Musings on Moving, Life, etc.

Following a 6-hour packing marathon on Friday night, we spent about 10 hours coordinating the movers on Saturday and another few hours unpacking and cleaning -- thanks for the help Babs and QG! Yesterday was spent recovering and trying to fit out our closet (which, alas, is smaller than our old one). But we're here and (almost) everything made it in one piece. So far, our only casualty has been a glass cake stand, which was infrequently used and easily replaceable.

For me at least, moving has a way of making everything seem so temporary, so impermanent. It's such an odd thing to see everything you own packed tightly into one (not-so-big) moving truck. Suddenly, it's just "stuff" -- and I'm left with a big empty house that feels a whole lot less like home and a whole lot more like just a place where I used to live. A house that, on Friday, will no longer be mine. The only evidence that we'd ever been there will be some paint and a few extra scuffs in our soft pine floors. I haven't yet met the future owner of our place, but I wonder what she's like and what the house will come to mean to her. I do hope she comes to appreciate and love it though; after all, it was a great home to us.

Out with the "old"...

I thought in some ways that I'd feel more nostalgic for the old house -- and I do, but I suppose I'm at the age where there's more looking forward than looking back, and so I tend to embrace change with the optimism of youth. But when I allow myself to look back, I know that this home was an important milestone for Dave and me: it was our first house...and it was a huge learning experience. For example, I remember about 6 months after we first moved in we noticed that ants had invaded our kitchen. Up until that point the thought that we'd need regular pest control hadn't even occurred to us. In our defense, Dave and I had only ever lived in our parents' homes, dormitories, and apartments. What did we know of the regular maintenance and upkeep that owning your own home entails? So in many ways I will look back on our old house as the place where Dave and I really grew up. Where we learned what it meant to own a home, how live on our own, and how to live together.

...and in with the new!

So today I'm staying at home to settle in a bit more, get my bearings...and wait on the alarm guy. While much of our stuff is still in boxes scattered throughout the house, it's already starting to feel a bit like home. I look into the empty upstairs' bedrooms, the vacant family room and I wonder: what's next? Will this room someday be a nursery? What important milestones will be celebrated in this dining room? What will the people building next door be like? Will they become our friends? So, while this place doesn't yet feel completely like home, it most certainly feels like my future.

{P.S. - For some wonderfully poignant musings on a recent post of mine responding to a color quiz in House Beautiful, decorating, and what either one has to do with the more important aspects of life, please visit Gannet Girl's Search the Sea.}

Sold!

Yup, just three days after my public display of despair (which in retrospect I am ever so slightly embarrassed about), we managed to sell the house for nearly 98% of our asking price. For the next ten days we'll be in the option period, during which time our buyer has the right to walk away should the inspection (scheduled for tomorrow!) or anything else go awry. Until the option period has passed, I'm a bit hesitant to be really celebratory, but I'm excited at the prospect of finally winding down this entire process. While I kind of enjoyed getting the house "ready" to sell, maintaining it in a pristine condition, running back and forth during my lunch hour to get the pets out of the way for a showing, and constantly waiting with baited breath for an offer was SO not fun. And I hope it'll be a long time before we go through this again -- though when and if we do, I hope we manage to apply the lessons we've learned from selling this house to the next.

If everything goes well, we'll be set to close August 21, which will be only weeks after the new house is finished. While the delay will result in us having to go to Dave's parents for a very short-term bridge loan, it will allow me a few weeks to paint, install blinds, etc. and just generally get the new house in order before we officially move in.

All in all, it's a great start to my weekend. I hope everything has a great weekend, too!

"Second place is just the first loser" - Dale Earnhart

Update (6/17): The prospective buyer's deal fell through today (apparently, the seller decided they didn't want to move after all). Buyer and her parents are coming back tomorrow to give our house a fresh look. Wish us luck!

I've tried to keep my personal trials and tribulations on selling a house in this market off this blog -- in part because it's a bit depressing (and I aim to entertain) and in part because I'm frustrated beyond words. But today I feel compelled to break my silence; if only in the hope that getting it off my chest will make me feel better.

