Author: Staci

Staci blogs about travel at TheVoyageer.com.

Mosey’s World

I love my dog. This I’m sure you know well. With a face like that, how could you not?

However, I don’t want my house to scream “A DOG LIVES HERE!” I feel that his presence pushes the point home more than enough, and I don’t need “dog stuff” strewn all over the house to further prove that my house is a dog house. So, I tuck “Mosey” stuff mostly out of the way. I suppose I would be a terrible parent. Corralling all the kid’s toys into one room or closet and saying “don’t let that stuff come out here and spoil my living room!”

Anyway, in celebration of the fact that as of today, April 16, we have been Mosey’s parents for a whole year, here are some snapshots of Mosey’s World.

Here’s his food and water, which is in the living room between the fireplace and walkway to the dining room. “They” say not to feed the dog in the kitchen/dining room to discourage begging… but Mosey begs anyway… The placemat is one Doug used growing up :)

We tuck the container of dog food on the kitchen cart (under the waffle maker) next to the oven. He gets a natural/organic blend with no fillers. It has banana chips, peas, carrots, and craisins in additon to the chicken flavored kibble. Sound fancy? It is. He eats better than we do. But since he eats so little, it’s not a huge burden to spring for the better dog food. His food dish is a one-cup portion, it’s easy to just scoop it out with that… no other portioning tools needed. He gets one to two cups a day, depending on how active he’s been lately. He eats more in the summer and less in the winter.

His treats are in this cookie jar, and he definitely knows the “clang” of the metal on the glass means he’s about to get something yummy! (Note: I can not verify the yumminess of the snacks. I have not tried them, but he sure seems to like them.)

Here is his crate “house.” I hate the word crate, sounds so mean, so I call it his house or his kennel. The blanket over the top helped keep the warm air in during the winter… it’s still kind of chilly inside during the day so I’ll leave it on until the weather becomes HOT. The floral pillow inside was a DIY floor cushion that failed, that turned into a dog bed. The red crate on top holds his travel bag (with a few toys, plastic bags, etc for when we take him to Doug’s parents or to the dog park) in addition to two coats (he gets cold in the winter) and old (chewed up) leashes, among other things. The certificate commemorating his graduation from obedience school is on the wall, haha!

It has been a great year with our sweet pup!

Questions? I’ll be happy to answer in the comments! 

Backyard Boogie

Spring is absolutely, without a doubt, HERE! We had a heat wave a few weeks ago, and a week of rain, and believe it or not I think we’ve FINALLY seen the last of the fall leaves.

About the leaves: there are a ton of trees in our neighborhood, and with a warm winter and no heavy snows that sat on the ground for weeks at a time, the leaves just never seemed to go away. We must have taken at least five trips to the transfer station, with five bags of leaves each. (The nice thing is that they have a huge pile for leaves, sticks, and other green waste).

After the heat wave, we had a rainy week and have had rainy days since then. The problem with the backyard is the amount of sun it gets. The “back 40” as we call it, or the area behind the existing fence, gets plenty of sunlight:

The fenced-in space behind the house (near) stays pretty shady, which means that none of the grass we planted last year took off at all. Not even weeds really like it. Not compared to the more sunny spot (far), once you get past the kitchen’s wall:

Additionally, there is a slope from the base of the house down to the “back 40” which I estimate to be about a foot. I haven’t busted out Pythagorean’s Theorem or anything to figure out the real difference in elevation, but I do plan to so.

The solution we’ve come up with is a deck behind the house, covering the “mud pit.” It truly is a mud pit for several days after a good rain, and to let Mosey outside (while it’s in its “mud pit” state) we have to take him out on the leash in the front yard. In the middle of the night. When it’s chilly. Sad face. Back to the deck though. I’d like to see one built out of trex, the plastic “wood” that will not rot, crack, etc. It’s more expensive but the deck will last longer. Wood is fine, if kept up with regular maintenance. Seeing how the house is a rental owned by the in-laws, unfortunately it’s hard to tell how much effort and upkeep the future tenants will put into keeping a wooden deck nice. Flagstone would be OK if the ground was level, but I like the slope since it keeps water away from the base of the house and building a retaining wall would–you guessed it–retain water in all the wrong places. I think. (Not an expert over here. Just using logic).

