any big differences for us to choose from anyways. But the whole point of the trip was to see it up close and full size to make sure that what we saw on a the little 3 inch square at the store was truly what we wanted. And it was definitely everything we could have hoped for. It's a beautiful shade of gray with some red in it that keeps it from feeling too cold. I cannot WAIT to see it in my kitchen. 6 more sleeps!

I would have loved to take the time to look at each kind of stone they had and just drool over everything but obviously that wasn't necessary so back to business.

After we confirmed that we liked the stone, he showed us the layout of our counter and how they would cut each piece and where the seems would lay. M had seen this at the store when he went to sign the final contracts but it was nice to envision it a little better laid out on the stone. We also went back into his office to seen what their seems generally look like and talk about care and upkeep of our granite.

We were told that the color that we chose, Moon White, tends to be more porous than darker colors so the sealer they apply may not last as long. Usually they recommend resealing in 5-7 years but he said we may start to see signs closer to 3-5 years and then we'd want to seal it again. He explained that the sealer seeps into the stone and after that much time it is no longer sitting on top, protecting the surface, but sitting a few millimeters into the stone so you can get water spots and have the risk of staining at that point. He also told us that anything acidic is going to damage the finish so I can't use my standard vinegar water to clean my counters anymore. Womp womp. My crunchy little heart is sad but I'm going to do some research to see what green cleaners I can use instead. He said that there are tons of products out there made specifically for granite so it's not going to be too spendy or difficult, just not as cheap a plain old vinegar. He also said the if we did see any stains we could try to clean them by making a paste of peroxide and flour and letting it set on the stain for a little while with plastic wrap covering it. And finally, we were told that we can use a razor scraper blade to get rough spots off. There are a few spots at our old house that I should probably go back and scrape smooth one of these days. I should also give the renters a heads up about having to seal the granite over there eventually. Hopefully we'll get at least another couple years before we have to do that but I should probably put it on their radar.

Alright. So. We looked at our granite. We learned how to take care of it. We spent too much money at Sam's Club. We ate sub-par pizza at a chain buffet place. And then we stopped into a furniture consignment shop to browse and it got my head spinning with ideas for the some of our problem areas. There's no money to solve these problems but I have lots of ideas. Isn't that always the case though?

Package the second

2016-02-25T18:03:00.001-08:00

Shall we go back to opening my mail? Yes, yes we shall. To go along with my beautiful sink I bought it some bling. My sink that has been taken from me. My sad sad lonely sink sitting in a box somewhere not being loved.

Did you guess that it was a faucet? I'm actually really unsure about this little beauty. I love it's curves and the way she feels in my hand. I love all the things I've heard about her. But just dry fitting it into a sink on my floor hopefully doesn't do it justice.

It has a pull down sprayer with a button on the back of the spray head that switches it from the normal output to a more spread out spray. I've wanted a faucet like this for awhile but can't say that I know anyone that has one that I could really test out so this is one of those things that SEEMS like a good idea but could really go either way. When I set it up like this I didn't tighten the faucet to the sink fully, mostly because I put the collar piece on backwards and was not about to go to the effort to switch it around, so it was a little wobbly and I was struggling to get a picture taken with it upright. I was also having problems getting the sprayer head to stay up where it belonged. I'm really hoping this has something to do with it not being fully installed and not having water in the lines. I'm really hoping.

I wanted to buy a faucet with a magnetic docking system but they are a little more expensive and didn't fit the budget we were trying to stick to. If this sprayer head doesn't stay docked and becomes a nuisance, like many reviewers on other faucets complain, then I'll definitely push to spend a little more the next time. But I spent so much time comparing prices and trying to figure out from awful photos online which one was truly the prettiest that I really hope this gal works out for us. Honestly, for some reason, when you are looking at faucets for the kitchen and bathroom there is a big difference in style between the less expensive options and the options that come when you drop some more money.

I don't find that to be the case with most things in the world. Yes, I drool over expensive light fixtures and clothing and appliances but I also find that there are plenty of beautiful items in lower price ranges too. Maybe I was just being overly picky in my search for sink fixtures but it seemed like every faucet had something wrong with it. I didn't like the handle on one and the curve of the neck on another and so many things just seemed a little off. This faucet that I ended up with flares out at the head just a little less elegantly than I'd like but really, in the grand scheme of my kitchen, I don't think that's going to end up being a deal breaker.

I'm so excited and anxious to get my new counters installed! I feel like something terrible is going to happen and we'll have spent all this money and end up hating it. I'm not sure why I feel that way. Does everyone feel like that during a big renovation? I've never had this anxious feeling before but every other project has been something I've done myself or something my dad has been mostly in charge of so I know that there's always the option to change things in the middle of the project. I've always had a measure of control over every aspect of a project. Even when I'm building something and I'm not entirely sure that it's going to turn out perfectly, I don't get this feeling because I figure I only have myself to blame for the mistakes I see in the end. Bleh, I just want it all done already so I can stop feeling so anxious and so I can have a pretty new kitchen.

Counters are a-coming

2016-02-23T15:40:00.001-08:00

Today was counter templating day. We've done a lot of renovations to our various homes and I've been privy to my parents building their last two homes so I've seen plenty of trades go in and out but this is a process I've never been a part of. We ordered our counter tops through Lowes and the first part of the process was to choose the stone, choose the edge style, and pay for the labor and materials based on the estimated square footage that I gave them. We choose a granite counter top after several trips to the store, some internet research, and being absolutely certain we were going to purchase quartz. This is becoming a theme in this kitchen. I hope this all turns out for the best and we never feel like we're settling for less than what we wanted! We had granite in our last house and loved it. The only reason we had decided against it was reading about how it should be sealed every year. We hadn't had problems with our old counter but I wanted something maintenance free. While we were discussing this choice with the sales woman, she told us that their granite has a 20 year warranty on the sealer. It took us approximately 12 seconds of looking at the prices difference and the sample stones and we were sold on granite once again.