Today we received word that the radiologist who looked at our house on Saturday (and again yesterday) decided to go with another (more expensive) home in our neighborhood. The buyer's realtor assured us that we were "the second choice" and, should things fall through, that they'll be back. Well, I'm not going to hold my breath. This is the third time that our house has placed second in the minds of prospective buyers -- and I'm completely sick of hearing that. Telling me that just makes it that much harder because of the unshakable feeling that I came this close to getting an offer -- and making the sale. Suddenly, I find myself obsessing over figuring out which home they went for instead of mine...and then why.

The truth is, "why?" is a difficult puzzle to solve. In my day job, I negotiate contracts for the purchase and sale of energy commodities on a daily basis. These sales are logical and transparent, in part because these goods are completely fungible (after all, an electron is an electron) and the buyers and sellers are experienced and sophisticated counterparties. But in real estate, while you can attempt to quantify a house in terms of location, square footage and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, there's a huge qualitative factor that makes setting a market price -- or explaining why one house sold faster than another -- much more difficult. To make matters worse, buyers and sellers are rarely experienced and sophisticated parties. People tend to price a house or buy a house more emotionally than rationally. Sure, I can chalk up this second place finish to just personal taste (which there is no accounting for), but for someone who is used to logical market behavior, the real estate market is incredibly mysterious -- and frustrating.

In my less hysterical moments, I know that we will eventually sell our current house. After all, we've already received an offer on it (albeit one we chose not to take) and we're still getting plenty of traffic. Yet I find myself increasingly jaded and far less hopefully than I was earlier this spring when we first put the house up for sale. In conversation with friends and family, I've often compared selling a house to dating and I believe the metaphor is still apt. Now I remember exactly why I was completely sick of dating by the time I met my husband. It's exhausting.

P.S. - While I would welcome reassurance, please don't tell me that I'm sure to sell soon or how great my house is, etc. It's rather like the long-suffering single bridesmaid being told by all her married girlfriends that "you're next!" or "the right guy just hasn't come along yet!"

Moving On

Three weeks ago, Dave and I decided to put our patio home on the market. I haven't mentioned it until now because -- quite frankly -- it's a bit scary to actually say (or type) out loud. After all, the housing market is depressed (even in Houston) and we're unsure of whether or not the house will sell...or if it does, for how much. The plan for now though is to just be patient and see what comes our way. We've already had a half dozen or so folks through to see the place and the feedback has been positive, but offers have (so far) not been forthcoming.

When the house does sell, we'll be moving out to the suburbs, where Dave already works. By moving out to Sugar Land [yes, that's a real place, and it's so named because it was the home to the Imperial Sugar Company, one of the oldest continuously run corporations in Texas], we'll be cutting his commute by 15 minutes and while mine will be longer than the 8 minutes it takes me to get to work now, it will still be less than Dave's current drive. The added benefits of our money going farther "outside the loop", safer "more-neighborly" neighborhoods and better schools (for whenever we decide to start a family) were also serious considerations.

While I'll miss my non-commute and proximity to the best shopping and restaurants that Houston has to offer, I won't miss my non-existent front yard, the one foot gap between my neighbor's home and mine (see above) or the fact that my neighbor's bedroom looks directly into my backyard. In short, I'm excited at the prospect of some privacy and more space. I'll also miss how eclectic our neighborhood is both in the style of homes [everything from million dollar new builds to tiny 1920s bungalows and 1960s student housing] and people [how often do you see guys walking down the street in an ass-less latex bodysuit? ...because I see that all the time...], but Sugar Land is at least a very diverse community culturally and ethnically (though perhaps not socio-economically or politically).

Once we move, they'll be plenty of new challenges -- like making our new home that is essentially identical to its neighbors unique and custom (on a budget!). It takes a fair bit of creativity to give some character to a stock home, but I'll do my best. At the very least, it should make for some interesting blog fodder. In the meantime though, I thought I'd share the photographs our realtor had taken of our house. It's amazing how some decluttering and wide angle lenses can make my rooms look so cavernous.

