Monthly Archives: July 2012
Blast From the Past… Our House Dining Room Series, Moving up the Ladder
Since it’s summertime with more folks taking time for vacation and travel, and well, because I’m in the midst of another remodeling project that is taking all my time and energy, and since I have a ton of new followers that possibly haven’t read about the dining room, (thank you!!) I thought it’d be fun to revisit some stuff I wrote at the beginning of when I started to blog… (sounds like a long time ago, but was actually less than a year ago) anyway, for the next few times I’ll be re-playing the series I did on the dining room at ‘Our House’…
Our House: Moving Up the Ladder in the Dining Room, Chapter 4
Over the seating area in the dining room, I have a track light, but you don’t notice it because I have a ladder hung from chains and hooks underneath the track light.
I can’t take all the credit, (or any of the credit 
) I originally saw this idea of a ladder hanging at Read on…
Blast From the Past… Our House Dining Room Series, Interior Window Shutters
Since it’s summertime with more folks taking time for vacation and travel, and well, because I’m in the midst of another remodeling project that is taking all my time and energy, and since I have a ton of new followers that possibly haven’t read about the dining room, (thank you!!) I thought it’d be fun to revisit some stuff I wrote at the beginning of when I started to blog… (sounds like a long time ago, but was actually less than a year ago) anyway, for the next few times I’ll be re-playing the series I did on the dining room at ‘Our House’…
Really? Another Interior Window?
Yep! And I’m not done, there are still more to come. Today’s interior window fits into two of the categories I’ve already started from “Our House”, both the Dining Room Series, and Interior Windows Series…
This is an exterior window that’s ‘treated’ with an antique stained glass window on the inside. Read on…
One of Our Rentals… Vintage, Cottage Style Duplex… Bathroom Refreshed!
The last couple of days I’ve been showing you a few things I’ve done to refurbish one of the units in our duplex that’s located in NW Wisconsin. (It’s just been rented, so no longer available, however I may have another super cute one opening up in September)
So far I’ve shown you how we cut the doorways in a bedroom to create the dining room with a more open floor plan, as well as the yellow and white kitchen with aqua accents and open shelving cupboard.
So today I thought I’d show you the bathroom and some changes we’ve made to it… so, here’s the before: READ ON…
One of Our Rentals… Vintage, Cottage Style Duplex… Open Cabinets and Inspiration for Aqua
Yesterday I introduced you to one side of our duplex we lease out… (it’s available now so if you’re looking for a cute place to live in NW Wisconsin, close to Minneapolis and St. Paul, with great landlords 
give me a shout. UPDATE!! It’s been rented!)
Here’s a brief collage of what I’ve been working on the past few weeks as I’ve been renovating it and getting some things up to date:
Yesterday I told you how we changed it from a 3 bedroom to a 2 bedroom, but in sacrificing that third bedroom we gained so much more, a dining room and a much more open floor plan.
Today I’m going to tell you about my choice for a color scheme and the inspiration behind it, and how I implemented this fun color scheme.
I could call this post ‘1 Gallon of Paint for 3 Rooms’ or ‘1 Fabric Inspires All’… because it was one piece of fabric that inspired the whole thing, here it that fabric: READ ON…
One of Our Rentals… Vintage, Cottage Style Duplex… 3 uh… no, 2 Bedrooms
Besides the ‘Little Brick Cottage’ that we have renovated and have a family leasing in, we also have another vintage property, a duplex, that we have renovated and lease it out. This duplex isn’t as old as the ‘Little Brick Cottage’, I would guess it was built around 1940’s.
It was re-sided and had the windows replaced before we bought it 8 years ago. Since this picture was taken, I’m glad to say I’ve planted some shrubs so it looks cuter, but you get the idea.
