I dropped the “we found another house!” bomb yesterday.  And as R8chel so elegantly put it in the comments section, “What?! I don’t want to talk about estate sales when you just bought a new house!!  Tell us more!“…I’m dying to tell you all about it.  That’s meant to be a warning.  THIS WILL BE LONG AND WORDY!  Stay with me.

As you know, we’ve been looking to downsize.  Truth be told, we’ve looked at over 20 houses in our search for a home that will lead us to financial freedom and, ultimately, a career change for me.  Most of them were foreclosures, HUD homes and short sales.  I even shared a few of the standouts here on H*T.  {In case you missed ‘em, click here, here, here and here.} You know, all House Hunters-like where they narrow down their choices to the main contenders.  On the day we found ‘the house,’ we had already seen 4 homes that day.  This home was the last on the list.  We didn’t know a thing about it except that it was an estate sale being sold as-is.  That meant no disclosures would be given and any necessary repairs would not be completed by the seller.  Sort of like a foreclosure but it was a privately-owned property, not a bank-owned property.  I had actually found the listing online myself and asked our realtor {who also happens to be my cousin} to schedule us a showing.  From the listing picture, all I could see were huge, overgrown trees and what looked to be a squatty ranch hidden behind them.  Before the showing, I tried using Google maps to see the street view of the house but it was a no go.  Not because the house hadn’t been photographed but because there were ginormous trees surrounding the property.  So many so that you couldn’t really see the house from the road.  I did pan out and noticed that the other homes in the neighborhood looked decent.  Even nice.  Which was a welcome surprise.  Up until that point, a main problem with most of the homes we liked had been the neighborhoods.  Either they were on busy four-lane roads, were next to rental apartment buildings, had unkempt homes or questionable neighbors.  We cringed at the idea of living in a home for 5 years just to pay it off and then want out because we were unhappy with our surroundings.  So discovering that this estate sale seemed to be located in a quaint little community piqued our interest…despite the fact that we had no idea what the home looked like inside or out.  And the listing price was within our budget so we thought, “Eh, why not?”

I still remember driving into the neighborhood that day thinking, “Oh my gosh.  What a beautiful, quiet, modest neighborhood hidden in the city!”  Honestly, I was expecting to drive through the area into a less desirable part of town to find the estate.  But that didn’t happen.  The estate was right in the middle of this mature neighborhood.  And it was surrounded by overgrown trees like the listing and street view had shown. Inside, the entire life contents of the previous owner were strewn about:  towels, knick-knacks, miniature dolls, dozens of paintings, dead houseplants, bed linens, etc.  It was pretty evident that an elderly person had lived there and passed away and that the estate holder had come in, grabbed what they wanted, then left.  We’re good at seeing past clutter, so although stuff was everywhere, we were able to get a good feel for the house and its layout.  The house and its fixtures looked to be original although many of the windows had been replaced.  Sagging, stained kitchen cabinets?  Check.  Matted shag green, gold and rust colored carpet?  Check.  Pink tiled bathroom?  Check.  Faded, peeling paint on the walls?  Check.  Original 1958 electrical box and service?  Check.  No central air?  Check.  In fact, other than several {but not all} windows having been replaced, it didn’t look like anything had been updated from the late 50′s.

During our showing, another realtor was bringing through a younger couple to look at the same house.  I giggled to myself watching them hold their breath and raise their eyebrows in complete silence.  Handy Hubby and I could tell they were having nothing to do with the house and smiled at each other.  Handy Hubby and I didn’t talk much about what we were seeing and thinking.  We like to take things in individually at first and then discuss pros and cons together afterwards.  Which is exactly what we did.  On the way home, we took a weaving detour through the neighborhood checking things over.  It really was a lovely little neighborhood.

Two days went by before we made the decision to put in an offer.  Even though the home was completely outdated, it looked to be structurally sound, had a good flow to it and was on a decent sized lot.  Had it been in any other neighborhood, we maybe would have passed.  It was obviously the black sheep of the ‘hood.  We put in an offer $14,000 below the asking price {which was already below the appraisal value and within our budget but we had nothing to lose} and waited.  We were told by the listing agent that the estate holders lived in North Carolina and it would take a few days to hear back.  Two days later, our offer was accepted.  Just like that.  The only stipulation was the closing date.  They needed more time to organize an estate sale and we obliged.  Besides we had another home to sell anyways.