The first floor is primarily taken up by the garage and our master suite. If you missed it, you can catch the play-by-play on decorating our master bedroom and bath here.

The backyard is definitely the biggest "before and after" story of our house. When we moved in back in September 2006, the back half of the yard had been taken over by bamboo (which I have a serious aversion to) and the patio was all of 2 feet deep. At the beginning of 2008, we finally got our act together and had the flagstone patio extended considerably so it was actually useable. We also had the yard completely landscaped. The whole process took about a week and was far more expensive than I had anticipated (it's a tiny yard after all!). If I had to do it over again, I probably would've landscaped myself, but I'm more than happy with the end result.

On to the upstairs:

Again, if you missed my post about the great room, click here to read up on the decorating process and my source list.

The red study is my favorite room of the house. I was concerned that our realtor would lean on me to repaint this room because it's not neutral enough, but fortunately she loved it, too, and didn't think the color would turn off our target buyer. Again, feel free to read up on my study here.

The guest room is the room I've done the least with. The walls are the same color as when we bought the house (a rather dreary beige, if you ask me) and most of the furniture are hand-me-downs from a good family friend. I do, however, love the duvet (from Amenity) and the sheets (DwellStudio for Target). Note also the midcentury modern chair in the back corner that I had recovered earlier this year. Hopefully in the new house they'll be a better place for it. -- I hate the fact that one of my favorite pieces of furniture (and my biggest steal!) is relegated to corner of the least-used room in our house.

And finally, if you'd like to see pictures of the house as we purchased it, click below for some before shots:

House

At the end of the day, I'll really miss this house. It was an amazing first home and has been such a great experience -- both Dave and I definitely had to learn how to take care of a home and we were incredibly lucky to start with such an easy one. So while I'm excited to see what the next few months brings us, it's not without some hesitation and some heaviness of heart.

Filling In the Gaps

Over the last two weeks, Dave and I have been sprucing up our pine floors, which run throughout the majority of our house. While pine's heavy grain has a beautiful and rustic quality, it's a relatively soft wood, and as a result can be a major pain to deal with. Indentations from dogs, cats and high heels have all made their marks on our floor, but I'd really just consider that some "character".

The real problem has been in between the wood. Since these aren't engineered planks, there's no interlocking system keeping them next to each other; the floor boards are just nailed straight into the subfloor. And so, as our house has settled (which all houses in Houston inevitably do), the boards have spread apart. The prior owner had filled many of these gaps with wood filler, which was stained to match the floors' finish. And that was fine until Olivia came on the scene. Last spring, Olivia managed -- I'm not quite sure how -- to actually eat most of the filler in the wider gaps. Suddenly, the floors started to look like this:

Not horrible, but definitely noticeable, especially when you repeat this over, oh, 800 square feet of exposed floor. Fearing that the only way to properly fix the floors was a full-on refinishing (which would require (a) removing all our furniture and (b) more money than we wanted to put into fixing the problem), we put off doing anything about it for months. Recently, however, as we contemplate a move (more on that later), we decided it was time to face the music. Luckily for us, the music was pretty sweet: the floors could be fixed without refinishing; some wood filler was all they needed. Encouraged, we decided to tackle the project ourselves. First stop was a trip to Loew's for the necessary supplies.

In order to fill the spaces between your floor boards, you'll need some wood filler. We stumbled on Elmer's Wood Filler, which comes in two convenient sizes depending on the size of your job. This stuff works great. Like their school glue, Elmer's wood filler is water soluble, which makes for super-easy clean up (no worrying about getting the filler all over your floor -- you can just clean up at the end with a mop, water and a little elbow grease). To apply the filler, simply use a spackle knife and smooth some of the filler over the cracks, sweeping perpendicular to the crack/hole. Keeping smoothing the area over with your spackle knife until the filler is flat with the surrounding area, applying more filler as necessary. Since the filler will reduce a little bit as it dries, you may need to come back with a second application for deeper crevices. Once we finished applying the filler (and cleaning up), our floors looked like this:

