The Winter Blues?

Is it just me, or do you have the 'winter blues' too?

Its 2 degrees outside.  Yikes.  Thankful we don't have to be anywhere or have  to be outside.  Tom is choosing to go clear our walkway.  Yes, our 400 feet of sidewalk that keeps getting covered in snow.  Good thing we have a snow blower!

SO many things have been going on lately while we hibernate  (and I feel like this list is incomplete):

• William was bapitized! :)  My mom and Thomas came here from Indiana - despite a snow storm looming! :)

• We had a run to the children's emergency room... she was SO BRAVE!

• I went to work, for myself!  I officially left Walsh but have not officially started a business on my own or anything... but a woman found me on LinkedIn - she was looking for a certified ergonomist with industrial experience in Pittsburgh.  I guess that's hard to find :)  Good thing I'm on LinkedIn!  I worked at Timet, they make titanium there -- and they've asked me to come back! :)
• Carpet -- er, um, a 'runner' -- installed on our stairs!  

Original condition of the stairs.  Wow.  I haven't looked at that pic for a LONG time!

In process... July 2013

Bare stairs

Cutting the padding for each step

Adding the tack strip

Adding the padding

Laying out the runner

Stapling (?) it to the wood.
This is 'Hollywood" style - so that it completely wraps around the stair.
(the other style would have a gap from lip to corner)

Almost done!

DONE!

YES!  I've had people tell me it looks like its been there from the beginning.  I LOVE THAT!

• When we ordered carpet for the stairs, we also ordered carpet (that we turned into a rug) for the living room.  They bound the edges for us, which is, of course, an additional cost.  The best size to fit the room was 13x19 - that is a HUGE rug.  Mr. John came over to help us lay it out.  BOY does it TOTALLY change the look of the room!



Before we purchased the property...



Our first day owning the home.  June 7, 2013







This living room really bothered me because we have a HUGE room, but a SMALL play area (in front of pink coffee table)

Tom, admiring his mopping.  :)



IMMEDIATELY after we rolled the rug out - the kids played on it!

Photo taken 1 hour ago :)

• BIG oak tree trimmed by 50%.  Oh boy - yes, cost a small fortune to cut a 300 year old tree.  Took them over a month to finish it too!  (came out two Saturdays.  Most difficult part for us was getting all the neighbors to move their cars!  8am on a Saturday - SORRY!)

Want to play I Spy?.... I spy the man in the tree...

• I've been ordering ALL sorts of things for the home and personally online - why have I not really shopped online much before?  I know - I like to touch/feel/ and see whatever it is before I buy it! :)  I just ordered this for the home and I'm stoked!

• OH - one more thing (I think?) - Elcy has made us one London shade!  I picked it up from her two weeks ago and I still have not 'reported' to her how it looks/how to go forward.  We have 8 windows to cover - this is no small feat!  18 yards of fabric she has to work with and I am SO thankful we decided to make one shade first, see how its looks, and then make the rest of them.  There are quite a few small changes to make, but without the changes it does look great!
  
• I knew I wasn't done yet... ANOTHER item - I'm STILL contesting our property value from 2013.  Our 'property value' determined by the county, increased by more than 200% from 2012 to 2013.  It was valued at ALMOST THREE TIMES what we bought it for.  So, I've been fighting that for a long time!  I had to hire a lawyer and our hearing is FINALLY scheduled for this week.

Whew. That's a lot, eh?

And my word was left un-fulfilled.  My sincere apologies.  Good thing (I'm pretty sure) no one is really anticipating my blog posts! (But if you are, please comment below so I know!  Then, I promise, I'll be better on my word)

Stay warm my friends (not meant for Hotlanta friends!)

In the name of cold weather progress,

Heather

Ps.  On a side note, I just started working out every day at 6am with an awesome neighbor of mine.  I never knew how good it would make me feel - I never knew how much my body misses physical activity.  I feel as though I'm making SIGNIFICANT progress in EVERYTHING in my life because of this!  So, here's to much more progress, and more blog updates to come!

Hole in the wall...

Goodness.

Day after day I want to do a blog update - but it's funny how it is hard to find the time for just that!

But I thought you would find this interesting...

We found some issues the other day.  Well, at least we THINK they are issues:

And I saw this a while ago -- looks like its gotten worse...

So - we opened up the wall last wknd.  At 5:30pm when the superbowl was on at 6:30pm?

True Tom-and-Heather-fashion...

I'll let you know what happens soon!  I promise!

William is walking now!  Wasn't he JUST born?!?!  Geez Louise!

My promise to you is to do another update on the house within a week!  (I keep my promises.  Mark my word!)  We got some carpet installed the other day, that's up next.

May you have patience with all your house stuff,

Heather

(I think I'm reminding myself of patience too!!)

New Year. New House.

Well, I certainly hope we don't get a new house this year.

But by saying, New Year, New House - I mean we will be doing plenty to this house to make it look like a new house.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.  It was a quick one and was over in a flash wasn't it?  Here's some of our holiday fun - from Thanksgiving to Christmas:

 

 

 

We definitely did not do much work on our house - hence I haven't updated the blog in about 5 or 6 weeks?  But we are back at it.  Tom was jumping at the bit last weekend to build something!  I politely asked him to hold off... so we just organized some of our stuff and dumped 2/3rds in the trash or donated!  Felt good.  I have this odd feeling to do it to EVERY room in the house.  

Less is more.  Couldn't be feeling that any stronger right now.

On that thought, if we do ever get another house, I have a feeling it will be smaller.  Yes!  Less cleaning, less stuff, less gas/electric bills, less taxes... my oh my!