Once the sales contract was signed, we had a professional home inspector inspect the house.  As we guessed, there were issues with the home because of its age and condition:  termite damage {although nothing that compromised the stability of the structure}, a few small roof leaks, outdated electrical service, no bathroom fans, a dryer that vented into the attic, insufficient attic insulation, exterior tripping hazards, a cracking driveway, and large trees dangerously close to the structure.  We also had a radon test run which revealed higher than recommended levels of radon in the home.  One good thing we discovered…we had the entire house professionally tested for lead contamination {since it had been built in the 50′s} which came back completely negative.  This was great news as neither Handy Hubby or I wanted to expose our kids to toxic levels of lead.  We would have taken special precautions to keep them away from construction dust, but the findings of this lead test would make projects so much easier…and healthier.  Which is awesome because we have big plans for this little house.

Are you ready to see it?  Our next house?  Remember we weren’t looking for our dream house but rather the house in which to pursue our dreams.  Here she be…

{the house actually extends another 20 feet to the right but all those darn trees in the front yard make picture taking difficult!}

Is she everything you thought she’d be and more?!  Hehe.  Yes, those are wood shutters.  She’s an all brick, 3 bedroom, 2 full bath ranch with roughly 1,670 square feet of living space.  Never in my life did I think we’d ever end up in a ranch. {Handy Hubby prefers bedrooms on the second floor.} But there you go.  There’s also an attached 2-car garage. The lot is about 0.4 acres, so a little less than a half acre.  She needs a lot of work – which I’ll detail in a future post – but she’s got a lot of potential too.  She’s ‘The Underdog.’  She doesn’t have a lot of character or charming features, but we’re pretty sure she’ll shine up nicely.  Unlike many of the other older homes that we toured, this one hasn’t been touched.  While upgrades are nice to look at, we’re always a little leery of hidden, subpar home improvement projects.  We’d rather do it ourselves or pay someone we trust to do it so that we know for sure it was done correctly.  And we like the fact that we are free to put our mark on this gal and make her ours.  And did I mention that she’s well within our budget…even with the repairs and upgrades needed?  Fantastic.

There is one caveat.  We have yet to sell our current home.  We’ve had 5 open houses, over a dozen showings, tons of interest and even one offer.  The offer actually came to us within a week of listing, but it fell through when the potential buyer realized his quad-cab truck wouldn’t fit into the garage lengthwise.  Wanna know the part where my jaw dropped?  He admitted to only driving the big ol’ truck two times per year…on vacation and at Christmas.  To me, that seemed like an easy fix:  sell the gas hog and put the $$ towards the mortgage!  Or, at the least, just park it in the driveway.  But we all have our things.  Some of us like house stuff and some of us like to own big trucks that we drive twice a year and keep cozy in a custom garage the other 350+ days of the year.  Who am I to judge?  So, we’re diligently working at selling our current home…by owner.  We clean, we put up for sale signs, we distribute flyers, we put ads in local papers, we hold open houses every Sunday that we can, we re-put up signs every other day when storms blow them down, sometimes we fish said mossy signs out of ponds and creeks and restake them, we email local realtors and we sometimes work and sleep.  Fortunately, we are lucky enough to be able to afford our current house payment and new house payment {which is peanuts really} simultaneously if we have to.  The idea of living in our current home while some of the more major projects are completed in the ‘new’ home does appeal to us.  But if we are forced out of our current home before then, we have options:  living in a mess, my Dad’s basement, or renting.  I guess we’ll cross that bridge when and if we get to it.

Right now, we’re just really excited about taking over ownership of ‘The Underdog’ on Monday!  And having all of those ridiculously overgrown trees taken out.  Oh!  And taking pictures of the house empty inside for you all to see.  The idea of posting pictures of a deceased person’s belongings all over the internet seemed a tad disrespectful.  So stay tuned for shag carpet, pink bathrooms and peeling paint…

image:  Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Just experienced my first estate sale ever.  And I’m hooked.  I don’t know why I haven’t attended an estate sale before.  The one I was at early this morning was a step above a yard sale and a step below a flea market. Look at the stash of goodies that came home with me…

Apparently, the estate had been owned by a local artist whose work had won several awards and been featured in the Cincinnati Art Museum back in the 60′s.  I grabbed two of her original paintings.  The white one is about 2′ x 3′ and the green one is larger than 3′ x 5′…pretty big!

