Looking back to Karen's Last Christmas with us, 2007

I took a picture of a picture in Old Town Spring.  How I wish I had purchased this.  Artist unknown

The last Christmas Karen was with us, the Collins girls took a shopping trip to Old Town Spring.  We planned this every year, however something always came up.  We decided that day, this trip would be an annual thing.  Little did we know that Karen would spend all future Christmas with The Lord. This is actually a wonderful thing for Karen, although not so much for those she left behind.

This is a happy post, however.

Karen love beads around everything...candles, chandeliers, pillows, drapes, lamps....you name it!!  She went to a particular shop in OTS (Old Town Spring) for a lot of her beads.

I took a lot of pictures in this store...until the owner told me to stop.

Karen was so excited that the Collins girls could finally see where she purchased her beads.  I fell in loved with this store, as well.

Why I didn't take more pictures of other stores and the beautiful streets of OTS and the Collins Girls, I will never know.

However, the one picture I took of us, I will cherish forever.

The Collins Girls:  Karen, Susan, me (Jan) and Mom

 What a wonderful day that was.  I thank God that he gave us this one trip to Old Town Spring.

Have an awesome day, stay dry and warm.

                                                                                              


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Living Room furniture selections

Back in September, 2011, Larry and I compromised on the living room/family room furniture.  I didn't want a formal living room in my cottage.  I don't like rooms I don't use.  I want a family room that everyone can enjoy.

Also, as I have mentioned before, I have AnnaBelle.  She belonged to my beloved sister, Karen.  AnnaBelle is as important in this home as the humans.  She sheds, she cleans her feet on the sofa and gets it wet.  Yuck!!!

Then, there is Larry.  He has recliners in his media room and a recliner in his study.  He loves recliners and has ALWAYS had one in the family room.  I don't want him upstairs in his media room all of the time.  I want him with me!!

So, instead of my dream of a white, slip-covered sofa, we ordered a leather sofa in the style and color I wanted....ok, not the color, however white leather is a little too much for me.

I really didn't get a good picture of the sofa and ottoman, however this should give you an idea.  You can see the swatch in the lower left corner.   

Next came the decision of Larry's recliner.  Since my dream has been a sofa AND 4 chairs in the family room, I decided on TWO recliners!!!  Would this make matters worse?  So, what color should I choose?  

Our last house has this huge brown leather sectional AND love seat AND recliner.  I was really tired of brown.  

In my first cottage, I had navy blue leather.  It was plushy and soft.  I was really able to get a warm, coziness with pillows and throws on navy blue leather.  

So, navy blue it was.

I was so excited on that day in September, that I didn't look at the estimated delivery date....

Between 12 and 16 weeks!!!

I called Town and Country Leather the week before Thanksgiving and begged for my furniture.  I explained that I didn't even see the delivery date on the order I signed until I was in the car.

I was told that I ordered all Natuzzi leather and my furniture was coming either from Italy or China or some other overseas country.

I don't care.  They have had time to raise the cow, make my furniture and get it to me.

Well, it just doesn't work like that :(

I explained that I was hosting Thanksgiving.  That really does NOT get your furniture any quicker.

So, I have learned a valuable lesson before having any special ordered furniture made.

On with the story.........

My style passion is a mix between industrial, shabby chic, cottage and French country.  My colors are white, cream, turquoise and blue.

So, Restoration Hardware was having a sale a week ago.  I have had my eye on something from them for a while.

I ordered two of the Lyon chairs AND an ottoman.  These SHOULD be delivered next week!

There are so many more decisions for the family room...drapes, tables, paint color, etc.


I wanted to wait on the main furniture before doing anything else.


We have beautiful living room table set...coffee table, 2 end tables and sofa table.  Yet, I just don't know that I will like these with my new furniture.


Until next time......

                                                                 

My office - craft - hobby room November 10, 2011 update

I wanted to give you an update on my office.  

Paint color:  Tropical Tide by Behr

My son, Richard, is doing all of the painting and crown molding and it's looking beautiful.

I didn't get pictures of the first color I chose, however it wasn't bright enough.  I wanted bright and cheerful and very turquoise in my office.

I love the color!!!

The crown molding begins.  There is not one straight wall in this house. 

It is beautiful!!!  Richard is doing a wonderful job on the molding.  This is his first time to work with crown molding,   I remind him that wood putty and caulk work wonders with bad walls and ceilings.

My 6 Home Depot pantries are in.  These are stock cabinets.

 Some doors open to the right...some to the left.  I will re-hang the doors when time permits.    

Finally, I will have plenty of storage for my crafts and office supplies!

These are, also, stock cabinets from Home Depot.  My fur-baby AnnaBelle is always with me when I am home.  You can bet I will be getting her a matching bed for my office.  She deserves chic just as much as I do :)

The top over-hang doesn't allow the top drawers to open.  We will be adding a piece of plywood and molding to this. 

There is much more to come on my office.  This is going to be a fun room...MY room!!!

Have a great day........

Dining Room Progress

There is one piece of furniture that I have a love/hate relationship with.

It is a Philippe Langdon St. James Entertainment/Bookcase piece.

It is massive as you can tell by the dimensions.  When we moved into our traditional house, I was told I had to decorate in a more traditional up-scale way.  Gone were the days of my cottage furniture and decorations I loved so much in my Cottage #1.  I had to change ME.

So, Larry went to a ball game and I went to an auction one Sunday after moving into the Traditional House.  I fell in love with this piece of furniture.  I decided I would get it for a song and antique it in white.

It was the end of the auction and I had already told the manager of the furniture store going out of business that I wanted to bid on this piece.  Finally, this piece came up.

It retailed for $13,000.  I didn't care.  They wanted the stuff gone and I was willing to help.  Unfortunately, they started the bid at $8,000.  NO WAY!!!  Then went down to $6,000.  DUH!!!  NOPE!!!