About the only thing I can think of that I haven't shared yet that we've done is we hung the shades in the living room!  Thanks to your help in response from this blog post, I was able to pick an AWESOME shade.  Here it is:



Mickey and Tom worked on them for a couple of hours (note the samples and sample paint we are trying on the fireplace bricks).  We have 8 windows to cover in the living room.  Holy smokes that's a lot of windows!



So the little white gap at the top will be covered with the London shade my friend is making.  I can't wait!  Unfortunately, she is in Colombia right now. 




Also, here are some other pictures I never shared.

Mary Alice working on the guest bath mirror!  (Upcycled!  My friend, Mariangee, was getting rid of it so its a steal!)

 

We spent what seemed like a whole Saturday trying to hang blinds.  Wowzers, it was too complicated for what it was!

Also, a while ago I posted about salvaging light fixtures... I have some bad news... they wouldn't work.  We needed fixtures that have a switch on them since the wires were not connected with a switch on the wall.  WHAT. A. PAIN.  That we went through all that work.  I swear, sometimes it seems like this house is out to get us or something.... phew.

Tom discovering that the wires
are not connected to a switch!

Work in progress...

 And this was my 'loot' I wont from that HGTV contest... not bad eh?

Oiy!  And one more share!  We made some of our own curtains!  Its actually pretty simple if you are ever interested.  Sewing, that is.  Just fold the fabric and run it through the machine!  So easy, Tom can do it! :) 

BAHAHAHA  :)

 

Happiest of new years to you!

Much love,

Heather

Creativity

Creativeness is not normally a word I would use to describe myself -- really, its never been part of my vocab.  A lot of ideas I have are pretty much stolen from somewhere else.

However a good friend of mine was over here the other day and said, "Wow, you're so creative!  How do you come up with all these ideas?"

And I just don't really know.  I know I see a picture of something I like, and well, I want to make it!  I think it really helps that I have a husband who can fix/make just about anything!  :)  And now that I found a seamstress - possibilities are endless! :)

For instance, I saw this picture on pinterest and fell in love.  For those of you who don't know much about pinterest, I suggest you try it.  I'm not really into the 'new thing' -- I don't tweet, I just learned about instagram -- I'm just NOT on the up and coming.  And I'm okay with that.

I would never go with that floral print however, I just love the feel of these curtains.   They feel romantic.  They feel voluptuous.  They are apparently called a balloon curtain.  (scroll to the bottom of that page)

And I found this print at JoAnn's.  Its parisian -- and it has blue butterflies, a pink mannequin-type-thing -- its just great!  

These curtains are going in my closet - yes, I am so fortunate to have such a closet in a 1930's home!  (someone had some money back then!)

That is a sample of the fabric.  We'll definitely put some backing on them.  And no - I don't really use the closet for much - its actually extremely cold in there!  And now I need to get in touch with Elcy and see how much fabric I need for these - they do look like they will take a bit of fabric.  Measured the window - its 36" long by 8 feet wide!  Whew! :)

At any rate, just wanted to share with you my thought process and encourage you all that you can do whatever you dream up!  In my case, you just have to be patient - it may take a while!  (I presume I will have these installed sometime in February or March!) 

Happy saturday-at-home ya'll!

Much love,

Heather

Linens and Things

I have some exciting news!  (bahaha, its exciting to me at least!)

MY CURTAINS ARE FINISHED!

Elcy - a friend of a friend - made them for me.  Simple, rod pocket, 106" panels.  Nothing special -- other than they are upholstery fabric (so thick and heavy) AND the lining I picked was the heaviest I could find.  (yes, the windows are HUGE and they SUCK out our heated/cooled air in winter and summer!  I'm embarrased to share how high our first gas bill was!!)  I bought the fabric 3 months ago, yowzers.  

Here are my bare windows and the stack of curtains!   (pardon the mess, EVERYWHERE, I have kids, its excusable right?)

 

Elcy did a fantastic job.  I contemplated making them myself, but I am SO thankful I found her and so happy with what she did.  Pittsburghers -- I have her number and she'd be happy to help you! She used to make curtains/drapes for her friend's clients -- her friend, the interior designer.

Here is the finished product:

 

Still need to get different sheers and of course, after I get them up --- I'm wanting to change the wall color and where the rod is hung.  Lesson learned:  HANG the rods when you have your CURTAINS. 

On another note  ---     I NEED YOUR HELP  ----

making a decision.  I have made far too many already, and have another one that I would LOVE your advice on.

I have decided I am going to have this fabric made into 'London shades' in my living room.  I actually already bought the fabric!  (Elcy will be ready for them in January!  At least I really hope!)  Below is an example of the fabric and that particular type of shade.  Elcy knew exactly what a London shade is (new to me!  I just saw this pic and loved it!)  Here is the fabric I have, and what a 'London shade' is:

 

The main reason I am doing that shade, is I don't want it to cover ALL the woodwork.

At any rate - I'm going to put a shade behind it to cover the whole window.  A pull-down blind/shade thing.  I bought a bunch of them from Lowe's and I narrowed it down to 2.  I need your help deciding between the two.

Here is shade #1:

 

This is shade #2:

 

What would you choose?

Here are the two shades with the fabric.  Shade #2 is on left, #1 on right.

 

Two totally different vibes I think.  

THANK YOU for your help!  Yes, I know, I am very fortunate to be making these silly decisions, very fortunate.  My prayers go to those who have much more difficult decision all the time, truly they do.

Much, much love -

Heather