Design Time Saturday Night

Do you remember when HGTV was all about decorating? I miss those type shows!

HGTV's Kitty Bartholomew

Over at Preppy Empty Nester, Katie did a great post Missing My Old HGTV on the old shows from the early HGTV days. 

I watched HGTV like crazy back then. Now, except for a few shows like Fixer Upper, I hardly ever watch HGTV. 

One Saturday (late at night) in the winter of 2000, I got inspired after bingeing on all the Design Time Saturday Night shows! We had just purchased a newly built house, and the walls were still bare and seemed a bit lifeless in most of the rooms.

I decided right then and there that it was time to decorate the downstairs powder room by the front door. Did I mention we hadn't yet acquainted ourselves with things like Water Shut Off Valves and such?

Always Learn Where To Shut Off Your Water And Gas

I was downstairs, by myself, and decided to hang a large picture above the toilet. I held the heavy picture up with my right hand, and  stretched way, way over to reach with my left hand to pick up the hammer.

The large picture slipped right out of my hand and dropped straight down shearing off a heavy plastic-and-wire-type plumbing hose on the back of the toilet. Water gushed everywhere! 

The powder room was right next to the front room with wall-to-wall carpeting. To keep the water flooding out of the powder room from getting to the carpeting, I got on my hands and knees and grabbed a small rug to bail water out the front door as it came gushing out of the bathroom.

I was bailing water out the front door and yelling for Wild Bill to turn off the water. He was upstairs playing his keyboard and couldn't hear me! 

Finally, with the water flowing faster than I could crazily bail, I ran to the stairs and screamed until he heard me.

We couldn't find the water shut-off anywhere. I bailed water while he ran to our new neighbors...who had a house with the same floor plan as ours...and asked where their shut-off valve was. 

Back he and the neighbor came and literally jumped over me as I was still bailing water out the front door.

They couldn't find the valve in the pantry where the neighbor's was located...so out the door they ran, around the house they went several times, then back through the front door again jumping over me as I bailed and bailed!

Finally, they returned to the pantry and found the valve right where it was supposed to be. Dirty, exhausted and soaking wet, we went to a Walmart and rented a Rug Doctor at 9:00 at night.

The two of us worked late into the next morning sucking water out of all our downstairs wall-to-wall carpeting. With the water shut off still because of the broken toilet hose, we went to bed dirty and totally beat!

Luckily the plumber who came on the emergency call Sunday morning to repair the toilet hose (with an indestructible flexible metal one this time) told us to call a "restoration" company, which we promptly did. 

At Sunday rates we almost paid our $500 deductible with just the  plumber's charges, so the restoration charges of nearly $4,000 was almost all covered by our insurance company. We were just glad to have our water turned back on.

Turned out, despite our late night Rug Doctoring episode, there was still lots of water in the carpeting and padding that had to be sucked out! And the flooded crawl space below the house was a swamp with all the water that flowed, so heaters and fans were set up right away on the first floor and in the crawl space under the house. 

We lived in Washington State at the time. In Washington, due to the wet weather that abounds, mold and mildew can easily set into your house when flooding is involved.

The noisy equipment ran and ran all week! We lived in our upstairs bedroom while this was going on, avoiding all the rest of the house. 

We were more than happy to get up and head to work each morning to get away from the sounds of all the equipment running day and night.

Have you every had a decorating faux Pas that lead to a disaster? Come on, I can't be the only one who almost wrecked a brand new house while trying to decorate. Maybe it's a good thing HGTV doesn't have Design Time Saturday Night any more.

Thanks for dropping by!

A Tea Idea From Decor To Adore

Stored away in a cabinet was a vintage candy dish. At least I thought it was a candy dish, but now I'm not too sure.

My mother-in-law had several family pieces that are vintage and antique glass, which she kindly passed down to me.  

Recently I saw a post about an impromptu tea at Laura's blog, Decor To Adore. 

I loved how Laura used a similar glass bowl to display her sugar cubes when setting her table for tea.

Laura's Victorian Tea Party

Laura's post inspired me to get my candy bowl out and shine it up. I thought I'd use it for sugar cubes just like she did.

Honestly, after I got to thinking about it I realized what I thought was a candy dish, probably was meant to be a sugar dish originally. It would make more sense given the era that it comes from.