I also snatched up this ceramic planter.  I could see it working well inside or outside.  I LOVE the black and white graphic floral motif.  Right up my alley.  Not sure what will end up in it yet.

I couldn’t pass up these woven baskets with lids and wood bead necklace.  I think the baskets would make great key holders, desktop storage containers {for things like post-its, push pins, paper clips, etc} or jewelry boxes.

The bead necklace reminds me of this Kayce Hughes version that I’ve been eyeing for a while now but haven’t been able talk myself into buying.  Glad I waited it out.  I snatched this cheaper version for $2!  In fact, before I left for the estate sale I gave myself a $200 budget.  That’s usually high for me but I had seen the estate sale listed online along with images of items for sale beforehand. After talking with Handy Hubby, we decided we were ready to invest in some original artwork…something we’ve always wanted to do.  So, I set a spending limit of $200 thinking I could probably get two pretty decent pieces for that.  After all was said and done, I came in well under budget at $164 total.  Sweet!

The larger painting was $95 and the smaller one was $50.  The planter was $15.  The baskets were $1 each and like I mentioned before the necklace was $2.

And here’s the kicker…

…wait for it…

…wait for it…

…the estate from which these items came will be our next home!!! Yep, you heard me right.  We’re actually set to be the next owners of the estate…which I’ll tell you all about a little later.  So, that’s how we knew about the sale today.  In fact, when we toured the home and discovered that the paintings inside were the original homeowner’s work and were going to be sold, Handy Hubby and I each picked out our favorite: mine the green one above and Handy Hubby’s the black and white one.  {Coincidentally, today is Handy Hubby’s birthday.  Guess what my gift to him is…} Once we put in an offer on the house and it was accepted, we knew we wanted to keep these paintings with the home to celebrate the artist’s life and to become great storytelling pieces as the house evolves.  What a great story, right?

So, now you know.  Yes, we’ve found our next house.  The price, neighborhood, public schools and potential for making it ‘us’ sold us.  I can’t wait to share more about it soon!

Until then let’s talk estate sales.  Do you frequent them?  Are you an estate sale virgin…like I was until today?  Ever find a really great piece at an estate sale?  ’Fess up.

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Erin’s dining area and media room are adjacent to her long, narrow living room.  The living room is visually separated from the rest of the open space by small half walls accented with columns.

BEFORE

On the living room side of the half walls, there are built-ins.  At the opposite {far} end of the living room is a small bump out encased in windows.  And in case you missed it, the focal point of the room is a large fireplace with a high mantel flanked on either side by built-ins.  The living room is already painted Benjamin Moore’s Puritan Gray and Erin likes it as-is.  Here is the mid-modern mood board I created for Erin’s living room…

3 – Erin mentioned she’d like a place to read, so I chose this chaise in medium gray to place in front of the window to the right of the mantel/built-ins.  I’d suggest angling it slightly out towards the coffee table.  It shouldn’t be parallel to the mantel wall, but it shouldn’t stick so far out into the room that it impedes traffic either.  Pair it with a simple floor light to invite reading.  Once again, to keep things cohesive, I’d add the same curtains to the window in this reading corner.  Erin already owns a light gray area rug that I think would work well to define the sofa seating area.

A few words on the mantel and built-ins:  Erin mentioned her fiance’s aunt is an artist, so I purposefully left the space above the fireplace blank where said aunt’s artwork will go.  I can also picture a wood or metal monogram letter hanging on the tiled surround of the fireplace just above the firebox.  To avoid damage to the tile, the monogram could be hung with an adhesive 3M hook. As for all the built-in shelves, I recommend that Erin edit, edit, edit.  Less is more.  Incorporating objects that tie into the gray, white, yellow, and teal color scheme will keep it feeling cohesive.  I’d encourage Erin to find images of inspiring, arranged shelves and to mimic them.  Layering {for instance, overlapping a stack of books with a propped picture frame}, repetition, varying object height/texture, and empty space are all good characteristics of a well arranged bookcase.

So, that concludes the mood boards for Erin’s vintage condo.  Are you able to see how the open space could work as separate zones and/or one larger multifunctional space?  A cohesive color scheme, sensible layout, area rugs, and lots of light help to make an open space feel inviting. Many people are drawn to open floor plans nowadays but find them challenging to decorate.  For more tips on how to approach wide open spaces click here.  Thanks to Erin for allowing me to virtually tweak her place!  And for allowing me to share her before images which, she would like everyone to know, were taken shortly after she and her fiance moved in.  Can’t wait to see the afters!