We let the filler dry overnight before we went back over it with a Mimwax wood finish stain marker (we used "Early American" finish), which works just like any other paint pen. Staining the filler was actually far more tedious than applying it in the first place (though clean-up was -- as usual -- my least favorite part of the whole process) and I managed to get it all over me. Because of the huge area we had to fix, the entire process took us several weeknights and a good bit of a Saturday, but smaller jobs could easily be tackled in an afternoon. But the finished product turned out pretty well I think:

In the above photo, you can see how beat up our floors really are in some places, but I think the filled crack blends in pretty well, don't you? As a warning about the Mimwax stain markers: they don't go very far; in fact, we ended up running through a half dozen of them during the course of the job, so I'd suggest buying several if you're doing anything more than a minor touch up or two. Additionally, I thought the stain was rather transparent, so we ended up having do go over most areas several times to get the right depth of color.

Now that we've finished the project and our cleaning service thoroughly cleaned the floors, I'm really happy with the result. It took a good bit of work, but by doing it ourselves, we saved a lot of money on labor and in the end spent less than $100 on the necessary supplies. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner!

Knock knock...

I have mixed feelings on vinyl decals. On the one hand, I love how they can add some (temporary) flair to a room without a lot of work. On the other, I think they can easily come off as kind of collegiate -- which there's nothing inherently wrong with, except that I'm well past college (and even graduate school) these days. *

As they say though, you can't really knock it until you've tried it. And so, before tossing the trend into the "not for me" pile, I thought I'd give it a go on my front door:

Kinda snazzy, eh? The decal came from TastySuite, one of many Etsy sellers who specializes in vinyl decals. I liked their offerings in particular because they had designs that weren't too sweet for my taste and/or geared towards children's rooms. The included instructions were thorough and they even sent along a decal to practice on (which now sits on my fridge). All in all, a fun (and temporary) way to add a little spice to my entryway.

What are your thoughts on the vinyl decal trend? Love it? Hate it? Have you tried it?

_____________________
* - If I were still in college, I would definitely have to have TastySuite's jackelope on my wall as it was the official mascot of the political group I was actively involved in. Even now, I'm tempted to get one anyway and put it on my laptop.

A Tale of Two Chairs

When I worked at the Big Firm, I never would've had the inclination to spend my precious free time (what little I had, anyway) refinishing or recovering old furniture. But, since joining the Energy Company, I find myself with both the time and -- quite unexpectedly -- the desire to do just that. I blame my new found DIY-ness in equal parts on Bravo's Top Design and Design*Sponge's Before & After weekly feature.

Last fall I began stalking Craigslist looking for a cheap chair or two to tackle. I figured if I bought the chair cheaply, I wouldn't be devastated if I ended up completely wrecking it. After a week or so of searching, I stumbled across an ad for two Mid Century Modern chairs ($30 each/$50 for the pair). I figured for that price, I could afford to mess up. Luckily for me, the girl selling the chairs lived only a few blocks away. Two days later, I had my chairs. Of course, it took a while to figure out what precisely to do with these chairs, but once I did, the process for each (although different) was pretty simple.

Chair #1

This first chair was a real find. While I lack the expertise to say for certain, it is at the very least an extremely close replica of the Saarinen Executive Arm Chair with wood legs. Even the original fabric (a tweedy bright blue that had faded to a dull green grossness) looked like the fabric these chairs were originally issued in. What's insane is that the licensed versions of this chair retails on DWR for over $1200 -- and I paid $30! When I saw this chair on Craigslist, I was so excited I was almost frantic, completely afraid the chair would get sold before I could get to it (or that the seller would come to her senses and relist for much, much more). Once I got the chair home, it was evident that the existing fabric was going to have to be replaced -- it was in horrible conditions. Additionally, one of the chair legs had lost part of its veneer and was pretty beat up. And so, in case I was dealing with the "real thing", I decided to let the professionals tackle the job and sent the chair out for a proper reupholstering (though I did attempt to refinish the legs myself first -- directions below). The fabric I used is called "Esha" by interior designer Annie Selke, which is available through CalicoCorners. Esha is also reversible, and I think the reverse of the chocolate/slate would make for a fun (and coordinating) pillow.