What do you think it was meant to be? Candy dish or sugar dish?

From now on, I'll be using the little glass bowl for sugar cubes, and I'll store it in the glass kitchen cabinet along with the other tea stuff. 

As you can see here, the tea cups and the white tea pot are ready for  an impromptu tea party. If you'd like to see the rest of Laura's lovely post, here it is Victorian Tea In 10 Minutes.

Thanks for dropping by!

Glass-Doored Kitchen Cabinet

Our kitchen's glass-doored cabinet got a decluttering this week...

Glass-doored cabinets are another thing I'll eliminate from any wish list for a future kitchen.

If we were staying here a few years longer, I'd remove the glass doors and add trim to make this cabinet into open shelves. 

In my opinion, glass doors just make the shelves behind them harder to use. What do you think? Are you a fan of glass-doored cabinets or would you rather just have open shelves instead?

These glass doors are made to look old with the old-fashion glass that has bubbles in it and kind of makes it look wavy.

For now the glass doors will have to stay as we are downsizing our belongings with the intent to sell our house in the near future. 

"The Ugly Before"

Painting the inside of the cabinet is a possibility, but for now just cleaning the clutter was enough for me. 

To get the cups up off the counter and to put some color in the drab cabinet, I decided to add cup hooks to the middle shelf. That entailed another round with the despicable "cup-hook math" which I find so overwhelming. 

This time I laid a long piece of painter's tape across the shelf in the position where I wanted the row of cups to hang. I marked the middle of the board with a line of chalk.

Then I just eyeballed the position of three cups on each side of the middle line. Last time I hung cups in the china cabinet HERE I tried to get all perfect with the math. This time I decided to go a little easier on myself. 

What happened to the china cabinet you might ask? It's getting stored in an effort to minimize furniture to just the necessities. 

Less furniture = bigger rooms right? Yep, thought you'd agree!

Once the cups looked about equally placed, I marked each cup handle position with a large dot of chalk. This is about as scientific as I can get...

Since these are small cups and I might want to put larger cups up in the future, I spread the cup hooks a little farther apart and limited it to just six.

Here's all you need to make your own professional cup hanging kit...Painter's tape, measuring tape, and a big ole piece of chalk!

Any advice about prepping a house for sale would be appreciated. Do you have any special tip that worked for you? 

I'll be sharing at the here Share Your Style party and here at the Keep In Touch party this week, hope you'll join me.

Thanks for dropping by!

Friday Favorites

Seems like it's Friday all the time. The weeks just fly by don't they? 

Here's a few of my favorites this week...

Faux Candles:  Love the flickering-flame faux candles. They look so real! I buy the ones with bark-like sides from Pottery Barn.

Faux Candle

My all time favorite thing to do is prank Wild Bill by setting one right next to his beloved flat-screen TV while he's out of the room and then watch him panic when he thinks it's a real candle flame. He falls for it almost.every.time.

Faux Candle From PotteryBarn

By the way, there is such a thing as TOO BIG when it comes to TV screens. Don't let anyone tell you any different. 

Wild Bill wanted a 65-inch flat screen last year, which meant it would be too big to hang over the fireplace. It was almost impossible to get home and we had to find a TV cabinet to fit it, which was very hard to do. 

Even Wild Bill admits he wouldn't buy a TV over 55 inches in the future. Just too darn big.

Recent Release: The Man Who Invented Christmas is out in DVD. 

We loved this movie (about the process of writing the book, A Christmas Carol) when it was in the theatre last December! 

We bought the DVD at Walmart as soon as we saw it was for sale. At just $17, it was more than worth it as we know we will be watching it over and over.

If you're a Downton Abbey fan, this movie stars Dan Stevens as the author Charles Dickens. If you remember, Dan Stevens played Mathew Crowley who was married to Lady Mary until his too early demise.

Christopher Plummer actually stole the movie with his portrayal of the feisty Mr. Scrooge.  

Scrooge, along with the whole cast of characters from A Christmas Carol, weave in and out of this Victorian Era story about the hardships of the time and the impact Mr. Dickens' book had on the people of that era.

Thanks for dropping by!

Frontiersmen And Lewis And Clark Expedition

How do you decide what to watch on TV or online? There's just so many interesting programs and variety, it actually makes it hard to decide.