Here’s what I dreamed up for the backyard on floorplanner.com. Note that there are lots of “extras” I’d like to see if we in fact owned the house or were planning on living here for, say, 5+ years. For instance, the additional flagstone patio set farther back (ideally with a meandering flagstone path from one patio to the other) and large shrubs and a garden area.  Since we don’t plan on ringing in 2017 in this house, they are just that: dreams. Sorry for the tiny text.

And just for fun, here’s a little 3D action.

And from the back:

Of course, I’ve posted before about how fun it would be to build a small structure or move in airstream trailer in the back half (where the imaginary flagstone patio) for additional indoor-outdoor living space. I mean, there is PLENTY of room. A backyard this big is kind of a trip for a California girl like me, used to teeny tiny strips of grass out back!

Bedroom.

Truly, I couldn’t come up with something funny and/or non-creepy to title this post about the bedroom.

For many, many months after we moved in, this continued to be my least favorite room in the house. The paint color and the grey comforter we had in the old place clashed, clashed, clashed. Fighting shades of gray are almost as bad as fighting shades of black. So, one temporary comforter and one new West Elm comforter later, things started shaping up. We removed the headboard and made the room feel way bigger. I finally love this room :)

First, a shot right after we moved in. It will make you understand why the room made me so depressed:

Second, in case you were wondering: we did not paint! Natural light works wonders. Unfortunately the room gets natural light pretty much only while we’re at work. Anyway, getting rid of the headboard and hanging cream curtains helped, but the temporary comforter was NOT what the doctor ordered:

Now:

Now, I feel like gray, cream, and white can coexist in a small space, with the blue pattern on the comforter playing referee between the three neutrals. The yellow helps lighten the mood! Across from the foot of the bed is our IKEA dresser. Believe it or not, the dresser was easier to assemble than the wardrobe we bought the same day! Here’s a shot:

Here’s the view of the wardrobe (hanging those doors and making sure they were even was the WORST!). The doorway at the left edge of this photo leads to the hall :) I’d like to get more globes to fill up the top of the wardrobe like you see on home interior blogs sometimes. Haven’t come across any while thrifting lately, though!

And a little source list, since I ended up the guest room tour that way… I like to try to prove that a house can look stylish on the cheap. This room, by FAR, we have put the most money into. The mattress, bedside tables, wardrobe and dresser were all bought new. A mattress is not really something you want to buy used, and it is impossible to find dressers at the limited options of thrift stores we have here. These items are, however, more or less the ONLY furniture items purchased new in our house so far!

  • Bed, rather, mattress and box spring on the floor, from Ashley Furniture
  • Comforter, West Elm organic ironwork duvet cover, snagged on SALE for $65. (Can also be seen on the not-very-funny new show Are You There Chelsea?)
  • Wardrobe, IKEA ENGAN $179
  • Dresser, IKEA TRONDHEIM. I guess it doesn’t come in 6-drawer anymore? I think it was somewhere around $175.
  • Bedside tables, Target (Wedding gift cards! Woo! Don’t remember how much they were.)
  • Yellow pillows, Dwell Studio for Target. I waited years for these to finally go on clearance! $17 ea.
  • Curtains, Target $24 per pair (3 pairs, ordered online to get the extra length)
  • Chair with green cushion, found for F-R-E-E at the re-use shed at the dump, reupholstered with materials from JoAnn.
  • Tennis Racquets, thrifted, $3 for 3.
  • Red lamp & burlap shade, both from target, somewhere around $30 together?
I am not putting the dollar signs in to show off how much we’ve spent/invested (depending on your POV). What I’m trying to show is that, minus the mattress (which rang in somewhere around $600 I think?) the room was well below $1000, which seems to be the approximate amount TV shows budget to redo a room “on the cheap.” Personally, I feel like the room looks great, and I’m not sure putting more money into it would even improve on it. What do you think?

There you have it! Questions? Comments? Favorite part? Mine is (obviously) the duvet cover :)