Monday, October 30, 2006

Rest Easy


We finally have a bed in our bedroom! It is wonderful. Chad and I both love it. There is plenty of room for our insistently cuddly kitties too.


We found another distributor of the Java collection who could special order that lovely but modern sleigh bed (previously mentioned) for us, but it would have taken four months (gasp!) to arrive. So we threw that plan out, and found this simple bed, appropriately named The Simple Bed that was in stock at a local furniture store.


The existing, temperamental sliding closet doors were not very fashionable or functional, so we threw them out in the yard. Really, the old doors are in the back yard. I picked these pretty drapery panels with a sturdy tension rod as the new closet-hider.



Here are some gratuitous shots of our jack-o-lanterns. Chad's is a Charlie Brown head as an homage to The Great Pumpkin. My design features argyles inset with sparkly marbles, reminiscent of my days as a prep-style-pusher at J.Crew.
Happy Halloween!

Friday, October 20, 2006

Happy Thoughts at a Sad Time


My dad passed away suddenly last week at age 58 while exercising on his treadmill. We think he died instantly of either a heart attack or a stroke. My chest literally aches with sadness right now.

I'm very fortunate that my dad came to town and got to see our house last May when Chad & I bought it. My dad kept up with this blog over the past month and praised our progress, and laughed at our foibles. I'm happy that I got to share the experience with him even though he was halfway across the country.

My parents have owned MANY homes over the course of their marriage. (Does anyone know of a good twelve step group to overcome real estate addiction? If so, please let me know so I can find a chapter for my mom to attend.) Dad and Mom worked very hard to make each and every home a showplace. Even homes that we lived in for less than two years got lots of beautifying updates. My dad enlisted my help to rip out wallpaper, hang wallpaper and to hold the light while he crawled around working on projects in dark cabinets and corners. Ripping out and replacing wallpaper with Dad convinced me that no home of mine will ever be cursed, blighted or otherwise besmirched by the presence of wallpaper. I don't care how many magazines say it's back in style, no way! I was very happy when Black & Decker came out with the adjustable snake-light, and I snapped one up to give my dad as a Christmas gift. I didn't have to hold lights anymore! I much preferred to hand Dad tools than to hold the light at just the right angle for what seemed like hours until my little arms shook with muscle fatigue. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic.

Here are some happy thoughts and pictures:


A friend of mine and Chad's sent these gorgeous orchids when she heard about my dad's passing. Many friends have reached out in support, and I very much appreciate each and every email, call, card or kind thought.



Every home needs a gnome. We hope he does not roam! Chad calls him Gnomaste, because he looks like he's doing prayer position and wishing us peace.



Marigold takes time each day to stop and smell the flowers.



The front planter likes all the rain we've been getting.



Our beautiful new underpinning courtesy of Ron from Aaron's Stucco. Ron did a great job and cleaned up his mess -- a total gem of a contractor!

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Curses! Foiled Again!


HGTV's website reported that installing faux tin tile ceilings was easy. Just lay out your grid carefully and starting in one corner, glue the tongue and groove tiles up to the existing ceiling. Chad made a fancy computer model of the grid for our tiles. He had about six of the 12 inch by 12 inch tiles up on the ceiling Sunday. It was looking great. I thought, "Wow! He'll finish this room today and maybe even start on the next room." Then I heard a crash, followed by a second crash and the sound of the lid of my favorite, big votive candle clattering on the cold, tile bathroom floor. The tiles fell, taking a wall shelf and its contents with them. Chad walked calmly into the bedroom and took a nap. I've scheduled the handyman. Stupid HGTV.




Our bed that was on backorder, the Java bed, which matches all of our Java bedroom furniture, is in Houston in a warehouse. Storehouse, my favorite furniture store and main distributor of the Java collection, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Storehouse was just bought by a liquidator who plans to close the chain of stores and sell off all assets. Yep, you guessed it, our bed happens to be one of those assets. (Cue the silly sitcom sound effect.) Here's a lovely picture of the bed that will not be mine. Time to find a new bed that won't quiet match our existing furniture.

The man who came very highly recommended to repair our sagging underpinning (the stucco that conceals the pier and beam foundation and keeps various varmits from climbing up under our house and in between our walls) has been telling us for over a month that he'll get to us in "a few weeks." The deck construction can't start until the underpinning repair is complete. The deck guys wanted to start October 10. The underpinning guy is still singing his song with the repeating chorus of "a few weeks." We picked a new underpinning guy at random from the internet to come do the repairs. Let's hope he can have the work done by October 10! Keeping our fingers crossed...