"OK, young lady, you start the bidding since you wanted it."

A. I am not young
B.  OK, I am game.

"$500," I said.  Everyone looked at me like I was nuts.  Well, I had already spent money on other things, I was going to be over my limit that I promised myself.

No one else was bidding on the piece, so I eventually got it for $3,500.  It wasn't a steal, by any means. however it wasn't $13,000, either.

So, I am now stuck with a huge piece of furniture that Larry and I love, however there is not way I will paint that piece white.....well......I don't think I ever will (wink.)

When Larry and I decided to build our new cottage, we knew this piece would go in the dining room.

It fit perfectly.  If you have been reading my other posts, you will know that during the hardwood floor installation, I was sleeping on this borrowed sofa.  My sofa will not be in until December.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a trip to the local Antique Mall in Spring, Texas.  I do these kind of things when Larry goes to the Texans' games.  I do love his season tickets.  It is my guarantee each time the Texans play in town that I can go shopping.

I wasn't in the mall 5 minutes when I saw the most beautiful dining set.

So, I took pictures to show Larry.  Then, I thought....he doesn't care what I put in the dining room.....so I bought the set and it was delivered the following week.

It had just the right elegance to accompany the bookcase.  And the turquoise velvet chairs....oh...do NOT get me started on turquoise.  I love the color....You will see.

You might have noticed the grandfather clock.

It belonged to my mom and dad.  I remember when they bought it in the 70's.  Daddy loved those chimes....the rest of us hated midnight....12 long bongs.  And there was no way Daddy would turn the chimes off.

Daddy died of a sudden heart attack in 1993.  He was only 67 years old.  He loved his fried eggs, bacon and half a jar of jam.  He looked healthy and was as fit on the outside as a man 30 years his junior.  He still did his 100 push-ups every night.  But he wasn't fit as a fiddle....not on the inside.

Mom downsized several years ago and told me that I could have her beloved clock.  I am so proud of it.

Several weeks ago, I had purchased 2 chairs from Cost Plus World Market that were so pretty.  I wasn't sure where they would go, but I had to have them.

Immediately, I knew....

I call the dining room "Ladies' Tea Room."  Many more things are needed in this room...which I will update you on.

So, that is my dining room so far.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Hugs,

Moving in and having hardwood flooring installed at the same time - Part 2

You can read Part 1 HERE.

Having flooring installed after a move-in would not be bad if it were one or two rooms.  However, we were having the entire house done!!

During this time, there was....

NO TELEVISION.....NO INTERNET......NO TELEPHONES....ok, we had cell phones.  We had better keep them charged up or we wouldn't have that either :(

This first week we rented dvds and watched other dvds we already owned.  I was missing all of my good shows.

So, I decided to use my cell phone to connect a laptop of the internet.  I had never done that before.  Sprint has unlimited data, so that is good.  We connected the laptop to the tv and I was able to catch up on my favorite shows.

That was the first week.

The day finally came for the flooring installers to begin....Monday, October 3.  Larry and I had both taken off from work to make certain we were all on the same page since Larry's office and game room would have different flooring.

By 10 am, I am wondering where the installers are....by 11 am, I am calling Home Depot....The HD rep is trying to get the 3rd party installers to let her know what is going on.....

We call HD back at 1...she has heard nothing.....At 4 pm, we find out the installers assigned to our home were running late on their last job.

They would not be starting until Tuesday, October 4.  Ok, Larry and I would have to stay home another day.  Not good news to tell bosses :(

So, Tuesday morning was spent with arguing about leveling material (float) and furniture being in the house.  The installers had been told we paid for 10 bags of float.  However, Home Depot had not delivered it.  The installer didn't know that he was supposed to provide it.

Also, the installer was told that the house wouldn't have any furniture.  Yes, when the installation was to begin September 26, there would not have been any furniture, however, as we told Home Depot a dozen times, if they didn't begin the install until October 3, there WOULD be furniture....HEAVY furniture.

I had to leave at noon to go to work and the installers were still waiting for the Home Depot rep to get back with them.....nothing being done.

When I got home from work, some carpet had been pulled up and some float had been applied.  A lot of  furniture was more jammed than ever.  Our movers were going to bring the rest of our heavy furniture the following Saturday and the refrigerator was being delivered Friday.

Our oldest son, Richard,  is staying with us.  He has been a tolal lifesaver in all of this.  It's wonderful to have your own private superintendent. 

During this time, Larry was sleeping in his office recliner and I was sleeping on a borrowed sofa.  Many sleepless nights and back pain.

Finally, one room is done...the dining room.  The flooring is beautiful. 

Here is our dining room and make-shift sleeping quarters in the dining room.

Richard's bedroom, foyer, the guest bedroom, the 2 and 1/2 baths and the utility rooms were NOT having the flooring changed out.  So, these were the rooms were everything was piled up.


Larry's office became the installer's workroom.

 

Leveling material and fans to dry it were everywhere!

 After 3 solid days, our bedroom and closet were done:

The installers even set our bed up.  A bed....lovely....We could actually sleep in a real bed after 2 weeks!!!

Amazon had delivered my new books and I had a bed.  I was in Heaven!!!

More progress would be made over the next week.  It took 2 1/2 weeks to get this done.

After all was said and done, the flooring was beautiful.  10 years ago, Larry and I could have put this flooring down.  Not now.  Back and knee and hip problems have stopped many of the wonderful DYI projects we loved in Cottage #1.  Those days were over.

There were are are many more projects to be done.  As I write this a month later, I can tell you many have been done.  Richard, our oldest son is actually working on the painting and trim in rooms we went basic on with the builder.

Much, much more to come.

Hugs,