We were super pumped to learn that the granite we liked, that she pulled out of a drawer like it was a super special secret option, was from a local counter place in the nearest city. Which means we get to go there and look at all the slabs and choose the actual one they will cut our counters from. Just like on HGTV! Have you ever gone to a stone warehouse? Did you just fall in love with every piece you saw?

This templating process was the second step in getting our counters. A guy from the counter company came out with special tools to take precise measurements, make a diagram, and take my preeeecious sink away with him. See, their company has templates for sinks from most of the larger companies and while they have them for Swan products, my sink is maybe from a new line they haven't seen yet. He said that normally they just say they can't cut out the sink in these cases (WHAT?! What do people do in that instance? I mean, I guess buy a new sink?) but that because they normally do Swan products, he was given permission to bring the whole kit and caboodle back with him. I tried just offering him the paper template they had sent but he took my new beautiful baby. He says they'll bring it back when they install the counters.

The whole thing took almost two hours and after he had left I realized that I had completely forgotten to ask him to include a new window sill. Ack! My brain raced as I tried to think what the best solution was. Maybe I should call him. Maybe when we go to choose the slab we could just give them the measurements. Thank goodness I had the sense to look out at my driveway to see him sitting in his car still. Whoop! I took a minute to screw up my little courage and ran out in the rain to beg him to come back in. He told me that he usually asks about sills so at least I'm not the only one who forgot. Thankfully he didn't have to adjust his template at all. He just wrote down the measurements and said it wouldn't be a problem. Whew!

Now we wait for them to figure out the actual size based on their measurements and then they'll reconcile that with the amount we paid and we either pay more or get a refund. I'm willing to bet that people almost never get a refund but I would love for that to be the case! We'll be digging in the couch cushions to find any additional sheckles to cover this project. But I'm so excited to have new counters. We chose a stone called Moon White. It's mostly gray with some white and some red spotted through it. Of course the stone sample was a 4x4in square so I'm terrified we'll see it in full and decide we hate it. I'll take pictures when we go to the stone yard.

Mail day

2016-02-22T15:08:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile. How've you been? How are things? And your family?

We have a lot of exciting changes going on around our house and it finally feels like I can be excited instead of overwhelmed by this house. We closed on our current house, Hilltop Manor, almost exactly one year ago and it has been wonderful and stressful and exhausting and fun. I'm hoping to catch you up on what I've done so far and where we still need to update things but today I thought I'd share my mail with you! I got some super fun packages and I can't wait to see everything come together.

Of course I had to open the largest box first and inside was my preeeecious. It's basically exactly what I said I didn't want and I lurve it so much! I wanted something colored, maybe even black as a strong accent against the rest of our light colored kitchen. I was looking at composite granite. Our current sink is white porcelin or enamel and I hate it with a passion. It stains easily and gets scratched by silverware. We had decided on a black tectonite sink from Lowes that was around $150 because the composite granite sink was closer to $250 and we are stingy and they looked exactly the same. However, when the time came to actually purchase our items, the sink we had decided upon had been discontinued and there were no options outside of stainless available in the same price range. Our goal had been to buy everything we could through Lowes at the same time to take advantage of special financing but we couldn't pull the trigger on a sink we hadn't researched that was twice as much as we had been expecting to spend.

All of that turned out to be a blessing because I went home and researched my little heart out and stumbled upon this lovely sink at Jet. It's a Swanstone sink, which is something that sounded vaguely familiar but wasn't something I could place in my jumbled brain. I read their website. I read reviews. I googled. And I learned that this was what I had been looking for. Something that is heat resistant so I can put hot pans directly into the sink and keep them out of reach of little hands when I'm no longer in the kitchen. Something that is drop/impact resistant so that my little helpers aren't as likely to damage it throwing dishes into the sink. Something that doesn't stain or scratch. According to their website and can clean it with bleach and I can scrub it with anything short of a metal scrub pad and it's even resistant to acetone. We'll see how long it takes for my carelessness to damage this sink. I'm not gonna lie, I am not awesome at taking care of my things. I like to set hot pans down without putting down a trivet. I put everything in the dishwasher. That's just how I roll and I know I'm not going to change any time soon so we're planning our new kitchen to withstand my horrid treatment.

I've been told by my 7 year old that this is a long blog. I guess that means you get to see what was in my other packages another time. Until then here's a picture that little B demanded I take when she saw that I had my big camera out.

Before we even begin

2015-02-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

We talk as if the purchase of the new house is a foregone conclusion but, as in all real estate transactions, we do need to be prepared for things to go south and fall apart. The fat lady has not sung until we have left the closing with keys in hand. I think that's what leads to the most frustration during the home buying process, knowing that there's always a chance you could lose all of the things you've been dreaming about. But let's move on like that isn't in the back of our minds shall we?

I have lists. Oh boy do I have lists! I also have Pinterest boards and flooring samples and pictures on my phone. But the first list is of all the things that need to be addressed before we make the big move. We'll have to slowly start taking things over to entertain the kiddos while I work on the house but that is just a drop in the bucket. If the bucket were the size of a double garage packed full of our stuff that we packed for staging. No joke. Our garage has become my Monica's closet.

So here's the list in no particular order:

pull carpet
paint baseboards
replace outlets with gcfi inside & out
epoxy garage floor
remove insulation above water heater to dry and replace
get bids for electrical work
get exterminator estimates for quarterly service
place stick down linoleum tiles under sinks
cover one junction box and add another in the attic
replace kitchen light fixture (M would hit his head on the current one)
get plumber to repair tub assembly
replace exterior knobs and locks
price, select, and schedule new carpet
buy microwave
install baby gates at top and bottom of stairs

Anyone else feeling like this is going to take me a little longer than the two weeks I'm shooting for? Ugh!

Our home inspection rundown

2015-02-03T20:13:00.001-08:00

Home inspections. I absolutely recommend getting a professional inspection done at any property that you are thinking of purchasing. If you are a general contractor or home builder then I can see how you might be qualified to do your own home inspection and I'll let you off the hook. Anyone else would be foolish not to get another experienced pair of eyes looking at every detail. You might be the best DIY handyman or handywoman out there but you are emotionally invested in this purchase. You are picturing the end result of paint and finishes and, if this is the home you plan to live in, your stuff in certain places. You're going to miss things. I've gone through this process 5 times and I always miss things.

