Open House Sunday

 historic bungalow

built 1920

This little gem has been fully renovated. 

It's been stage in a very modern way which will appeal to young buyers.

 Lovely open rooms. Whoever staged this did a fantastic job!

 A very pretty color scheme going on in this room. The celery colored velvet chair is a nice touch.

This room is pretty, feminine and modern.

Of course those drapes need to be hung higher and 

they need to be longer but this is just staged, not permanent.

 Love those french doors that are common in bungalows.

 The layering of rugs is nice. I know young people like those macrame wall hangings but I still

remember them from my childhood. I didn't like them then either.

 So glad they left the partial wall in between the living room and dining room.

So many times in a renovation they remove this. Which is a total shame because it's such

a specific design feature to a craftsman bungalow.

This is the office through the french doors. I have been thinking of adding closets in this fashion 

to my front bedroom. I need the storage and I think it's quaint.

 Odd thing about this renovation is that it's staged modern but they chose old world lighting and bathroom finishes.

 A mid century modern light fixture would look wonderful over the table here.

 But that's an easy fix for the new owners.

I really like those bar stools.

 Love the original built in.

 That gold bar cart is just right against that wall.

 The flooring is very pretty here. Counter tops are too busy with the vibe of this house.

And another old world fixture over the sink.

 Really like the floor.

 A big miss in the bathrooms. They looked totally out of place.

This is the other bathroom. A pretty cabinet but does not go at all with the vibe of this house. 

It's pretty but just not right.

See the full listing here.

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Much Ado About Fall

 I've been MIA again. Sorry about that. Trying to make ends meet.

Lots of running around. I started painting the little cabinet that sits under this 

window frame in the living room. 

I hope to put the final coat of paint on it today. 

But life keeps getting in the way of me finishing.

Mom's little truck got hit and totaled.

Luckily she was not hurt. But it took forever to get the man's insurance to take care of it.

Then we spent days truck and SUV shopping. She had a little 2004 Toyota Tacoma

and that is what she planned on buying again but now they are big!

So we shopped all over trying to find something she liked.

In the end she bought a new Tacoma.

I went with her on most of these shopping trips cause she needs new hearing aids 

and cannot hear things right. When she goes alone she hears things all wrong

and things get all kinds of messed up.

The final day she decided on the truck, she went back alone thinking she had it all

in mind as to how it was going to go.

Four days later she confessed that she was upset cause they'd signed her up for a $4,800 warranty she

didn't understand was going to cost that. 

This time I went back with her. Immediately they said they'd increase the warranty from 5 years to 8 years and bring the cost down to $2,800.

Hmmmm...if they could afford to do that - why did they charge so much in the first place?

In the end after repeatedly saying no...she walked out happy with just the warranty the truck 

comes with.  3 years

My Mom is also getting badly needed repairs and renovations done to her house.

So there have been many conversations on this.

Her washer and dryer are in the basement and for years Dad wanted to move it upstairs into

the back room of the house. Mom would not agree.

She wanted to expand the kitchen and didn't want the laundry on the backside of the kitchen.

Well now she is getting practical. She does not need a bigger kitchen.

But when she told the repair/construction guys she wanted the washer dryer upstairs they suggested 

where Dad wanted to put it or removing the tub from the back bathroom and putting it in there!

She was going to do this!

She said she didn't want the washer dryer standing out in the backroom. Which used to be a bedroom but she recently used as an office/library and now is going to be a breakfast room. 

I immediately hit Pinterest to show her how pretty the washer dryer could be with shelves and cabinets above.

Well she liked that idea and that is what will be done. 

They have redone her bathroom and will work on the laundry next.

Her next plan she says is stairs to the attic.

I am saying - no no no. You don't need that.

Last thing she needs to be doing is climbing stairs to the attic.

Then....my sister's little black and tan dachshund ruptured a disc in his back.

So he had surgery this week. 

I don't trust my sister to keep him out of trouble while he recuperates so he is now 

living with me and Sally, Franklin and Maisie.

They all keep getting in his kennel with him. 

They don't want him to be alone.

It would be fine except he has a very long incision on his back that I don't want them to lick.

They have not even tried but left alone they might. 

He is not happy sleeping alone in there and lets me know periodically throughout the night.