The Refinishing Process:

Refinishing is actually a lot like painting and really no more difficult. I first removed the chair legs (which were simply bolted to the bottom of the chair). I then sanded down each leg with medium-grit sandpaper to remove the original finish as well as smooth out all the nicks and dents that are inevitable in a vintage piece. Sanding the legs down by hand is definitely a tedious -- and messy -- process. I would recommend sanding outside and, especially if you're working with a piece that was painted or varnished, wearing a mask. Once the legs were sanded, I cleaned them off with a damp rag (you don't want any grit remaining when you start staining). For stain, I used Minwax in Red Mahogany (to coordinate with my Salvation Army desk), which I picked up at Home Depot. I chose a darker stain than the original finish because the legs were in such bad shape. Minwax Polyshades combine polyurethane and stain in one step, but you could obviously go with just a stain if you don't want the top coat. To stain the legs, I used a small paintbrush. The key to staining is to coat the wood very lightly -- you don't want to just slop the stuff on as you'll be left with inevitable drips and an uneven finish. Minwax recommends doing two separate coats, and using a fine-grade sanding paper in between coats, to get the best finish. I actually ended up just doing one coat and was happy with the result.

I am sure some purists will bemoan my decision to go with a print and not simply match the original fabric, but ultimately I decided to go with what I like. I don't see any real harm in that since the piece can always be recovered later and the original fabric was unsalvageable. Of course, having a piece professionally reupholstered or refinished can be expensive, but in this case, I got the chair so cheaply that even when including the cost of fabric (4 yards) and the cost of reupholstery (almost $200), I am still coming in far below its true value.

For the story of Chair #2, please click on "Read More" below.

CHAIR #2

Since chair #2 was a simpler shape than #1 -- and probably worth a whole lot less -- I decided to tackle the reupholstering myself. First though I sanded and stained the frame (following the general instructions above) with my husband's help over the course of a weekend and probably 3 or 4 hours. The fabric for this chair is called "Pinecone" and I scored it on sale at Pottery Barn. I bought two yards to be safe, but probably could've made do with only 1 yard. Total cost (including stain) came to about $60 for this chair. Chair #2 now sits happily next to the windows in my study, overlooking the backyard.

Reupholstering:

Reupholstering a chair is a lot like gift wrapping -- only with fabric and a staple gun instead of paper and tape. Definitely nothing to be intimidated by. I first unscrewed the seat and backrest from the frame with a screwdriver. I decided to just put the new fabric directly on top of the original but before recovering, I Febreezed the old fabric and let it air out overnight to eliminate any musty odors. If the original fabric is particularly nasty or the stuffing is worn out, you're going to want to remove the original fabric first and/or re-stuff. I find a flat head screw driver is the best tool to remove old staples. Once the old fabric is off, you can fluff up the seat with a new layer of stuffing (available at most craft or sewing stores).

Using the seat cushion as a guide, I cut out the necessary fabric, making sure to allow several inches of overlay on all sides. Using a staple gun, I then began stapling the new fabric to the underside of the seat -- starting in the center point on one side and then the center point on the opposite side ensures a snug fit. Remember to pull the fabric as tautly as possible as you work. From there, continue stapling to the corners, making sure to flip the seat cushion over periodically to check for any folds or creases in the fabric.

For the backrest, I followed a similar pattern but since the underside of the backrest would be visible, I folded over the edge of the fabric before stapling it to create a clean finish. Fortunately the sides of the backrest were going to be hidden by the wooden frame, so I was able to hide most of the staples there. For those few visible staples on the underside, I went back and dabbed a bit of White-out on them to help them blend in with the fabric. If you're working with a darker fabric, a sharpie would do the trick as well.

