Sunday Ramblings

Another pretty laundry room. I have decided to use beadboard walls up to 4 feet and on the ceiling. Not sure about the walls above that yet. The floors will be vinyl with a tile look.

I like the white number on this black door. I'm torn between painting the formal door in the entry we never use white or black. I heard on a decorating show that you should go with what you are most afraid and that would be black for me. We were going to replace the door but when we discovered how expensive entry doors are, we decided to have our contractor fix up the one we already have.

I use these metal vintage trays all the time. I happen to have this particular one in red as shown and in green. They do make fun magnet boards.

I am through with my trailer infatuation for now but had to show you this one. I think it's pretty terrible!

Awwwwww....

Autumn!

As sad as it is to say good bye to summer, I absolutely love fall. So far this fall has been quite summer-like and that's my favorite kind of fall of all. Decorating with natural items in fall is one of my favorite things to do and it doesn't look like I will be able to do any of that for a while, maybe late October if things continue to go well. Here are some other gorgeous fall images found elsewhere on the web. Enjoy, and Happy Fall!

I have a red chair similar to this. I may have to set it outside too.

It actually works!

We've had this light fixture up for about 5 years. When we replaced the old we assumed it would work with the light switch but surprise-it only worked with a pull chain switch. So, we just left it up and never used it. I had the electrician look at it and he thought he could drill into the base and put a chain on it so we could actually use it. Well, he did it and now it actually provides light! I bought bulbs for the other sockets too. :) I don't like those shades anymore-too big and beady. Should be easy to find different ones.

A Room with a View

Here's an inside look at the upstairs bedrooms which now have a brand new window each. They are slider windows with a screen. Once, the window trim is on, this room is finished and then I can have fun decorating it. I really hope I have some green paint left in this color so that I can paint the damaged areas without having to repaint the entire room.

I think I'm going to like this corner.

Inspiring Photo's

Besides those fuzzy rabbits, this picture has all the elements I love, old books, a cloche with a nest, white pottery and peonies.
I am thinking about storage in the laundry room and I like the simple shelves along the wall, probably no cubbies though. Wish I had those fancy appliances too!
The dark floors, white wainscoat and fun wallpaper in this picture is just the look I'm after. Can you believe this is just a laundry room area? I probably won't use a lot of wallpaper, the entry for sure, maybe the bath. The green Jacquard print paper in our living room will not make it through the remodel. It has been damaged pretty badly and I don't have enough extra to make the repairs. Oh well.

My poor hostas

Look at the flower bed in front of the windows below. My poor hostas, sedum, hydrangeas, peonies and more have been trampled down to nothing. I hope they will come back next spring. That stupid arborvitae or whatever it's called survived though. Nothing can kill that thing.

Exterior shot

These windows are called "modified cottage colonials." In a couple of months I will probably not have that kind of information stored in my brain anymore. In fact, I think I have lost some of my window terminology already. I love the prairie style windows too but they just didn't seem right for the style or lack of style of our exterior. Notice the brown shingles? Dan picked them out and is quite proud of them. I like them too. The siding will go back up soon and on Friday the last two windows go up above the pergola. The weather has been perfect this week for all this work.

Today was the best day of school so far. I think the routine is finally starting to kick in even though we are busy testing this week. The days go by so fast. Gotta go watch Mad Men!

Vanity Arrived!

The bathroom vanity arrived today. It's in a huge crate in our garage. When I got home, I opened up the top so I could get a close look at the granite and the bowl. I couldn't tell from this photo if the bowls were round or oval and guess what...they are rectangular and I love them. What a nice surprise. The knobs are oval and are brushed nickel so that's what we'll do with the faucets. It's packed up so tight, that's about all I could see and that it is in fact black. It came 4 weeks early too!

School Update

Two words...crazy busy.

It's the little things...

that make me very happy sometimes. The electrician was here today and did a LOT of stuff but the thing that excites me most is exterior outlets in two locations on my house. Stop laughing, this is from a person who currently has no exterior outlets. I don't count the one inside the screen porch. One is going right under the window box near the entry we use all the time and the other is going near the deck under the pergola. I'll have white Christmas lights in the pine branches in the window box now-loads of them and strung along the pergola too. Sigh.

Just a Pantry

What's missing? The toilet!! I have storage around the corner and in the back as usual. I love this space now.

Window Day!!!

They're in!!!!

Out with the old.

Kind of scary!!

Bathroom wall

Old siding

Luckily, this held up our roof!!!

Luckily, no birds flew in.

Looks like a nice porch from here.

Bathroom Choices

In this picture you can see that the plumbing is all ready to go. Here is the tile we're thinking of using. The small tiles in back will go on the shower floor and wall. The big tile behind it will be used for a border and ceiling in the shower. The vanity will be black and we'll have white wainscot on the ceiling and part way up the wall. Vanity should arrive this week!

Day 2

I was right. Day 2 is always much easier. Hope it was the same for you and that all our nieces & nephews are also settling into their new routines and will have a very good year. I worked until 6:30 last night and decided that today would not be a repeat. I made it out the door by 4:15 which is pretty good for day 2. I walked out the door and had NO idea it was so gorgeous out. Being in an interior room will do that to a person.