During our home inspection there weren't many things that came up that we were unaware of but the few things our inspector found were totally worth spending the money to know about. The thing that concerned me most was a water leak that has obviously been an issue for awhile. We knew something was going on due to the hole in the ceiling below the second floor bathroom but the inspector was able to confirm that it wasn't going to be too major to get the tub assembly fixed. There is also a lot of questionable electrical work happening but only one actual super dangerous spot that needs to be addressed asap. He did point out that there is some shifting happening with the chimney that needs to be watched and is something we may not have seen until it was a much bigger problem. He also checked the air flow and heat in each room and suggested that we have an HVAC specialist come out to look at the master bedroom vents. The problem with these vents is that they run through the concrete slab and truly could become a big ole mess if we have to do too much to them. Thankfully it is just the two vents in the master and we aren't too scared of the implications.

Beyond those items there are lots of little cosmetic things like holes in drywall and missing trim and a leaky sink sprayer. We learned from the neighbor that the pool definitely needs a new liner which is not a small expense but is something we can do after we have sold our current house because obviously the pool is a luxury that we can live without for however long we need to.

We haven't gotten a hard closing date from our closing company yet, which is an endless source of annoyance, but we do have deadline to meet in order to close within 45 days of HUD signing our contract. If we cannot close on time, we will need to apply for an extension and pay $375 for the honor of waiting longer to get our new house. Can you tell I'm not thrilled by that idea? It makes me so angry. That money doesn't pay for anything. It doesn't go towards closing costs or the purchase price. Just light it on fire and kick it around. I will be one irate lady if it comes down to that because we have done everything we need to do within hours of it being requested and we are just sitting around waiting on the closing company to do their work. We know that market in our area is rreeeaalllyy slow right now so it's not like they are swamped with closings so it feels like someone is sitting with it on their desk with a post it note to work on it at the last possible second. I'm sure that's not true and I'm just a bitter wench.

Okay, next time for real is the big listy loo of things that need to happen before we move into the house. Do you work for a closing company? Can you explain to me why it takes so long and why they can't tell us when it's going to happen? Our deadline is less than two weeks away and we're getting very antsy. I keep hoping they'll call and tell us we can close tomorrow. That would be lovely my friends.

P.S. I'm posting this without proof reading because my eyeballs are getting blurry and I'm going to bed now. Please grant me grace on any typos and/or poor structure. I do my best.

After you win the bid - Buying a foreclosure

2015-01-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

Congratulations! You won the bid. Now panic. There are a lot of rules and regulations and all the paperwork must be completed in a timely fashion and completely correctly. This is truly where having a knowledgable real estate agent is going to help you. Find someone who has been through the process more than once or, if you have an agent that you really love, make sure they have someone in their office who can walk them through the process.

After winning the bid you will be required to fill out the purchase contract in full and have it sent back within 48 hours. HUD will then review the contract to ensure you haven't made any mistakes. Make sure that you sign the forms with your full legal name including your middle initial each time you sign. That and remembering the actual date was much more difficult for me than it should have been. In my defense, I have an extra last name that I never use and haven't signed anything other than a receipt in a long time. They get to take as long as they want. This is the hurry up and wait thing I was talking about.

I'm still a little unsure about the accuracy of some of the information I've gotten through our realtor so please make sure that you check with a professional but this is what I've been told. The contract says that you have 45 days from the initial acceptance of your bid but we have been told that we have 45 days from the day we received the signed contract back from them to close on the purchase. Our goal is to close as soon as possible but I'm a little concerned that this question of the date is going to come back to bite us. You are given 15 of those days to do a home inspection and if something comes up on the inspection that you cannot live with you can get your earnest money returned as long as you back out within that 15 days. If you wait too long you will lose your earnest money.

The inspection process for a HUD home is a little more challenging than it is for buying a normal home. HUD homes always have the utilities turned off and they are winterized from October to May. You absolutely must get authorization from them to have the utilities turned on before you schedule the utilities. Then you may schedule the utilities and your inspection. This means you are paying deposits and fees for all utility companies plus the amount you pay for your inspection. Some buyers will choose not to get an inspection but as an owner occupant, I want to know what I'm getting into and am not yet confident enough in my abilities as a do-it-yourselfer to forego a professional inspection. You are buying this home AS IS so don't get in over your head.

We had a small snafu which turned out okay but led to a lot of frustration on my part. We were told by our agent to go ahead and schedule everything. Then we were told at 10 o'clock that night to cancel everything that had been set up for the next day because we didn't have authorization. When I read the authorization form I learned that we could have lost our earnest money by jumping the gun. It was annoying but not the biggest thing in the world. So one day I called and set everything up, the next day I cancelled and we got the authorization, the next day I set everything up again, and today we finally had our inspection.

Thankfully, there were no big things that came up in the inspection that were enough to scare us away. There are so many little things that I can't even remember them all but most of it was stuff we had already seen and we shouldn't need to call in professionals for most of it. I'm so excited to share pictures and plans with you but I don't want to share any photos until we've closed. Stick with me through the rest of the process. We will be contacting our lender tomorrow to get the appraisal scheduled and hopefully they'll help us get closed quickly. We didn't want to pay for the appraisal until we knew for sure that there was nothing on the inspection report that would prevent us from completing the purchase. Ultimately $450 is a drop in the bucket but it's still a lot to shell out if you don't need to.

Okay, next time I'm going to do a quick run through of the inspection and problems we found. Then there shall be a gigantic list of things we want to do with the house. There are so many decor choices that we just don't agree with and I will be so happy when they all get the heave-ho.

Bidding on a HUD owned property

2015-01-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Last month we placed a bid on a HUD owned property. I did a LOT of googling and reading to try to make myself as familiar as possible with the process and ultimately, I wish I had trusted my own knowledge a little more along the way. I cannot repeat this enough, BE AN EDUCATED HOME BUYER! Do your homework and make this a priority for however long the process takes. It is obviously important to work with knowledgeable professionals and people you trust but the only person you can really count on to be working 100% for you is you.