Just in case you missed the rest of Erin’s mood boards, here are all three…

You’ve already seen the mid-modern mood board I created for Erin’s open dining area, so let’s move on to the adjacent media room.  Erin’s fiance specifically requested for me not to mess with the current TV, ceiling surround sound speaker, and subwoofer system setup.  I obliged while trying to soften the hard TV lines and disguise the boxy subwoofer.  Here’s the media room before…

BEFORE

The media room is located just off the open dining area and is visually separated from the living room by architectural columns.  Like the adjacent dining room, it’s painted in Benjamin Moore’s Quiet Moments which Erin likes as-is.  In keeping with Erin’s desire for something more midcentury modern, I came up with this mood board…

1 - For the TV wall, more of the Moorish printed West Elm curtain panels around the window above the subwoofer {in the corner to the left of the window shown above} will help to soften the straight lines and ‘black hole’ effect of the flatscreen.  I suggest scooting the console out away from the wall a few inches to let those curtains {hung high and wide!} fall behind the TV for a nice layering effect…almost movie theater-ish.  {The right side panel will be from the dining area.}  The curtains are also an easy way to disguise the floor subwoofer.  {That’s how I have Handy Hubby’s subwoofer disguised!}  Just let a panel drape in front of the subwoofer and it won’t interfere with the function of the subwoofer.  For the TV console, I’d like to see this long, narrow West Elm piece in white.  It will fill the space between the two windows {media room and dining area windows} perfectly.

2 – For TV viewing, I’d like to see this 80″ Barton sofa in charcoal placed opposite the console.  I would also suggest removing the mission-style console behind the current sofa and pushing the new sofa a little further back.  This will give the space a little more breathing room and allow for a round glass-topped coffee table.  {Remember, the dining bench will add extra seating when placed perpendicular to the new sofa.} Add pops of pattern and color with these fun Etsy pillow covers here, here and here.  Top the coffee table with a woven bowl for texture and function…it can hold remotes!

Erin contacted me wanting help with her newly refurbished vintage condo.  Although she liked the open floor plan, she was needing help separating the spaces into zones that still felt cohesive.  As far as function, the space needed to incorporate zones for dining, watching TV, reading, working and occasionally entertaining.  Erin professed to loving midcentury design, neutral big ticket items with pops of color elsewhere, and bold patterns…especially Moorish ones.  Other than her fiance’s TV, ceiling surround sound speakers, and subwoofer, Erin was open to replacing all other items. With great bones {neutral wall colors, hardwood floors, architectural columns, fireplace, massive mantel, built-ins}, all Erin’s space needed was a little tweaking.  I set to work creating mood boards for three separate areas in her long, narrow living space: dining area, media room and living room.

To keep things simple, I’ll share and discuss each zone separately in 3 different posts.  Yep, that’s one space, three posts!  Let’s start with the dining area.

BEFORE

As you can see, the dining area is just off the kitchen and adjacent to the media area.  The walls are already painted Benjamin Moore’s Quiet Moments, an airy blue-gray, and Erin wanted to keep the paint color as-is.  Here’s the mood board I came up with for her space…

I took a little time to bring some spring inside.  My family room mantel is an easy way for me freshen up our space:  it’s a small vignette, it’s a simple backdrop to begin with, my kids can’t touch it!, and I can crop out all the mess going on around it.  I started by switching out the velvet slipper chair for a mid-century modern chair from the living room.

I found the chair on the side of the road a few years ago, refinished it, and made new geometric print cushions.  To me, the velvet upholstery felt more wintery and I like the playful, modern look of this chair for spring.  I added a vase of $4 yellow gerber daisies to the scalloped side table and then moved onto the mantel.

Whenever I take on the task of switching up the mantel, I ‘shop’ around the house.  I found the trio of octagon frames in my craft closet and decided they needed to make their mantel debut.

I bought the frames from Goodwill last year, spray painted them white and added swatches of fabric.  I love the touch of geometry that the shapely frames lend to the mantelscape.  The bottom 2 frames are leaning against the wall and the top one is hanging from an adhesive 3M hook that I painted the same as the wall color to disguise it.  Since nearly all of our walls are painted the same color, I figure I can use it again elsewhere and it will blend in just as well.