We happened upon a new series on the History Channel, The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen, which has completely captured our attention! 

Fort Boonesborough Kentucky

The first episode was about the Revolutionary War,  Daniel Boone, and the early Frontier fort of Boonesborough Kentucky.

The second episode focused on the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Sacajawea, and this was my favorite episode so far.

If you're looking for an interesting series, this just might be one you'll enjoy too. 

Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition

Now here's a funny story: A distant family member and spouse took a long and expensive group trip, which followed the Lewis and Clark Expedition's trail. They loved every part of the trip, and when the couple returned home they attended a small dinner party where they excitedly talked about the Lewis and Clark Expedition most of the night. 

Wikipedia

As one older lady was leaving the dinner party, she thanked the host for having her. Then she turned to the other couple and told them how much she enjoyed hearing all about their friends Lois and Clark's travel trip!

Thanks for dropping by!

Fixer Upper's Magnolia Market At The Silos

Our recent trip to Magnolia Market At The Silos (yes that's the full name according to the internet) was, for me, more about gawking and less about buying. 

I did buy a T-shirt and 6 small faux flowers that day, but my favorite part of the experience was seeing the "Fixer Upper Style" Joanna and Chip Gaines bring to all their buildings. 

Honestly, if I could live in this area of their shopping mecca it would be like I'd died and gone to heaven!

The black cabinets, black shiplap walls, brown wood countertops, and the crisp white fireplace surround were so very stunning I had a hard time tearing myself away from them! 

The faux fireplace surround seems like a pretty simple design don't you think? 

I took the close up pictures of it so I can convince Wild Bill we need one somewhere in our house!

All the faux flowers and plants were very realistic, and the spots of  dark green were striking against the black cabinets and shelves.

This is just a small amount of the items that were for sale in the Magnolia Market area.

 Another huge room was at the bottom of a set of stairs with an area dedicated to Chip's love of tools and "Demo Day!" 

If you haven't seen the Fixer Upper series, which can be seen on the HGTV channel, Chip does all the demolition (called Demo Day) on each house they featured on the show.

The gardening area inside Magnolia Market overflowed with beautiful faux flowers and greenery.

Luckily for us, we arrived later (2:30 p.m.) in the day and the crowds in the shop had already thinned out.

The landscaping outside the buildings consists mainly of beautiful flowers and trees in bedding areas. 

The large open areas appeared to be grass, but were really faux grass. 

All Outside Grass Was Fake, But Beautiful!

Not having to water or mow grass is such a good idea in the central part of Texas where Waco is located. When the weather gets hot and the grass starts shooting up, lawns sometimes have to be mowed twice a week.

I continually touched the faux flowers inside Magnolia Market to assure myself that they were "faux"

When I got outside again, the flowers in the outside planter boxes were so perfect, I kept touching them to make sure they were real! It was exhausting.

The Bakery was just next door, but the line was too long for me to tackle. You can see the porch of the bakery here. The line goes all the way down the block beyond the people there on the porch waiting to get in.

Tips When Visiting:

• I have read other blog posts that say despite the length of the bakery line, it is a short wait.
• Seems everyone thinks the way to beat the "crowd" is to go early in the day! Don't believe them. The market is open until 6 p.m. As you can see, there were NO crowds at the market when we were at the Silos area from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon. 
• On the way to Magnolia Market, we passed parking lots that were charging $10 to park. If you just drive down the side of the market, you will find FREE parking right at Magnolia!

This FREE Magnolia Parking Lot Is Right At The Silos!

There's a huge courtyard with free games and fun seating by food trucks that sell a variety of meals and snacks. These white tables and benches had a wonderful Farmhouse design.

The Hot Dog truck smelled so good when I passed by!

Even the restrooms were a lovely farmhouse style with beautiful flowers and plants in the window boxes and bedding areas and vines growing up the trellis.

There are so many wonderful ideas and landscape designs to soak in. I'll leave you with a few more pictures to share of the outside.

My last post was all about the building and landscaping at the couple's other venture, a breakfast and lunch restaurant called Magnolia Table. You can see the landscaping at Magnolia Table HERE.

If you made it all the way through this lengthy post, I want to say I appreciate you for sticking with me. 

Thanks for dropping by!

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Sundays At Home