The HUD listing process, at least where I live, has a few parts to it. The first bidding cycle is open to Owner Occupant buyers. This must be someone who intends to buy the home and live in it as their primary residence for at least two years. After you close on the purchase you must move in within 6 months. You can only purchase a HUD home as an owner occupant once every two years. If there are no bids accepted during the owner occupant cycle, they open the bidding up to anyone who wants to purchase the home. This is where flippers and those who want to buy rental properties will come in. An owner occupant is usually going to end up spending more on the home than someone buying it during the second cycle would.

When we were looking at the Manor (I've decided my home needs a fancy name but can't come up with anything more clever so for now, The Manor it is) it was obviously in the owner occupant stage. The home was listed and managed by a somewhat local company and they had placed it on the MLS so it showed up on all the house listing sites and apps that we follow. M and I both looked at it several times and talked about it and how it might work for us. We were excited about it and the price was amazing for what we saw in the listing photos. We had already lost one property that we thought was going to be our new home so we had been in the mind set that we weren't even going to look at anything until we had an accepted offer on our current house. The Manor made all those plans go flying out the window. We made an appointment to see the house with our realtor and, as I've already said, that showing ended up being in the dark and pouring rain. But we were smitten even in the dark.

HUD listings have a certain time period in which you must place your bids and you normally will not ever know if anyone else has placed a bid or what price they have bid. The home has a listing price to give you an idea of what the house is worth but you can bid anything you want. If you think nobody else is going to bid on it, you can bid a total lowball offer and hope that you are the only bidder. We knew that this house was listed much lower than what it sold for the last time and that it was worth more so we decided to bid above the asking price. We were pretty sure there were going to be other bids and we didn't want to lose but we also didn't want to bid too much. But, never knowing what anyone else bids makes it just a pure guessing game. Our agent suggested we bid an odd number because she knew a woman who often won bids by a dollar or two.

You must use an agent who has a registered number with HUD to place your bid and they enter it online. Once the bidding period closes you will usually have a response within 2 business days as to if your bid was accepted. We heard back the very next morning that our bid had been accepted! We were so excited but then the realization that we are very soon going to be the owners of two houses (again) set in and we got a little apprehensive. HUD properties are sold as is and will not accept any contingencies. So we knew going in that this was a risk. But nothing risked means nothing gained!

I told you that you normally don't know if there are any other bidders or what they bid but we found out through the grapevine that there was at least one other bidder on our house. We learned that bidder #2 had placed a lower bid and then last minute they called and raised their bid. Unfortunately for bidder #2, the amount they raised their bid to was just $73 dollars less than the bid that we had placed and we won.

I hope that this is a somewhat helpful walk through the HUD buying process. I would love to answer any specific questions you might have about bidding. Next time I'll talk about what happens after you win the bid. This whole thing is very 'hurry up and wait' and can be frustrating. Even more so when your agent, however much you like them, is not familiar with the process.

Still on the market

2015-01-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

We listed our house for sale 7 months ago. We had several showings in a row, then nothing for a few months, then several in the few days before our listing was set to expire, and then nothing again. I've taken new photos of some of the rooms because my real estate agent is not a great photographer and once we get them online we plan to lower our price and hopefully get some new eyes on the photos.

We were under contract for a home across town that we loved and I had big plans for the renovations I was going to do but our contract was contingent on our home selling and expired while we sat with no interest. At the time it felt like we were going to lose the perfect house and I'm still sad to lose some of the things it offered but that house, which we called The Pink House, is still on the market but our feelings towards it have cooled. Mostly the husband was concerned about the fact that the house had had structural piering done about 12 years ago. The owners had only done the absolute minimum amount of piers when there were many more recommended. We would have had the home inspected by a structural engineer before completing the purchase but even that is no guarantee that there wouldn't be further shifting in a year or five. So we moved on.

Last month we saw a listing for a HUD owned property and couldn't believe how nice it looked. My husband was more excited about the pictures of this house than any property we had looked at or driven past or talked about in all of our house hunting throughout the years. We went to look at it with our realtor on a rainy evening with a camping lantern and a garage light because there was no electricity in the house and it was pitch dark out. We couldn't reschedule because time was running out on the listing and we needed to get our butts in gear to even think about making a bid.

In short, we both loved this house. It was move in ready enough for M to not be afraid of it and has enough needs for me to feel like I can make it our home. If you've never gone through the HUD home buying process it all feels very 'hurry up and wait' and there are so many hoops to jump through that I'm exhausted just thinking about it. We did put in a bid on this house and I'll tell you more about the process but I want to take it one step at a time. Next time I'll explain the bidding process and how it went for us.

Have you ever purchased a HUD or REO property? Would you do it again? What was the hardest part of the process in your experience?

brain no makey clever title

2014-08-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

My brain is all clenchy and my eyes are hurty and I just want to crawl into a dark hole and cry. But my job allows no time off so I'll just whine instead. My migraines have changed their patterns after each baby and I am not liking this new schedule. Every month, along with my joyous cycle, I get to suffer from a migraine for 3 days. And the nausea is overwhelming. Just yuck.

We had a showing today so we all spent the entire morning cleaning and organizing things to show the house and rushed out the door. We found out immediately afterwards that the people thought it was too small and they have 5 kids. I fail to understand how a person can look at a real estate listing and not know immediately that the square footage is to small for a family with 5 kids. You should know how large your current home is and whether or not you need something bigger. Tip of the day: be an educated home buyer. Watch HGTV for a full weekend. Look at every listing in your town. Do drive bys in the neighborhood of anything that catches your eye. Do this at different times of the day and different days of the week. Know what square footage you need and don't look at anything smaller unless your realtor knows that there is something wrong with the listing.

Can I answer any real estate questions for you? I consider myself a very educated home buyer and would love to help you to be the same. Is anyone looking right now? I love the search for a new home but trying to sell is my least favorite thing in the world. I do wish that I hadn't even looked at new houses until we had sold this one but even knowing now that I feel that way, I probably won't do anything different in the future. It's too much fun and everyone always wants to skip to the fun part.

