Buying A House - Making A Home

 

At the end of January, I closed on a house in a Del Webb (55-plus) community in Illinois.

Without Wild Bill, it was emotionally much harder than I expected. I cried all the way to the closing. It made his death feel so final. 

Up to that point, everything had been temporary actions!

Buying a house required making a commitment and fully admitting Wild Bill would not be here to help make this house a home.

So, here I am...back again and planning to stay. I hope all of my blogging friends will join me in this new journey.

Please help by giving your advice, or even just an opinion, whenever I'm stuck with indecision -- If you're an old reader, you know that happens quite often!

Thanks For Dropping In!

Struggles

Hope all is well with you...I've found it's easier to say you're back than to actually be back!

The last 7 months have been a struggle to get back to normal, especially in this world of shutdowns and Covid 19. 

I wanted more than anything to get a haircut, especially when my bangs almost reached my chin! But long hair started to grow on me (no pun intended) and now I'm leaving it that way.

I'm working on downsizing now that I have everything I own in my garage and small apartment. It seems you have to go through your things about a blue million times before you actually get to a point where you have just what you need and no more.

I've found Blogspot changed all their buttons while I was gone. Took me forever to figure out how to even publish a post!

Today is the first day of Summer I think. The 4th of July will be here before we know it, and it seems like it should be fall by now to me. Time drags. 

I've been going out to walk early each morning, trying to get some exercise and using the time to get some deep breaths. Just Breathe...Just Breathe...

How about you? Are you enjoying summer or would you rather it be fall like me? Fall always seems to be a time for renewal... I'm ready for that.

Thanks for dropping by!

                                                                           

Adorable Easter Tablescape At LeCultivateur's Blog

This is possibly the cutest Easter tablescape I've run across!

LeCultivateur

I'm trying to store away all but the "necessary" stuff as we get ready to put our house on the market soon, but I've "pinned" this post to Pinterest so I'll be able to make these little bunny silverware sacks next year.

You can find this post HERE at LeCultivateur.

Thanks for dropping by!

Counter Stools Update

Thanks to a suggestion from The Bee Lady and others on my post about buying counter stools a while back, we purchased three stools for our counter and one for a back up.

The ladies suggested buying extras because if we lose one due to breakage, we might have a hard time finding a replacement. Their suggestions made sense so we bought the extras.

We gave the new stools a good workout recently when the four youngest grandkids were here together during spring break...

If you're a grandparent, I'm sure you've learned that superheroes don't have time to be careful with the furniture.

I would prefer stools with brown legs, but these white cushioned stools are only available with black legs at Pier 1 Imports. 

It would be easy to paint them with chalk paint, but buying a new house is in our future and the black legs might work better there.

To protect the wood floors, we added felt tabs to the bottom of these stools as we did with our other chairs and stools. 

We used the tabs that you pound in with a hammer, but first I had to remove the plastic ones that came on the stools when we purchased them. 

Luckily all it took was a Phillips-Head screwdriver and a little elbow grease.

It was more fun adding these "hammer in" new ones than removing the old ones. 

I don't know about you, but hammering something always makes me feel a lot better when I'm done!

Thanks for dropping by!

It's Flag Season...Again.

I'm still standing by what I said in a post last year...

When it comes to decorating, there's only three seasons: Fall, Christmas, and Flag Season.

Basically, I love putting small flags in anything that stands still. As you can see in the picture above, adding dried beans to a canning jar helps to keep the flags standing up. 

I've found the best place to buy these small American flags is Home Depot. I usually find them there for 99 cents each. Lowe's carries the little flags too, but their price is a little higher. Yep, I'm lazy and cheap!

Right now I'm breaking out last year's flags to get started. I have to confess, it takes me a while to get it done when it comes to decorating. So once decor is up, I like to leave it a while. How about you?

Flags In The Pots Last Year

If you're a fellow lazy decorator, flags work - inside and outside -the whole month of May (building up to Memorial Day) then stay around for the 4th of July, and through the summer and on to Labor Day! 

That's why I'm repeating here what I said in this POST last year, except for Christmas and fall, all the rest of the year can be Flag Season.

In The Heat Of Summer When Flowers Die, Flags Can Add Color

Just let your little flags fly and add flowers, chickens, candles... whatever hits your fancy.

Thanks for dropping by!

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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!

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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