He is walking already.

He will have an easy recuperation. 

But will be here probably 6 to 8 weeks.

Just a few photos of some fall. Christmas stuff to come out soon. 

I was going to have my cabinet all painted and then show everything.

Hopefully it will be finished this week and I'll show it with Christmas decor.

 I am taking the time to paint today because if I don't...I don't know when it will get done.

I am going to a new client's house on Monday to decorate her home for Christmas.

Hoping it will only take the afternoon. But I really don't know.

Several other people quit at the place I was working. They tell me it only got worse after

I left. I thought maybe the manager would be on good behavior for a few weeks at least.

The other designer quit a few weeks ago. They had hired a new designer to take my place 

and apparently within a week she was asking "What is wrong with her? What have I done? Why is she picking on me?" She was told by the other employees - "Oh, it's nothing you have done. 

You are doing a good job especially for someone new. It's her. That is how she deals with everyone."

Sad...there have been some really good people whose careers have come off the rails because

of her.

Of course after I left I imagined that she snapped herself out of her imagined reality and started

treating everyone better but no...she is the same if not worse. 

She thinks everyone else is messed up. 

I hear the manager over her is asking why she has such a huge turnover.

Somehow she talks he way out of it.

I don't know how...oh no...I do know how...nepotism. 

There is always a job for her somewhere in that company.

They just move her around. But she will never be fired. 

But many many others have and will quit because they can't tolerate how she treats people.

Ok, I better get in there and paint! Isaac has howled himself to sleep, finally.

He was sleeping good an hour ago when I was in the room with him.

I got up and came into the den and he woke up and started howling.

Fingers crossed he'll sleep awhile.

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Published!

Last weekend, imagine my surprise when I was browsing the latest issue of 405 magazine and I found published on it's cover and inside a house for which I created the interior design.

Jennifer the home's owner needed help fast. She was going back to work and moving into a brand new house and needed her living room furnished and other rooms completed using furnishings she already had. When I got this mag in the mail... I thought it looked familiar but it wasn't till I got to the inside article that I realized it was a house I'd done.

 This is an article about suburban home building. I'm not sure how Jen's house got in this issue and unfortunately, she said she didn't have the opportunity to share my name or the builder's name.

 In this room which is the children's craft room - she already had furniture but I suggested the art over the bookcases.

 This was the original plan for the living room furniture. As you can see I did this while I was working as a designer at Bassett Furniture.

 This is a mock up I did placing furniture in the room. The house was still in construction at this point. The giant fireplace was the biggest challenge of the room. The tall cathedral ceiling with beams made sense with the fireplace but it was giant and dwarfed everything else. The other side of the room has a large open white kitchen with marble counters. I suggested the two matching consoles that would provide much needed storage and would make the scale of the fireplace make sense. I suggested artwork but Jen chose to spend time looking for things that are special to her. Which I will not argue with. Art should be personal. But even now 8 months later, her walls are still bare. She'll eventually fill them.

 Here is a photo I took after delivery. I did the chairs and table in the breakfast nook too but didn't take a photo for some stupid reason.

 And this photo shows the consoles in the room. Sofa bookcases/tables still have lots of space to fill.

I texted Jennifer the day I saw the article and she was kind enough to send me the professional photos. This is the craft room. I didn't do anything in here but artwork.

 In the dining room she already had everything from her old house. I suggested the mirror over the console to bring a little modern in over the traditional console.

 Another shot of the dining room.

 This is the entry. I searched for just the right bench to put in this space. We wanted something modern but something that hasn't been seen everyday. This one was just right and Jen decked it out in a nice mix of pillows.

 Here's the living room with a few more accessories. Still no art over the consoles and it really needs it. They stained the mantel dark. I would have left it a wood tone as it was when I first saw it. 

The view out the doors/windows is lovely. A country lake with an urban pool in front of it.

A beautiful spot just out the back doors. 

I wish I had a photo of the front of the house but I don't.

It's kind of Modern European Farmhouse...with emphasis more on modern than farm house.

It finally cooled off here and now feels like fall. All of September was hot.

I finally started getting pumpkins out. 

I know everyone else has been doing fall for like a month and a half but it was still summer here.

 

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