Seeing the Vision Clearly (With the help of a photo editor)

Envisioning the outcome or goal - of anything! - really helps to bring it into fruition.  So with that in mind, I stayed up (WAY too late) last night playing with a photo editor I had on my computer.  The pics are a little "cartoon-y" but it shows clearly what the house will look like after changing window and door placements/sizes, adding fresh siding and a new shingle color along with removing trees, shrubs, a sidewalk, and shutters.  I also want a pergola off of the north side of the house where we will put in our patio.

 

The front of the house

Before

After

 

Here's what we plan to change:

• Remove half dead shrub and over grown day lilies from the center of the front yard
• Remove trees the are directly in front of where the new front will be
• Install new front door, stoop, and winding sidewalk.
• Re-side the entire house - we're keeping the blue but updating the color and adding a darker, scalloped look to the top of the front.  We'll also add some gingerbread to the peak in the front.
• Add vibrant shutters
• Construct a pergola to the north where the patio will be
• Add new plants along the edges and sidewalk, like a flowery pink shrub (and I didn't draw it in here, but we also were talking about an arbor somewhere near the new front door to clearly define the entry and continue the cottage look, maybe add some climbing vines.)

The South side of the house

Before

After

After (opt. 2)

Here's what we plan to do:

• New siding and new, darker, shingles
• Remove the current front door (it's being moved around the corner)
• Change out the windows on the first floor
• Change the other door to a full glass and put in a window beside it (will probably install the dog door below the window) to take full advantage of the south side exposure - let the sunshine in!!
• Install new light fixture beside door
• Remove old sidewalk and replace with a new cement pad
• Install half moon shaped window upstairs
• Landscaping

If you can see it, you can achieve it!  This is going to be fun ;)

Uh Houston, I Think We Have A Problem...

During one of our strategizing sessions outside last week to plan the garden, decide which trees and shrubs should be removed, while examing the sidewalk we plan to remove that runs along side of the house I took a closer look...

and noticed this -

Yeah, that's an electical wire. To the garage.  Laying bare along the edge of the sidewalk.  Perhaps once it was buried, but it's clearly not anymore.  (And I just realized I could have titled this post "Where the Sidewalk Ends: Bzzzzzzz!" ;)

When we moved in and had an electrician do a walk through, we knew that a "do it yourself-er" had lived here before, the evidence is everywhere.  The wiring in the garage is a mess, so we had him cut power to it until we can get to doing something with it.  We don't use the garage for much anyway, the roof leaks and the whole thing really just needs to come down, so it doesn't need power right now.  No big deal right?  Well, while doing some electrical tinkering this last winter trying to fix the "our stove controls the bedroom light" situation (that's a story for another day!), Dan thought he discovered that it wasn't the power to the garage that had been cut after all but something else.  Well, getting an electrician in is one of the next things we've got on the agenda so I guess we'll find out.  In the meantime I just keep hearing the Green Acres theme song in my head whenever I think of the electricity situation of this house! ;) 

UPDATE 10/24/10:  When I had the electrician out to give us a quote on our electrical work, he was surprised to see this wire in the ground, but fortunately it isn't live.  We'll remove it when we're tearing out the sidewalk.

Shopped 'Til We Dropped!

Well we've spent the last 2 nights shopping.  Last night we went north to shop, tonight we went south.  Last night's haul included several vegetables for our garden, which we plan to plant this weekend, a bird bath for the landscaping project, and a new ceiling fan for our bedroom.  I spent a good amount of time also looking at bed linens and paint colors for our bedroom.  I settled on brown and aqua/light teal, but didn't buy anything last night because I wasn't quite satisfied with the selections at last night's store.  I have been wanting the colors we - wait, who am I kidding?  Men really don't pick the colors LOL so scratch that - we I finally settled on for months.  Especially after one of the necklaces from Premier Designs spring line came out.

Los Colinas!  An instant favorite of mine and the inspiration for our bedroom color palette :)

(While taking that picture, I think I also discovered that these necklaces might make perfect tie-backs for my window treatments, too!) 

So having settled on the color scheme, we (Dan did help on this one!) picked out a ceiling fan with a nickel finish.  I can't wait to get it put up because our house is so hot in the summer and I prefer ceiling fans to other types of fans blowing concentrated cold air on me - especially when I'm in bed trying to sleep!  The other night, Dan had our current fan (one on a stand) on high and I crawled into bed and had to pull the blanket up over my face because I couldn't stand that harsh breeze on my face.  So yes, the ceiling fan will be a very welcome feature!  It also has 4 lights to add quite a bit more light to our currently quite dark space.  We'll have to add a medallion between the ceiling and the new fan, as we can already see a gap between the current fixture and the textured ceiling.  Just need to have a more finished look all the way around.

Tonight's haul included a new sheet set, I used one of the pillow cases as the back drop for the picture above.  It's 500 thread count Sateen finish (LOVE me some Sateen sheets!!)  that I found on sale.  (Also love me some sales!!!)  I spent the better part of today scouring the internet for a great comforter set.  Here's the thing about our bedding needs and why it always takes me so long, several months sometimes, to find the right comforter - I am always attracted to the very fine and luxurious linens.  Every. Single. Time.  However, I have a small child and 5 animals in my house.  The linens I long for are just not a sensible choice for me.  So I usually have to decide on a compromised look and the perfectionist in me just has to get it right.  Anytime we've ever gotten a new comforter, it's usually taken me months - if not a year or more in fact - to finally make a choice.  This time it went quite a bit faster.  I finally found one on the internet that was also available in a local store.  So we went to check it out and we ended up buying something else.  We decided on a chocolate brown micro-suede (machine washable was a must) and Dan helped.  It's quite plain for my taste BUT I figured I would dress it up with some of my luxurious throw pillows and the other accessories in the room.  I trust I will get the total look I am after.  In a parallel universe I think I must be an interior decorator!