All I do is feed people

2014-08-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm in a place where I feel like all I ever do is feed people or think about what to feed people or shop for food to feed people. It is never ending and takes up all of my time.

We're currently on the market trying to sell our house. I love this house for many reasons but it just isn't working for our family right now and we need something bigger. We've been on the market for about 2 months with no real interest yet so I'd love any prayers or good vibes you have to send the right people our way. I know there's someone out there that is perfect for this house.

And finally, my tip of the day! Hopefully this will be a new thing that I can keep up with. My big girls are back to school as of Wednesday and while it is nice to have more time to focus on my little ones, the early mornings are not my favorite. In order to help with packing lunches, my goal this year is to stay one day ahead whenever possible. So when I'm making lunch for W and myself on Monday, I will make extra for the big girls lunch on Tuesday. This works really well for sandwiches because you can freeze them and then they will stay cold until lunch time. It also works well because I already have all the stuff out and have a knife dirty and it's easy enough to just make 3 of whatever W is having. I want to get some metal thermoses for them so that I can start packing some warm items but that can wait until the weather cools off a little. It's pretty hot in the south in August so they don't really need a warm lunch anyways.

What school lunch tips do you have? Thankfully the older two don't have any food sensitivities or allergies so I don't have to get too creative to get them a balanced lunch but I would love some ideas for getting veggies in at lunch time. They are tired of sugar snap peas, carrots, and bell peppers. Silly girls!

~Heather Tull

Accidental Cavegirl

2014-03-03T13:07:00.001-08:00

I've decided to start chronicling our journey through food sensitivities and a modified paleo diet in another space so this page can remain dedicated to my diy projects and crafty things. That space is going to be for those who are interested in a new way of looking at food or who are struggling with food sensitivities in themselves or a family member. Baby B and I would love to have you check out our new digs at An Accidental Cavegirl but make sure to stay tuned here for me to finally get my act together and tell you about the projects I've been working on. I miss you guys!

Bean burgers, yum!

2014-01-16T13:51:00.002-08:00

Sometimes you don't have everything you need to complete a recipe. Like the main ingredient. Sometimes this happens several times a week. You know, to some people. Certainly not me...

I had pinned a recipe for black bean burgers but my pin mysteriously disappeared so I ended up googling black bean burgers to find a recipe. It was less than 15 minutes to supper time, I already had tater tots in the oven, and my baby was screaming her head off so I choose the quickest one I could find. I went to the pantry where I the cans of beans seem to multiply daily and of course, not a single can of black beans to be found. But because I half-ass my meals like I do pretty much everything else, I soldiered on with some navy beans because they were the can in my hand at the time.

Now, I sort of followed the recipe I had looked up but altered it enough that I feel safe saying this is my very own recipe (ha! Almost like I know what I'm doing or something) and I'm going to share it with you because my 10 year old ate THREE patties. We ate them with forks and ketchup because we didn't have any bread or hamburger buns. We had hamburger buns but someone in this house doesn't realize that I only buy buns when I have a plan for them and always eats them before I can get to that meal. Also, not very good at laundry sorting. He makes me crazy. Any ways, here's my recipe.

1 can navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
half a yellow onion
half a green pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 egg
1 tbsp chili powder (I used less b/c of the small ones)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Frank's wing sauce (I'm obsessed with this stuff, use more if you like it hot)
1 cup panko

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium bowl, mash the navy beans well with a fork. Add kidney beans and mash not quite as much (because they are harder and you are lazy). Whiz up the onion and green pepper in the food processor. Add them to the beans, throw in everything else and mix well. Form into patties (or balls that you toss on the pan and then smoosh) and bake on a baking sheet for 10 minutes per side. At the end you can broil for a few minutes to add a little color if you would like. This made 7 for me but I wasn't being careful about making evenly sized patties or trying to make them fit on a bun.

I think this would work with any kind of beans you have on hand. I thought about brushing them with egg to get some more color on the outside but then I didn't want to deviate quite that much so I didn't. Try it and let me know if it works or if it makes them gross and weird. This doesn't taste anything like a hamburger but my kids liked them. They added cheese and the 5 year threw some tots on top, which was genius! With the recipe as listed it was a little spicy but nothing they complained about so if you actually enjoy spicy food (I don't) you would want to up the heat factor.

Go forth and eat beans. Don't blame me if you end up accidentally giving your spouse the dutch oven effect.

6 weeks

2014-01-06T11:36:00.000-08:00

Soooo, it's been awhile. We have a baby yo! A real live, cranky ass baby making our lives all kinds of difficult. She's beautiful and healthy and I feel horrible for complaining but this child is what one might call high needs. We're not sure if she has a food sensitivity like big sister W or if she's just not happy with her lot in life. Either way, we do a lot of bouncing and rocking and even more breastfeeding. That all leaves very little time for DIY and home renovation. But never fear! I still have two furniture builds to show off and we're hopefully going to start searching for our next house soon so that means I need to get my butt in gear and get this house ready to sell. I also have a giant hole in the wall that needs to get a bifold door installed so you can watch me struggle through that. But here is the reason for my radio silence.

Her arrival neccesitated some room switching. We currently have three bedrooms for our four girls so someone has to share. Baby B is still sleeping in our room but I wanted to make all the transitions before her arrival so that the older girls could adjust without blaming this new kid for disrupting their lives.

It was decided that our five year old would share a room with our two year old and that the baby would have her own room but all the toys in the nursery are for everyone. All the girls spend a lot more time playing in there now than they ever did before, which is just par for the course with these contrary ladies. This room sharing meant mama needed to build some bunk beds. I'll get into that project a little more next time but it was my first major solo project and it's still standing so I'm pretty proud.

The girls are doing really well sharing a room but closet space is lacking a little. So of course mama thought 'I can fix that' and out came the Sawzall and crowbar and now there's a big hole in the wall. The projects just never end because I never finish one before starting another. I can't wait to share more pictures and projects with you soon!