To keep things fresh and airy – which is what spring feels like to me – I added round white votives and vases, a tall vase of green pom poms {also $4}, and relocated a paper maché ‘M’ from the living room.

Including monograms and typography in a vignette is a great temporary way to make a space feel personal.

I always like to have some warm candlelight glowing on the mantel since it’s about one of the only places I can keep lit candles out of the reach of little hands.

So that’s what my mantel is looking like these days.  I like to tweak it with the changing seasons.  It’s a quick, easy and cheap creative outlet for my fickle creative tendencies.

Have a lovely, springy weekend!

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Last October I made some tissue paper flowers and attached them to my bloomless orchid.  I have a reputation with plants that includes the words ‘black’ and ‘thumb.’  I had convinced myself that my orchid was a goner but kept watering it to keep the stem looking green.  I’d read somewhere about orchid food or fertilizer or something like that but decided I would likely kill it anyway so why not save myself that hassle and money.  Over the winter I continued to water the roots although the time between waterings got longer and longer.  It wasn’t unusual for it to go 2+ weeks without a single drop of water.  So, imagine my surprise when I discovered this just a few days ago…

See that new budding sprout off to the right of the main stem?  That little orchid is a fighter.  A survivor, I tell ya.  But then I got to reading about orchids and it appears they go through a necessary resting phase every year usually during colder months.  Eventually, when they’re ready, spikes will form off the main stem leading to buds and flowers weeks – or even months – later.  So it appears my orchid is having a little resurrection of its own…just in time for Easter.  Now I feel obligated to keep this baby alive.  Since it is Earth Day tomorrow and all.

Anyone know how to properly grow and care for orchids? Do I repot, fertilize, water more, water less?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  My orchid thanks you in advance.

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

…we were in Florida vacationing at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  They live in a little Gulf Coast town called Weeki Wachee {pronounced just like it looks and pretty fun to say}.  Their backyard backs up to a fresh water canal which leads to a fresh water, sand-bottomed, crystal clear river which leads out into the Gulf of Mexico.  You can start up their boat in the backyard canal and easily be in the Gulf in less than an hour.  As a child, my siblings and I would stay with my grandparents for one month out of every summer, and we loved it.  {I’m sure my parents did too!  One month without four kids sounds restful.} Packing was light and easy:  a few pair of underwear, a swimsuit, a T-shirt to sleep in and sunscreen.  We’d spend that month swimming in the river, going on boat rides, deep sea fishing, watching beach sunsets, eating homemade comfort food, kayaking, catching lizards, paddle boating, picnicking, visiting my aunt’s goat farm, riding bikes and petting manatee.  Those summer days were long but never boring. We were very lucky kids.  Oh, how I wish I could go spend a month there every summer now!

Before last week, I hadn’t been down to my grandparents’ place in two years.  So, we packed up the car and the kiddos and made the 14+ hour drive down to Gigi and Great Graypa’s {that’s what my boys call my grandparents}.  I was so excited to see my kids experience it all. Neither of them had remembered being there 2 years ago.  Here’s a brief recap.

Poor Everett hadn’t seen his legs in months.  The first time I put him in shorts on vacation, he cried, “There’s dog hair all over me!!”  I finally convinced him it was ‘Everett hair’ not dog hair.

We did some swimming in my aunt’s pool.  She lives on a 20-acre goat farm further inland from my grandparents.  The property is like a sanctuary.  Every time I’m there, I forget I’m in Florida.  Who knew The Sunshine State had country?

I felt so inspired by the mossy trees, feathery ferns and rocky ground cover.  So much green!  We tried making buddies with the goats but they didn’t want anything to do with us.  I think they were scared off by two “baaaaa’ing” boys chasing them down.  We finished the day off with a down home fish fry complete with hush puppies.  All the fish was caught in the Gulf by my Grandpa and he fries up a mean batch of hush puppies to go along with it.  Mmmmmm….  Back at Gigi and Great Graypa’s house, we enjoyed cool mornings, boat rides, more homemade meals {thanks Gigi!}, fishing off the dock, grasshopper hunts, basking in the sun, fragrant jasmine, and manatee watching.

{Nobody tell them the motor is off and that they’re tied to the dock.}

With little to no cell phone and internet service, I was left with a more than usual amount of time to read every day.  I didn’t complain; I LOVE reading.  I finished these two books and highly recommend both.

{Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert:  a quirky, insightful, honest, and comical look into the history and future of marriage.}

{Apartment Therapy’s Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan:  a collection of small, inventive, creative, and livable spaces.}

A week of family, sun, good food, and limited social networking does a body good.  It was just the break we needed to reconnect and rest up.  Thanks Gigi & Great Graypa and Aunt Janice & Uncle Bucky for putting us up and filling our bellies!

What about you?  What was your favorite vacation spot as a child?

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

In my relatively short {going on 9 years now} homeowner’s life, I’ve lived in 2 homes.  Two completely different homes.  Our first home was small, cozy, old, and required a lot of work.  Our second home, the one we currently live in, is large, open, new, and pretty much maintenance-free. Still, I find that every home has little quirks to it.  You know, little ticks that make it different and/or difficult to work with.  And just because a house is new doesn’t mean it’s void of these traits.  Take my home, for example.

1.  Shaky chandy. I love the capiz chandelier we installed over our open dining area.  It’s shiny, textural, moody when lit, and even a tad feminine.  It’s also noisy at times.  You see, the chandelier is hung from the ceiling right below my son’s bedroom.  If things get rowdy up there {i.e. jumping on the bed, kids’ gymnastics, wrestling with brother, etc}, the movement causes the chandy to shake. When all those rectangular capiz shells get to rattling all at once, the light morphs into a sort of wind chime.  It’s not overly loud but definitely noticeable.  It always reminds me of the opening scene in Mary Poppins {one of my all-time favorite movies!} where Admiral Boom fires the cannon causing pictures frames and vases to clatter.  In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, see the clip here.  Our laundry room is on the second floor of our home also, and I use a front-loading washer that spins at high speeds.  When it’s on its spin cycle, this sends our dining chandelier into a rattling frenzy too.  Luckily, the washer only spins for about a minute, so it’s not awful.  In fact, I’ve come to like our chandy when it shakes.  It’s a good way to tell if my boys aren’t in bed at night sleeping soundly like they’re supposed to be.  It’s a signal that my load of laundry in the washer is just about ready to be transferred to the dryer {I find those beeping and buzzing end wash cycle options annoying and always mute them}.  And it gets me reminiscing about my favorite movie as kid.  Now if only I could snap my kids into shape like Mary Poppins does Jane and Michael…

2.  Y marks the spot. Obviously a builder {not a designer} chose the flooring finishes in our spec home.  And while I don’t particularly like any of them, what disturbs me the most is the way the builder joined them all.  There’s a landing strip of hardwood that runs the length of our entry hallway back to the main living area.  There, it dead-ends into a point where it’s met by carpet on one side and vinyl on the other.  Have you ever seen anything more absurd?!  Replacing the flooring on the first floor has been on our to-do list since day one, but because all of the flooring was in good shape we put this costly project way down on the bottom of the list and just lived with it.  As you can see, this area has become somewhat of a play area.  The harder floors {wood and vinyl} are where my kids end up when they put together floor puzzles, build with wooden blocks, and drive their cars.  The softer floor {carpet} is where the kids sit to play with Legos/Knex, read books, and lay out their alphabet and number cards.  So while I haven’t ever liked the look of this strange flooring intersection, it has served my kiddos well.

3.  Lost in the mail. There’s a slightly different application of the phrase ‘lost mail’ at our house. We have a storm drain located right below our mailbox, so if we drop anything when checking the mail it usually ends up about 4 feet below the ground.  I don’t know how many times Handy Hubby has had to lie in the road to stretch his arm down into the drain to retrieve lost mail.  He’s the only one in our household who can reach that far.  The kids think they’re pretty lucky though.  We let them off the check-the-mail hook when we realized they were regularly dropping mail into the drain. Your Honor, the reason I didn’t show up for jury duty was because my son dropped the summons letter into the sewer. That probably wouldn’t go over too well.

4.  Blue light special. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but that one glass globe is different than the others.  These lights hang over my sink in the master bath.  Obviously, someone broke the matching shade during installation and replaced it as best they could.  But the understudy shade has a slight blue tinge to it that is just enough to draw my eye upwards every time I’m in there.  I should just get over it.  Or replace the entire light.  But that would cost money and, really, I’m the only one who notices.