We also bought Dan a new grill, grill cover, a medallion for the ceiling fan, as well as some spray paint to paint the medallion, although I started having second thoughts on the color I picked so I guess I'll sleep on it.  We also looked at sliding doors and more paint options.  After 2 nights of spending hours shopping, I think I actually need a break from shopping (hold on while I check myself for a fever ;)

Up next for the long weekend:

• Till the space for the garden
• Plant the vegetable garden
• Install a new storm door and maybe a dog door
• Demo the closet where my office needs to go
• Take out some small trees and shrubs
• Install our new ceiling fan
• Use new grill and enjoy the progress!

Glorious Spring!

We are really enjoying Spring and the great weather we've had so far!  The last couple of days, we've spent large amounts of time outdoors, staking out our garden (we decided on 15' x 20'), visualizing our future patio, marking out some landscaping patterns, and deciding which trees and shrubs are going to have to be removed.  We will probably be making these dreams a reality for the next several years as we have the money and the time to do them.  But I think that's part of the fun of having a beautiful vision and we can savor the realization of it over time.  We are so excited about our plans and I can see alot of it in my head.  I'm thinking of getting a software package to be able to transfer what I can see in my mind to paper, but we'll see.  For now it's strictly drawings by hand.

I thought I would post just a couple of pics I've taken that showcase the beauty of our yard, before the improvements even start!  This house was a great find economically speaking, but we also lucked out in getting a large, mature lot.

This is a picture I took about a month ago, it's the beautiful blooms of a shrub in our front yard that I have yet to identify what it is.  This thing looked amazing for a couple of weeks and now it's blooms are all shriveled up and brown.  The shrub is also about half dead.  We plan to cut it out because it sits smack dab in the middle of our front yard, surrounded by invasive day lillies.  I plan to get rid of the entire thing so I can have  a large area in which to play croquet.  Croquet is a family past time for me, we would always play it in my Grandma's large yard in Sioux Falls so I'm really looking forward to having the space to play.  If I can determine what kind of shrub this is, I will probably get a new one and plant it in a better spot in the yard.  If I can't, at least I have some lovely photos of this one! :)

In addition to croquet in the front yard, Dan plans to put in a horse shoe pit in the back.  We LOVE to have barbeques, bon fires, and all manner of outdoor fun - and the interior of our home is quite small, less than ideal for entertaining large groups of family and friends - utilizing the outdoor space for all it's worth makes perfect sense.

This is the view out of our kitchen window.  Currently, the microwave is placed in front of the window (with my "die hard" plants sitting on top of it - amazing that I haven't managed to kill these yet after more than a year of having them!)  When we remodel the kitchen, we will shorten this window to sit above counter level and we will place the sink under it.  I think we're also going to widen it a bit to get a wider view.  The view is to the north and a lovely row of lilacs that seperates our yard from the neighbor.  We also plan to put our patio and the children's playset to the north of the house so we can enjoy the shade we have on that side of the house and see the kids playing through the kitchen window.  We also want to put some bird feeders throughout the yard to attract more creatures to enjoy. 

It's going to be great!

Welcome to Everhaven!

Let me tell you a little about Everhaven.  Everhaven is the name I was inspired to give to our home.  I always wanted a home with a name, like "Southfork" (yep, I grew up watching Dallas!), only more romantic sounding.  Last year when circumstances led us to this house, which we own free and clear, I felt comfortable in the permanency of our situation enough to give the property a name.  Our house is quite small and cozy, with a generous yard and large trees lining the very front which gives it sort of a cottage-y feeling.  I started looking at names that might be associated with a cottage, which often contain the name of a flower or plant of some kind, like "Rose Hill" or "Wildwoods."  Nothing I was coming up with seemed to fit, I wanted a name that had spiritual significance so I had come up with the "haven" part and I just needed something to put in front of it.  Feeling like I had hit a wall I finally turned to my almost constant source of answers - Google!
;) 

I googled "spiritual names" which took me to baby name sites but I decided to give it a shot.  On one site, Ever was listed as a name meaning "always" and given that we had come to this house seeking a port in the storm of mortgage woes that was ravaging the country, the name seemed to fit our need and intention for our home perfectly = always a haven.  When our time here comes to a close, may it be a haven for the next dwellers here as well. 

As I continue to work on this blog, the story of how we came to live here will be told as well as the story of our remodeling adventures.  I plan to put the back story mostly on the "About Us" page, but I give a very brief summary in the description of our blog which is found on the right hand side of each page.  We lost two, yes two, homes in 2008 and 2009.  One was due to mortgage servicing fraud and the fallout of that, the other was due to our landlord going broke and giving our rental back to his bank.  Seeing the craziness going on around us in the housing market, we chose to do something a little different by cashing in my husband's IRA and buying an affordable house with cash.  We were looking for a place to take shelter from and wait out the storm of housing problems.  It needed lots of TLC, but it has good bones and with no mortgage payment we figured we can afford to do the work to rehabilitate it while we also rehabilitate our lives and our credit in the aftermath of having gone through the nightmare of mortgage servicing fraud, which also resulted in bankruptcy.

We've survived these hardships, which have been transformative in more ways than I can recount here, with the help of many friends, family, and of course our faith (please see the "Acknowledgements & Inspirations" page).  One of my favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  I turned to that verse many years ago when we were going through the struggle of infertility and had decided to build our family through foster and adoptive parenting.  It gave me hope then and it continues to give me hope, as we went through losing our homes and as we face the journey ahead of fixing up this house and making it our Everhaven.

Thank you for reading and may you be showered with blessings!  Until next time...