Thursday is our big plumbing day. We love our plumber and our bathroom and laundry room were his design. Who needs a fancy designer?! They are planning on a day but you know how that goes. I am very excited about having a normal pantry and not a pantry bathroom when they remove the stool. The little sink in there is moving to the new laundry room. I didn't really want a big tub sink in the laundry room just something for spot cleaning.

We had a nice loud thunderstorm come through last night that left us with about an inch of rain which we needed. That's all for now-we're over the hump!

Here we go....

I am very excited for the first day of school tomorrow. I've had a couple of school dreams and they have been good. In one dream, I got home and couldn't believe how easy it was compared to first grade. I was amazed by how "not" tired I was. In real life, last year, Dan would just shake his head on a Friday night when I had crashed on the couch by 8pm. He said he liked having a 4th grade teacher for a wife rather than first grade. We will see if 5th & 6th is an improvement soon. I hope so!!! I am looking forward to writing, research and novel units again. Social studies will be a new adventure for me since I always taught science when we switched in 4th. Good luck to all my family and friends who are heading back to school-have a wonderful year!

Food and Remodel

This picture makes me salivate! Are you enjoying your basil and tomatoes? I harvested all my little grape tomatoes and the romas are almost gone too. I've been freezing some of my basil in little tiny cube trays. I just snip the basil into little pieces and then fill up the tray with water. You can also just freeze your leaves whole in a baggie.
I'm guessing that some of you will think this wallpaper is hideous and some, like me, will like it. I'm thinking of putting something graphic and bold in the entry, not necessarily black and white.

We are probably going to paint our laundry room blue because we have a lot of blue paint left over from the bedroom. We bought some lighting over the weekend and ordered the black vanity that I showed you earlier. On Thursday, the plumber is coming to plumb the lines for the bath & laundry. Next Monday, they plan to put in ALL 19 windows in one day. Yikes!!! There will be 8 guys here. I thought it might take at least 2 or 3 days. Dan might work from home that day just to be around. I think that is a very good idea.

Good bye Summer

The Autumnal Equinox falls on September 22, but this weekend signals the end to most of us. Fall is my favorite season when it is not rainy and cold like the last two years have been. So, I'm crossing my fingers for a lovely long fall. Maybe a first snowfall in late November and I can wait until Christmas for that too. Hope you are enjoying the long weekend. I have been able to avoid my classroom all week but need to get in there for a couple of hours-today probably for some final planning and cleaning of my desktop. Some things never change.

Louisa-Brunch

I snapped a photo at Louisa's house. She had us over for brunch and we got to see what she was busy doing all last winter/spring. She is loving her new kitchen-great room. Pictured in the back from the left, we have Louisa (North secretary) Kari (N Kdgtn) Front-Elaine (my new partner!) Deb (N Para) Jan (Former N 1st grade and now Ameri-Corp Reading)

Calm night-full moon & fire

It was a perfect night for a boat ride or a bon fire so I let Dan decide and he picked the fire. It was just a beautiful calm evening and then the moon came out and it was a full moon so it was perfect. Our neighbors came over for the first time all summer and we had a glass of wine with them and caught up on all the happenings on the Point. There is a rumor that our Sandy Point bear was poached and that makes me very sad but maybe it's not true or there was more than one. Also found out that there is a bobcat around and that the 20 turkey babies are still thriving and are almost full size. Haven't seen them for a few weeks since I last posted the picture. The big orange house two doors down sold for a pretty reasonable price to a family of 7! That's all the news for now. Good night-here's hoping there will be many more days like this in Sept and October.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Just finished reading this book, over 500 pgs but it only takes a few hours to read thanks to all the amazing illustrations. Look at the spine on this novel? Isn't that going to grab your attention on the shelf? It gives you a good idea of what to expect in the illustrations inside too. Brian Selznick is the author/illustrator and well known for doing the illustrations for Andrew Clement's novels such as Frindle. If you work with readers grade 3 and up, you will want to be familiar with this one. Next, on my reading list is "The Secret School" by Avi.

Bathroom Woes

That sounds kind of bad!! I'm talking about decorating. I can't pick a style. I'm getting tired of looking at bathroom pictures online and in books, magazines, anywhere. I went to the tile store the other day and I think EVERYTHING looks nice. It only took me 5 mn to pick out the laundry room floor. Maybe I'm putting too much into it, it's just a bathroom-right?

I'm leaning towards a gray stone floor like this one. I'd also use some white wainscot like they used here-4 feet high. In the following picture-I love this funky wallpaper. Also thinking about adding fun wallpaper in the foyer.
This vanity is available at Costco. I think it will work perfect in the space we have and I like the color and style.

Summer Movie #2

I usually go to one movie every summer but squeezed 2 in this summer. Annette, Becky, Shirley and I went a couple nights ago and we all really enjoyed it. I thought both stories were very entertaining and thought they did a nice job transitioning between them both. It's rare for me to say this, but the movie was MUCH better than the book. Skip the book-watch the movie.

Apron Love!

Shelly's mom bought this at a rummage sale. Her sisters weren't interested, so Shelly sent it home with Dan for me. Lucky me! Thanks, Shelly. Make sure you tell your mom that I love it!!

It's reversible! People put some time into these cuties.

I found this little layered apron at the Hibbing rummage sales a couple weekends ago. It's a great brown color. There are three trimmed layers. Again, a little time was spend on the construction here. Shari found a pattern for this and has been making her own. When she shares her photo's on FB, I will show them to you here.