But right now my thoughts are trending more towards food and babies and so shall this little blog of mine until Baby B is big enough to give me the time to work on my projects again. I'm itching to stain some cupboards and build some stools but I'm struggling to shower on a regular basis so extra things will have to wait. I'm off the watch Season 3 of Breaking Bad while the whole country flips out about being so frickin' cold. Ta!

Chachacha changes!

2013-05-17T14:33:00.001-07:00

We've been working on a little project over here that has little to do with home improvement but a lot to do with why I haven't had the energy or ambition to write anything or do any home improvement lately.

Baby number 4 is due to arrive around November 19th and we're very excited. I hope that now that morning sickness has passed I can share a few pictures of what I have managed to do around here lately and then get working on some new projects. There is a bed to be built very soon before I get too big to want to haul around heavy boards. But first I really need to clean my house because my poor family has been living in filth the last few months while I laid around like a lump of uselessness. I'm not good at being pregnant or being in labor but we make such amazing children that we just couldn't stop at 3.

Thanks for not abandoning me during my lack of posting. I might do better. I'm not great at follow through so I make no promises. :)

Crockpot magic

2013-03-28T08:36:00.003-07:00

I have this habit of just throwing a bunch of stuff together for supper and then my whole family loves it and thinks it's delicious and I can't remember a single thing I used. It happens with pasta and roasts and chicken. Of course there are super supper fails too so I can't just depend on always throwing together something wonderful. So I'm going to try to record some of my expiraments here and maybe I'll even come back and tell you how they went and post a photo or two.

Today's supper is going to be a pork roast with mashed potatoes and lima beans. I took a pork shoulder picnic roast and rinsed it well and threw it in the crockpot. I mixed together 1 cup of water, about 1/4 cup soy sauce, about 4 Tbsp A1 steak sauce, 3 Tbsp red wine, some jarred roasted red peppers, and a small handful of sun dried tomatoes. I poured that all over the roast and set it to low where it will stay for about 8 hours.

I know that the soy sauce and A1 are a safe bet but I'm a little worried that the red peppers and tomatoes won't go in the direction I'm trying for. We'll see I guess. With a roast you can always cover it in BBQ sauce or ketchup if it isn't amazing and nobody will know the difference. I mean, that was totally your plan all along. BBQ sauce covers a multitude of sins and salt makes mistakes taste good.

What's for supper at your house? Do you even eat supper or is it dinner or something else? My dad eats breakfast, dinner, supper, and anything in between is called having a little lunch. I eat breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacks because most people understand what those words are supposed to mean and dinner is just too confusing.

Hydrate

2013-03-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

I've made it my goal lately to drink a full 64 ounces of water every day. It is not unusual for me to go an entire day without having anything at all to drink so this is a HUGE change for me. I've been hounded my entire life by my dad to drink more water and now by my husband but a long string of UTIs has finally convinced me that I need to get serious about this.

The best tips I can give if you also struggle with staying hydrated is to buy a 32 oz bottle. Sort of like this (affiliate link is just to illustrate the type of bottle I mean, I got mine as a free giveaway at an Ag show).Nalgene 32 oz. Narrow Mouth Loop-Top Bottle BPA Free (Google Affiliate Ad) It makes it soooo much easier to remember how much water I've had to drink in a day. Very few people actually know how many ounces of water they drink because they use regular cups and glasses and then you lose track of how many times you've filled it. Most people don't really have to think about it too much because they have this affliction they call thirst. I don't seem to ever have that. I think I'm broken.

So yeah, making it idiot proof helps. Also a lot of Crystal Light and SO many trips to the bathroom.

to my 16 year old self

2013-03-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

Here's another post in my series on things I want my kids to know someday. My oldest daughter is going to be 10 this year and it's starting to become so very real to me that she will one day be more than a child. Someday she'll be friends with people who are doing drugs and having sex and *gasp* going to church. She's going to be introduced to things outside my realm of control and she's not going to take my word as the TRUTH anymore. Shit is too real y'all.

Tens things I would love to tell my 16 year old self (that she wouldn't even hear because she'd be too busy doing her own misguided thing)
1. You are beautiful! You do not need to make boys want you because they already do and you are trying too hard and attracting the wrong ones.
2. You will one day miss all of this. You will long for the freedom of your little red car and driving down dirt roads to go to the swimming spots and walking outside at 3 am in the summer and flirting with new boys and going home to a place you are loved and belong and don't have to clean.
3. Your parents don't know what the hell to do and could probably use some reassurance that you're going to be just fine. They think you're going to die in a gutter after a lifetime of bad choices. They are afraid for you.
4. You're doing okay kid. You are a good friend and a good employee and a good student. You work hard for your grades and your money.
5. If he doesn't take you on a real date, to a place in public where you spend time together, maybe even have a meal or see a movie, you are not 'together' and he is not worth your time. If he can't afford to take you out he should make you dinner or rent a movie and make popcorn.
6. Dream big! MIT is not out of your reach if you truly work towards it. Acting is not an impossible dream and will someday happen for you. You have all the gifts you need to be amazing at life, just believe.
7. Thank people more. Tell people you love them and thank them for spending time on you. Your physics teacher deserves to be told how much he impacted your life. Your brothers could stand a thank you for the times they go out of the way to be awesome. So many people do so many things for you and everyone around you and they don't hear it enough.
8. Exercise. Start now because it will be harder to start later.
9. Pick your friends better. If they don't take care of themselves (mentally, physically, educationally) they won't take care of you.
10. Talk to everyone! People are so interesting and you will need the practice making new friends. Make sure you spend less time talking and more listening. You can find something to like about everyone but don't waste your time with those who are toxic to you. If being around someone puts you in a bad mood, walk away.

I'm going to try to take a few pictures around here so we can get back to some actual home improvement type stuff. I haven't been able to do too many big things until recently because we've been super broke but I'm getting back on the wagon train.

Legit fears

2013-03-18T10:53:00.002-07:00

I found a list on Pinterest called 30 Things my kids should know about me and think it's a great idea. I'm going to steal some ideas (hopefully that's okay) for blogs posts and some will go in my journal if they wouldn't be interesting to the general public. Please link to your blogs if you answer the same questions or just tell me in the comments. Today's topic is 3 legitimate fears.

#1: I am terrified of the dentist. I get anxious and tend to cry for about two weeks leading up to making an appointment and then two weeks leading up to that appointment. This fear has several contributing factors. The first is that things in my mouth that don't belong there make me dry heave. I can't do mouth guards and had to quit soccer when they started to require them. I can't stand any strong flavors so I can't do flouride or even tooth polish. I can only stand regular Crest toothpaste because all the mint toothpastes out there make me sick and the crest took me many years to tolerate. The second HUGE reason is that when I was a kid, I was freaking out and crying and my dentist told me that if I didn't knock it off I would never see my mom again. You might think that my child's mind exaggerated this but years later I met a new friend and she told me that when she was a child, her dentist told her that if she didn't stop crying he would take her out to the woods and tie her to a tree with itchy ropes and leaves her there. Same dentist! The kicker is that this man had a daughter our age and one younger and they were both total sweethearts. Scarred me for life. Intellectually I know that he was just being a jerk and that no dentist is going to threaten me now but I'm terrified of them anyways. Having their hands in my mouth makes me so sick that I feel wrong for weeks afterwards. Like I've been violated in some way. Yucky.

#2: Big dogs. I have never had a bad experience with a big dog but my older brother got chased or bitten or something when I was young. I think part of my fear is that I can't fight back. The idea of hurting an animal is so abhorent to me that I can't even process the idea of kicking a dog that was biting me. I know that would be the solution but would I just let the thing gnaw on me until someone helped me? That's how I picture it in my head. Plus, teeth dude! Teeth are scary and dogs have sharp ones.

#3: Being dead or injured in some fashion and my younger kids being helpless. I am terrified of a car accident or stroke or something where my kids are alone and can't ask for help. I really need to start training my preschooler to call daddy or to run to the neighbors' houses if she ever needed help. I just don't want to scare her because she's already afraid of silly things and this is such a remote possibility that I don't want her to worry about it needlessly. Sigh! Parenting is full of all these things where you can't go too far but you have to address it and it's so hard to walk that line without screwing up.

I'm sure I could think of many more fears that I have but these are the biggest and the ones that take up the most space in my brain. What are you afraid of? Anything that your intelligent brain tells you is stupid but your primal brain says FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT?

Cheap blinds

2012-12-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

We were in need of blinds for the girls' rooms to block out the light during nap time and to block the super bright yard lights of some of our neighbors. But we are also on a super budget due to the whole owning two houses issue so what is a girl to do? Well after she spends a few trips drooling over the cellular blinds at the store that would cost over a hundred buckeroos for just the three most important windows, she wanders around and stumbles upon window magic.

I did not know these things existed but they make temporary paper blinds that you can just cut to size and stick up in your window. We paid less than $15 to cover our three windows and they look so much better from the outside. It's all about the curb appeal baby! I found them at Lowes but I'm sure they have them everywhere they sell blinds. Maybe.

It took maybe five minutes per window to cut them down to size and then stick them up. They come with double stick tape on one side but this one fell down after about a week so I also stuck tacks in there to hold a little better. I think the overzealous application of texture in this house contributed to it falling down but I would still consider tack or staples wherever you are putting these just so you don't have to think about them again.

They also came with two small white clips that you use to hold the shades up if you want that delightful sunlight in your room. It takes a little longer to gather up the folds than just pulling a string but it doesn't bother me at all, especially as a temporary solution. I think if we were to live in this house for a long time we would eventually replace these shades with something nicer but we both know that this house isn't going to be our forever home so we are willing to live with some less expensive options here and there.

You can't tell from outside that these are made of paper and they block a lot of light. They also had white ones that just diffuse the light and they had black ones that block all light but I didn't think that black would look great from the street and the gray looks really nice. Someday I'll get the goo gone out and take off those window stickers but they are on every window and it's just such a project that I can't make myself do it. I have a recipe pinned for a homemade goo gone with coconut oil that I want to try because I despise the smell and feel of goo gone. Maybe if I get around to making that, I'll get excited about peeling off stickers and not be so annoyed at the person who SHOULD have peeled them off months ago when the windows were installed when it would have been easy.

What's your favorite hardware store discovery? Because this is at the top of my list right now. I love finding a solution that works for me and it so much less costly than what I thought was my only option! Did you notice that I'm using sheets as curtains and I didn't bother to hem them yet? I'll tell you all about that sometime.

Lookin' sharp

2012-11-30T09:31:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest concerns that comes along with painting accent walls and transitions between colors is that of bleeding. Obviously you will not be gushing blood, I'm talking about the bleeding that almost always occurs when you try to get a sharp line using painters tape. It doesn't matter what brand of tape you use, in order to peel neatly off the surface it is adhered to, painter's tape is made only slightly sticky so it doesn't rip off the paint underneath. This leads to a little bit of bleeding no matter how careful you are. And trying to go without the tape is only for those with surgeon-steady hands and perfect line painting skilz. That is not me.

So I was ecstatic to see a tutorial on another blog showing just how to get that sharp line I was looking for in the master bedroom where I needed to do an accent wall. Check out House of Hepworths, she has some other projects that I have used and I like a thrifty gal! (Sidenote: You know what's not fun? Searching through several Pinterest boards three times each looking for the pin that bring me to that link only to finally find it near the top of one of them. Why didn't I see it the first or second time through? Gah!) So if you go to that link, you'll know exactly what I did and see better photos of the actual process but I'll just summarize it here for you if you're too lazy to click through or don't plan to do any accent wall anytime soon and don't need the full info.

Basically you tape off your line, paint the edge/corner the color of the wall you are transitioning from. In my case that was the pink I had previously painted on the other wall. Let that dry fully and then paint your accent wall or transition. When your final coat of the second color is still wet, slowly pull your tape off and reveal the beautifully sharp line you have made. Marvel at your mad skilz and write a blog post about it just so people can see how awesome you are. It really is the little things that I get excited about.