One of the sides of the duplex has recently been vacated and due to numerous reasons, I needed to re-examine the floor plan among other things and refresh it for whoever will be the lucky one to lease it. (If you’re interested, let me know.UPDATE!! It’s rented! ) READ ON…
Blast From the Past… Our House Dining Room Series
Since it’s summertime with more folks taking time for vacation and travel, and well, because I’m in the midst of another remodeling project that is taking all my time and energy, and since I have a ton of new followers that possibly haven’t read about the dining room, (thank you!!) I thought it’d be fun to revisit some stuff I wrote at the beginning of when I started to blog… (sounds like a long time ago, but was actually less than a year ago) anyway, for the next few times I’ll be re-playing the series I did on the dining room at ‘Our House’…
Our House: Strategic Planning, Taking it from Garage to Studio to Dining Room, Chapter 2
Continuing with the “Our House” welcome tour, in Chapter 1 you were left inside this French Door entrance in the dining room next to the antique coat tree. (You can see the edge of the French door just to the right in this picture.) When you come in from the outside, your feet immediately step onto the red rug you can see at the bottom corner of this pic. Then to your right, (or the left side of this picture)
just to the left of the coat tree you see a door with shutters and oversized keys. Let me tell you about that. It’s actually a seldom used door that goes into a little vestibule connecting to the back entry and mudroom. Read on…
Blast From the Past… Our House Dining Room Series
Since it’s summertime with more folks taking time for vacation and travel, and well, because I’m in the midst of another remodeling project that is taking all my time and energy, and since I have a ton of new followers that possibly haven’t read about the dining room, (thank you!!) I thought it’d be fun to revisit some stuff I wrote at the beginning of when I started to blog… (sounds like a long time ago, but was actually less than a year ago) anyway, for the next few times I’ll be re-playing the series I did on the dining room at ‘Our House’…
Our House: Strategic Planning, Taking it from Garage to Studio to Dining Room, Chapter 1
This is what it is today, but when we first bought “Our House” it was a different story…
Here’s Chapter 1 of the story. Before we bought “Our House”, 15 years ago, I used to say that I couldn’t stand those houses, so commonly built in the 1980’s, that not only completely forgot the wonderful charm of the front porch, but in its place, put a big garage door to greet visitors. And I’d never, ever buy one of those houses designed in that un-welcoming manner.
Library Ceiling… So Long Popcorn, Hello Wicker???
When we bought ‘Our House’ over 15 years ago, being as it was built in the late 1980’s every ceiling on the main level was finished with a popcorn finish… not my favorite. At first glance, I knew in my head that I would be, in one way or another, getting rid of all that popcorn.
What we now call the library or piano room was originally designed to be the dining room, but we never used this quaint sized room for that purpose, and it too had a popcorn treatment on the ceiling.
I recently told you about the track lighting I installed in this library room, incorporating a chandy I bought online from Ballard Designs estate sale by using the clever chandelier adapter for track lighting.
Because of that post and the number of comments asking about what the ceiling was, I’m writing this post about how I did that library ceiling. READ ON…
The Stage is Set for a North Carolina Style Wedding
A couple days ago I told you that I had just gotten back from a trip to North Carolina.
While we were there we started with a few days at the Outer Banks,
but my primary reason to go to North Carolina was because some very dear friends were hosting their daughter’s wedding. I was thrilled to be part of the READ ON…
Monday’s Simple Cleverness… Butter Dish
A little while ago, Sharon from Mrs. Hines Class asked the question if one preferred to keep their butter on the counter or in the fridge, always looking for inspiration on what to feature on ‘Monday’s Simple Cleverness’, Sharon’s question inspired me to tell you about this simple clever way we keep the butter at ‘Our House’.
Many years ago, my mother-in-law told me about a very clever butter dish she had seen while traveling in Europe. She told me how the butter fit into a smaller compartment that was then inverted into a larger compartment with water that sealed out the air, preserving the butter at room temperature from going bad, yet maintaining a soft, spreadable consistency.
How clever! However, it was READ ON…