I am really happy with how both chairs turned out -- they both add a more personal touch to my home. Plus, every time I look at them I feel a sense of pride for finding two ugly chairs most folks would've just dumped and made them work for my home. And of course there's the satisfaction that -- with respect to Chair #1 anyway -- I got a really amazing deal on a piece of design history. If anyone else has some repurposing/reupholstering stories they'd like to share, please let me know. I'd love to hear all about it.

How To Remove A Large Bathroom Mirror

A few weeks back I posted a quick tour of my master bedroom and bathroom and Jamie left a comment asking for more details on how we removed the large unframed mirrors and replaced them with more updated framed mirrors. In light of the rather comical way we ended up going about removing the mirrors (and the after shots that I'm actually pretty proud of), I thought the answer merited its own post.

As an attorney (albeit one completely uneducated in personal liability), I do feel a duty to warn the general public that the way we went about removing these mirrors was, while in keeping with all the best HGTV has to offer, dangerous. After all, we're talking about breaking glass here. Accordingly, the general counsel (me) here at Odi et Amo advises you to consult a professional and, should you elect to undertake this project without the aid of such professional, proceed with caution at your own risk.

With that out of the way, let's get down to business. When undertaking any home improvement project, it's imperative that you outfit yourself accordingly:

This is what my husband wore the day we removed the giant mirror in our guest bathroom. Because you'll be dealing with a mirror that may (either intentionally or unintentionally) break, it's important to wear long clothing (samurai print optional), close-toed shoes, gloves and protective eye gear (which I promise Dave did wear, but is not modeling for us here). Because we had to break our mirror due to its weight, Dave also wore his Bose noise-cancelling earphones to reduce any hearing damage -- I suspect you could get a similar effect with plain old earplugs, or even earmuffs.

Now that you're looking professional, you can move on to the task at hand. You'll first need to determine how much glue is holding the mirror in place. If there's a lot of glue, you may need a crowbar (in which case you'll need to tape the mirror in a cross-hatch pattern first to reduce breakage). With the mirrors in both our bathrooms, there appeared to be little, if any, glue in place so it was mostly just a matter of unscrewing the brackets (easily done with a screwdriver). If our mirrors had been scaled normally, we would have simply unscrewed the mirrors, removed them, and replaced them with the mirrors of our choice -- unfortunately, the course of home improvement projects never does run smooth.

For us, the snag came in the sheer size and weight of our mirrors. The mirror in our upstairs' bathroom was approximately 7 feet long and 3 feet high. I'm not sure how that works out in terms of weight, but I'd imagine several hundred pounds as the combined force of David and I couldn't so much as lift the mirror an inch, let alone lift it off the wall, onto the ground, down the stairs and out the door. Since we're both rather impatient and disinclined to seek outside assistance (even when required), we pushed on undeterred and decided we would just break the mirror into pieces and transport those pieces outside for disposal. As when you have to resort to a crowbar to pry a mirror off the wall, whenever you decide to break a large mirror up into smaller pieces, it is wise (a relative term here) to first tape the mirror -- we used blue painters' tape -- in a cross-hatch pattern to prevent splintering and help the mirror break up into larger pieces. I'm not familiar with the science of it, but trust me, it makes a difference.

Of course, when breaking a 21 square-foot mirror, it's best to keep pets and children as far away from the chaos as possible (our animals were all safely in the backyard). Dave also broke the mirrors with the doors closed to avoid any pieces unintentionally flying into the hallways. After a break or two, Dave and I would stop and clean up the pieces as we went. All told, it took us several hours to break the mirror in the guest bathroom (and another afternoon a few weekends later to break the two mirrors in the master bath). We ended up storing the mirror shards in the boxes that the new mirrors came in for disposal (particularly convenient since those boxes were lined in Styrofoam, thus reducing the likelihood any jagged edge would poke through).

A word of warning: While I am not particularly superstitious, Dave and I did break these mirrors just a few weeks before Hurricane Ike hit Houston and Lehman's bankruptcy hit the nation. While I'd posit the classic statistical maxim that "correlation does not equal causation", I feel compelled to confess this unfortunate bit of timing lest further mirror breaking by well-intentioned DIYers triggers some sort of apocalypse.