5.  Off means on. I was so excited when we moved into this house to have a laundry room on the second floor.  I still am.  It keeps all the dirty laundry and clean, unfolded laundry piles out of the main living areas.  I was also excited {and still am} about our front-loading washer.  It uses so much less water and detergent AND does a way better job of washing our stuff than the top loader we had in our first home.  However, when we first moved in, hauled our washer upstairs and hooked it up, it wouldn’t work.  I kept getting an error message.  The washer was still under warranty so I called the manufacturer who sent a technician out to have a look.  Turns out, the plumber installed the cold water switch bass-ackwards.  So, while I was trying to run a cold water wash, I turned the cold water switch to the ‘on’ position {which was actually the ‘off’ position} but the washer wasn’t getting any water.  Hence, the error message.  Ever since, I just remember that off means on for the cold water shut-off valve.

6.  Loft or landing? I’ve always had trouble with this little area.  It’s located just off the staircase on the second floor.  It’s too small to be considered a loft room and too big to be your average landing.  So what do I use it for?  Folding laundry, naturally.  {If you look closely, you can see the oval indentation of a laundry basket in the carpet in the bottom right corner.}  The laundry room is right off this area, so I dump freshly dried clothes onto the floor, plop down and fold away.  I had visions of painting the stair railing/spindles and adding a large built-in, L-shaped bench with cushions and storage to form a quiet little reading nook.  But my preschooler is quite the daredevil and I don’t trust his fearlessness.  As soon I envisioned the bench, a vision of Everett climbing up onto the bench and falling over the railing quickly followed.  Needless to say, this project never panned out.  It would have been a nice idea for kid-free home.

7.  Where bugs go to die. I love the open, two-story foyer.  There’s a window up high that lets in tons of natural light and keeps the entry and upstairs hall feeling bright.  But, seriously, how does a homeowner go about regularly cleaning a second story window with no floor immediately beneath it?  My solution?  Don’t.  Don’t worry about it.  In complete and utterly embarrassing honesty, I have cleaned that window once in the three years we’ve lived here.  {See that death-defying act here.}  Sure, I could hire someone to clean it.  But, again, that costs money.  And I’d rather have a new design book and dirty window than a clean window and no book.  Know your priorities people.

So those are the few quirky ticks that this house adds to my already quirky life.  When I lay them all out there like that, I’ll admit they aren’t that bad.  {Much better than the basement that regularly flooded in our first home.}  Still, they make me twitch a little.

Does your home have any peculiar areas, tricks, or nuances to it?  A section of floor that squeaks every time you walk on it?  A problem spot that you haven’t quite figured out how to address but instead just live with it?  A furnace that needs a good kick sometimes?  An odd corner that you’ve turned into something beautiful?  Share!

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

As you may have guessed already, I went on a little vacation with my family last week for a some much needed R&R.  Sorry about the lack of posts, but we were in an area with spotty {at best} phone and internet service…which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  {More on the vacay later.}  Anyhow, we got back home late Saturday night in the middle of a spring shower.  When I woke up Sunday morning, I was giddy to discover that many of our flowering trees and shrubs had decided to bloom while I was away.  It was a pretty sweet welcome.  I don’t know about you and your particular whereabouts, but here in the midwestern U.S. it seems like spring has really been dragging its feet this year.

Here’s the pear tree…

…the plum tree…

…the weeping cherry tree… {you know how much we love cherry blossoms!}

…the magnolia tree…

…a large green shrub whose name has slipped my mind….

…an easy-to-care-for succulent whose newly opened leaves remind me of rosettes…

…a budding crabapple…

…and an almost there miss kim lilac that I always mistakenly call my “lil’ kim lilac”…{don’t Google images of that!}

I can’t wait to bring in some fragrant lilac flowers when they bloom.

All the newborn blossoms and green grass come with strings attached…or shall I say, weeds attached.  A few dozen dandelion were invited to the welcome home party.

Handy Hubby was quick to break out the ol’ Hound Dog Weed Hound.

We don’t like to use chemicals {including weed killer} on our yard.  This long-handled, steel weeding tool has a claw at one end to grab weeds at their roots and pull ‘em out.  You just step on the platform to put the claw into action.

It’s a good way to rid your yard of weeds without spraying potentially harmful chemicals all over the place and without breaking your back to pick weeds by hand.  It can be a little tedious depending on the size of your lot but Handy Hubby admits to enjoying the task.  Good thing since this happened shortly after the weed-pulling fun…

Nothing like attracting buyers with a yard full of dandelions!

Anyhow, it’s good to be back.

FYI – I was not compensated in any way for mentioning our weed-pulling tool.  I just love sharing good stuff.

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking