Author: Staci

Staci blogs about travel at TheVoyageer.com.

Curtains

We’ve got curtain rods and curtains up on the wall in the living room and dining room. This should have been easy but the plaster walls turned a simple task into a nightmare. Screws won’t go in unless holes are pre-drilled so this took forever.

However, we used a couple of handy little tips to keep it from being a really lengthy project:

  • I devised a template made from a post card to use as we made our guide marks. This kept us from getting out the tape measure time and time again. By holding the postcard against the corner of the window, we could hang the curtains 6 inches out from the woodwork, and by using our handy little marks the template ensured that all the holes would be drilled at the correct height.
  • By sticking a folded piece of blue tape to the wall, we caught all of the dust inevitably generated by drilling/screwing into a plaster wall. Then by surgically carefully removing it and folding it up, we kept the dust from going everywhere!

Voila! The finished product:

They aren’t finished because I have to cut them up the middle, hem and shorten. These puppies were way too expensive to buy a set for each window, plus, even if we had bought a full set each, that would be waaaaay too much fabric for one window! BUT, that said, I can’t WAIT to have them finished!! I love the way the green goes up the wall and brings a gorgeous infusion of color into the room. It reassures my vision of a “colorful white room” or, white room that doesn’t seem bland or boring at all. With more accessories and wall art, anything is possible!

Outside, Outside!

Five days without a post was just too long. I’m sorry. Hope my post from yesterday made up for it!!

The good news is that as of last Saturday, everything and I mean everything is out of the old place. (Two Saturdays ago was “moving day” but it took us a full week to get the rest of everything out–working around 40 hour jobs, band practice, and church events.) I gave the landlord my key and now Doug has to turn his in (he’ll be sad to part with the red key with a little light that seems superfluous but is really handy when opening locks in the dark) and then we’ll be done-zo.

That means that all of our earthly possessions now reside here. Many of them have been put away but a lot of stuff is hanging out in the junk room office waiting to find their new home. Which will happen once we figure out some storage solutions. Someday. The built-ins in the old office were much more useful and utilized than I ever realized. Uh-oh… It’s an adventure.

But, enough about that, today I’m finally going to show you the hot mess that is the exterior. Okay, it’s really not that bad. But after a lot of elbow grease, some paint and some plants, I hope the “after” will blow everyone’s socks (mine included) off.

Here’s the back yard. It doesn’t look very exciting, does it? Well that’s because as of right now, it’s nothing special. Perhaps it’s even sub-special. But! The good news is that I don’t have to carry Mosey up 20+ stairs after he has to go out in the middle of the night. And that’s what counts. The yard is more or less fenced, and we have some supplies to expand the fenced in area so Mosey has more room.

The backyard does have a slope, so if we ever decide to try to put in a patio or something, that will have to be dealt with. but… baby steps.

I showed you the worst picture first so that there’d be nowhere to go but up! Next I’ll show you the front of the house!

Sorry about the intense shadow, I took these pictures and am composing this post on my lunch break. And this is what the shadows to at 12:30. Here’s the front. The yard has some  green-ness to it, which is saying something considering the hot, dry, oppressive summer we had to deal with. The stucco, tile roof and overall south-west style is absolutely great. It’s like my own little slice of home here in Kansas. We’ll work on grass this fall and see what we come up with in the spring.

Here’s the front walk. When you go through the arch, turning right you’ll see the front door. Pretty cute, right? I like the way it separates the house from the yard, but I don’t like how Mosey has repeatedly dragged me down the 4 concrete stairs while I had my arms full of stuff. Anyway, this so cute but it can be cuter. Again, I’ll keep you updated.

So, in summary, right now she’s not the prettiest chica on the block. We have big plans for the exterior including:

  • Stucco patching
  • Paint updating
  • Grass planting
  • Fence expanding
  • Patio creating
  • Concrete painting

Kitchen Nook Progress!

One of the more “done” sections in the house (if you can call anything “done” after just two weeks) is the kitchen nook. We put together our kitchen carts from IKEA which turned out to provide much-needed storage and work space. It has served us well for several meals so far, with some minor tweaking as to where we’d originally placed items. I found that leaving the cart on the left a little more sparse leaves me more room to work, and putting some more utensils on the right is handy (easy to grab since we’re both right-handed)

In this photo you can see the aftermath of preparing a meal. Not bad! I love it–when I cook, Doug tries to take care of the dishes. Score one for me–I hate dishes!

Here’s the nook from a wider angle.

Aaaaand here’s a big deal! The vantage point from which these photos were taken. My MIL got us some bar stools for our birthday(s). Since our birthdays are only 23 days apart, it’s easy to do combo gifts ;)

They are absolutely perfect. I just LOVE them! I did some research and discovered that since our bar is abnormally high (like 45 inches, whereas between 36 and 40 is more normal) we needed to get the taller stools. They are the perfect height and the seat is a good generous size–I don’t feel precarious or wobbly nor do I get tired of sitting there quickly. We’ve eaten the past two dinners there as well as breakfasts.

Well, at least one section of the new house is in order. I’ll keep you updated as far as progress goes!!