But let's move on from such depressing topics and take a look at the guest bathroom "after" shots, which were well worth a few minor cuts and some sore muscles (though quite obviously not hurricanes or economic meltdowns):

The mirrors we replaced our contractor-grade mirror with are the Hutton mirrors (size small) from Restoration Hardware and are the same mirrors we used in our master bath. The hanging equipment and instructions included by RH are very detailed and easy to follow and hanging these up was no big deal. Also, since RH has been running pretty steep discounts and shopping incentives almost continuously since last summer, you can probably score them at a substantial discount (we gout ours for $100 off). At the same time we did this mirror project, we also painted the bathroom from a dull beige to a light blue-gray (Benjamin Moore's Feather Gray). Bath towels are just basic black towels from Pottery Barn -- a hint from Martha actually, who argues that darker towels and linens are great for guests as they hide stains and look fresher longer. The shower curtain is the Dobby-Stripe shower curtain in ash from Restoration Hardware. The canisters on the counter and the large canvas print of the stack of art books are all from Pottery Barn's summer 2008 collection and the artwork (entitled "Bird in E Minor") between the mirrors is via Wall Blank.

House Tour: The Great Room

I'd meant to put this post up last week, but my Friday got a bit hectic between getting things together for my mother's 60th birthday party on Saturday night (more to come on that) and getting my dachshund to the vet for her annual check-up. In any case, this week we'll take a quick tour of my "great room". I live in a two-story patio home in which the primary living space (located on the second floor) is very open. Indeed, the entryway up to the second floor kitchen, dining room and living room is really all one continuous space. While I enjoy the open floor plan and easy flow of this house, large spaces like this can be difficult to decorate since they really have to relate well to each other. My dining room walls (of which I really only have 2) can't be bright purple if my living room is swathed in neutrals. My second issue with this space was that the living room itself is very large and without proper furniture placement, would result in a lot of wasted space either in the center of the room or, if I floated the furniture in the center of the room, around the sides. Either way you go -- the island of furniture or the island of space -- it can get pretty awkward. In short, I struggled (and still do) to make this space to coordinate without being matchy-matchy, to feel comfortably full without feeling cluttered.

Above is a shot of the two-story entryway from the top of the stairs. The photographs (all landscapes) are ones I took on our trips to Banff, Alberta (our honeymoon), and two separate trips to Hawai'i (to The Big Island and Kauai, respectively). I'm not really a photographer, but I enjoy it and I like having personal art around the house that isn't just pictures of Dave and I (which can start to feel a bit egomanical). In July Dave and I are going to London and then up to Scotland and I'm hoping to get some great shots of the City as well as the Highlands to go up here later this year to help fill out this massive wall. We'll also be repainting the entire floor (sans the bedrooms) later this spring in a slightly deeper beige. You can't tell from these pictures, but the contractor's paint is starting to look really beat up.

Here are two shots of the "dining room" (it's really just a dining nook). I love that runner -- we scored it at a great price at a rug store that was going out of business. I'm pretty sure that (in Houston at least) an oriental rug store goes out of business just about weekly, and it can definitely pay off big to swing by whenever you see one of those liquidation sales going on. I got the large painting at Storehouse before they went bankrupt. The table and chairs are by Kathy Ireland and I reupholstered the chairs in Marimekko's Tuuli fabric. The bowl on the table was a wedding gift from Crate&Barrel. The grass blinds are from Budget Blinds (which I highly recommend). The light fixture came with the house. I'm not over the moon about it, but it's nice enough and I don't think it's worth investing in a proper chandelier since this really isn't our "forever" house.

When you walk upstairs from the front door, the first thing you see is the kitchen, which happily pretty much came this way. I love the large stainless hood over the island -- very dramatic. The one thing we did add to this space (besides all the stuff on the counters, of course) was the backsplash. The kitchen just had drywall behind the counters, so about a year ago we decided to spice things up with some tiny marble subway tiles (which we scored locally). I love them because they do such a nice job of blending in the black countertops with the cherry wood. Dave actually picked them out and he's still very proud of his designer moment. We ended up hiring a guy to come out and tile the wall for us for a few hundred bucks, but if you have a wet saw (or can rent one), you can save on the labor costs by doing it yourself. Watching him, it didn't look too bad, so maybe I'll give it a go next time I need to do some tile work. Here's a close-up of the backsplash:

The kitchen looks out over the living room, which is mammoth in size but does sport some nice architectural detailing with the sloped ceiling and woodwork. I particularly love the french doors (which open out on to teenie tiny balconies, but no matter):

The x benches are from Ballard Designs (see my earlier post on them here). The rug is Romanian actually and was a hand-me-down from my mother. The colors (brown, cream, gold and apple green) became the inspiration for the color palette in the room. The white sectional is the Pearce 2-piece sectional from Pottery Barn (which we found for 1/3 the price at PB's outlet in San Marcos). Although I like the white sofa, it's been a pain to keep looking decent, particularly with 3 pets and I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone with children, pets or husbands to like to eat/drink on the couch. The leather ottoman was a score from The Dump (a great resource if you're in TX, VA or PA). The lamps were wedding gifts from Crate&Barrel and the scroll work on the wall was a wedding gift as well (from Pottery Barn).

Above is a view of the bar area that looks into the kitchen. The bar stools are from Crate&Barrel as is the Lyric bar table (no longer available). Posters were cheapies I scored eBay and were intended to be temporary "filler" until I found "real" art I preferred. Almost two years later, they're still up, and I'm still looking.

The fireplace (that we've never used). We've actually had a lot of trouble finding ceramic logs that fit (it's a pretty small hearth). Perhaps next year we'll get our act together so we can enjoy it from time to time. Candlesticks are from West Elm (many seasons ago), the print is from ZGallerie and the wooden statutes are gifts from Nigeria from a family friend.

My bird salt/pepper shakers from Jonathan Adler. They're honestly not super functional as shakers (the holes on top are too big and then tend to topple over a lot), but I like them as little sculptures for my bar table.

I love my throw pillows. From left to right: silk pillow by Thomas Paul (no longer available, but I found mine on eBay at a steep discount a few months ago -- Bluefly is also a good source for Thomas Paul pillows at a good price), silk striped pillow from ZGallerie (again, no longer available) and Big Sur Lime small pillows by Jonathan Adler (currently on sale).

I got this vintage brass and teak star burst clock off Etsy from RetroClassics, but I've seen very similar items (like this one) on eBay for under $50.

Pictures of my adorable niece and nephew share shelf space with my West Elm mushrooms and college books.

Well, that just about concludes a tour of my house. If you missed it, you can catch tours of my master bedroom and study here and here, respectively. Our house is actually a 3-bedroom, but the guest room is pretty unexciting at the moment. I'm planning on painting it later this spring and we're inheriting some cool bedroom furniture from my parents when they move early this summer ,so I'll work up a little before and after (always fun) once we get everything in order then.

And of course, if anyone out there in blogland would like to share some pictures of their house, apartment, condo or igloo, just drop me a line at averillh1(at)gmail(dot)com and I'd love to share them. As I've said before, I really enjoy seeing how people really live (and decorate) in their homes. It's way more inspirational than flipping through high-end shelter magazines with their often (while beautiful) stark and unattainable spaces -- don't you think? Besides, with domnio gone, we're going to need to start taking up the slack and inspiring each other.

Spring has come...and gone?

Houston weather is notoriously schizophrenic -- yesterday the high was 80 degrees, this morning we're at a chilly 38. Similarly, in mid-December we had an inch of snow (aside: I know this is nothing for you Northerners, but to those of us on the Gulf Coast, it's positively bizarre) only to have it melt away into a glorious 60-degree (and sunny) morning. What with the warmer weather we have been enjoying, my garden has decided that spring must be coming early this year. I just hope the chilly weather doesn't kill my pretty flowers.