In this photo the wall actually looks peach like I wanted originally but in person it reads a lot more pink than I had hoped. I have since apologized to the mister for painting his bedroom pink and he said "What? It's not every man's dream to sleep in a pink and purple room?" He truly doesn't care and I'm sure after the first day he has never even noticed the color again but pink and purple really aren't his jam. Oh well.

But seriously, how happy does that sharp line make you? Because I like to just stare at it for awhile here and there. I probably should have waited to take the photos until after the paint was dry but I am not known for my patience so you'll forgive the splotchy purpleness of drying paint.

Valspar Ultra review

2012-11-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

I used Valspar Ultra paint + primer in Peach Champagne to paint over a dark tan in our bedroom and was surprised by the difference in the experience I had using the same brand of paint in Pronghorn to paint over the same color in our living room. I know that the tones in Pronghorn were a lot closer to the tan but I didn't expect it to perform so poorly with a lighter color when they specifically advertise as a paint + primer in one.

Now, this title of paint + primer is misleading because in regular decorating settings, you can use any color of paint as a primer. So instead of using a coat of primer plus two coats of color, you can use three coats of color to achieve basically the same results most of the time. The only times that you really require an actual primer are in places where mold and mildew are a concern (in which case you would want to use something such as Kilz) and where the color you are covering is very bold. You also want to use a proper primer when you have put up new drywall because the drywall will suck up regular paint like nobody's business. At my local home improvement center, they do have a paper taped to the paint counter that explains how you just use an extra coat as a primer coat but I think the choice to put paint + primer on the can is a poor one. But nobody asked me.

In the Pronghorn color, I was able to use two coats to get the coverage I was looking for and I probably could have edged two coats and rolled one if I went a little heavier with the roller. In Peach Champagne, I needed to do three heavy coats on the edging and two heavy coats on the rest to get decent coverage. I actually would have liked to roll on a third coat just to get a pure tone but I am so tired of painting already and still have at least five rooms to get to. Six if I ever decide what color to paint the hall bathroom. Maybe by the time I finish the next room I'll just be numb and won't hate it so much.

I thought maybe I was just being crabby about paint but last night I finished a wall of the peach and this morning I started a wall of Behr's Cougar and it was not crankiness, I really just prefer Behr Premium Plus in every way. It goes on smoother and thicker and I think it has the same amount of odor as the supposed low odor Valspar. We just purchased two different colors of Valspar Signature paint so I'll let you know if that is any better than the Ultra. If they aren't better, I will for sure be searching reviews for another brand that is closer to my current fave.

Oh, and you know how I was considering doing an accent wall in the master bedroom? Well, fate took it out of my hands by running out of paint on the third wall. I wasn't about to go buy more when I had over 2/3 of a gallon of the purple just sitting there so viola, accent wall.

What's your favorite line of paint? Have you found there to be a big difference between lines under the same brand name? I'm really hoping this Signature works out better.

What's funnier than being tickled?

2012-11-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

Being tickled pink! -Pinkalicious

I chose what I thought was an almost neutral shade of peach for our bedroom because I liked how it looked with the purple that I used in our bathroom nook. It wasn't a color I had ever imagined using in my bedroom but the two times I was in the store looking at paint chips I kept coming back to that combination so I decided to just go for it. The color is peach champagne in Valspar Ultra Paint + Primer (here's a link to their ceiling paint Valspar Brand Ultra Premium Interior Latex Ceiling Paint 27-1420 GL - Pack of 4 (Google Affiliate Ad)) and it turned out to be a very pink shade of peach. On the up side, my skin looks tan compared to my walls but since I am so pale I'm see-through it just tells you how light the color is. Because I'm used to a much darker bedroom that feels more restful, it's a little jarring to me to be surrounded by such a bright and perky color but maybe it will work out in our favor by making us feel more awake in the mornings. I am going to do one accent wall of the same purple I used in our bathroom nook just to tone down the brightness a little but I'm a little worried it will just serve to make the room look even more girly.

I need to find a way to make our bedroom seem a little more manly. I currently have our old glider chair in the bedroom and am considering recovering (or purchasing a new cover off Etsy if they exist) it in a more masculine fabric. Our bedding is all one color with no pattern but perhaps next time we replace the comforter I should also look for something mantastic. We tend to purchase a new comforter every year when they have amazing sales around Christmas time because it's cheaper than having one professionally cleaned. I've tried washing comforters in our home machines and at a laundromat where they have larger machines but they just never come out of the wash the same and the husband is so choosey about our bedding that it is so much easier to go with something inexpensive that we know we like.

How do decorate your shared spaces? I welcome any suggestions for replacing my fake orchid with something with a little more testosterone as long as I can veer more towards smoking parlour and away from neon beer signs. Whether he likes it or not, we need to stop decoration like it's our first apartment and invest in items with more class.

Work it out

2012-11-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

Does it matter to you if the place you exercise is pretty? I've been trying to decide if it matters to me or not but I can't find a tie breaker between liking pretty things and being too lazy to care about the corner of the garage where we keep the elliptical. This also leads me to the question of whether or not I'm going to paint the garage at all. When I build out the mudroom area I want it to be organized and functional but I'm not sure if it's necessary to go beyond that.

The garage is an area of the house that most people will never see. The reason I want to store the family shoes/coats/gloves there is because I'd love to have the space in the front entry to accommodate the items of any guests that should ever need to visit. So it should be very rare that we have guests in the garage but do we only decorate our homes for other people? I wonder how much of what we do with our own space is meant to impress and posture for those we invite to visit. I know that we've come a very long way from our homes being just a functional source of shelter but have we come too far? I wish that I could say that I decorate my home only so that I can enjoy it but that isn't the truth. I seek validation in my choices and I care way too much what others think of where I placed that decorative gourd or this bowl. Not that it makes a difference in the grand scheme of home decor who my audience is. I'm still going to enjoy pretty spaces no matter who I'm creating them to impress.

If you use it as a functional space, have you decorated your garage? Do you think it's a waste of paint to change the color of a place where you mainly just enter and exit and get stinky and sweaty? If I do paint in there, my goal will be to stay with a much more masculine pallet because my poor husband has to put up with a bedroom that turned out to be a little more pink than I pictured it.