“A House is Not a Home”

Without a few decorations!  Things are slowly getting unpacked and today I got my paintings up on the walls. No, these aren’t paintings I did myself. I’m not that talented. Unless they were paint by numbers, then maybe. But I can promise, they weren’t paint by numbers.  One, the Thomas Kinkade like cottage scene I got on the cruise I went on with Mom back in 2000 is hanging in the guest bedroom. Soon to join it is a couple of pillar holders from Partylite. They’re just too pretty to cover up, and honestly, the colors are absolutely perfect for that room!

The office doesn’t have anything as of yet. I haven’t finished going through my Partylite stuff for one. And secondly, I’m really not sure what I want to put up in here. So for now, it’s a blank slate. My ocean painting went up in the kitchen. I got this one from some person selling some paintings in City Center (pretty sure it was that one, or the building across the street) in downtown Minneapolis when Mom and I worked there.

J thinks it’s too small for the wall. And yes, it actually is a bit too small. But I’m hoping once we actually get a table and the buffett that’s coming from his parents house, visually it’ll be perfect. He was also a bit concerned with how well it would look in there. Personally, I think the Ginger Peach of the walls actually makes the other colors pop a bit more.

Finally my painting from Paris is in our bedroom. I got this January 1999 when I spent the month in Paris for a class. I knew I wanted something special from my trip and when I saw this painting done and sold by a street artist, I was hooked.

I absolutely love the slightly gloomy look to it. And what can’t actually be seen in this picture, but the artist included some, uh, metallic gold I guess paint at the ends of the branches. The space between the doors of the closet and the bathroom almost seems custom made for the picture. And no, it’s not hanging crooked, blame that on user error

There’s one final painting to hang, but that still needs to be framed. It’s the painting J got us for our anniversary last year. We had dinner at Channelside and there was this guy doing the most amazing paintings just by using spray paint! This painting is going to go up in the living room, probably on the little diagnol wall. Seems the perfect place of honor for it.

Slowly but surely the house is coming together.

Moving on up..To the East Side

J finally bought a house!! He closed this past Monday and funny enough, it actually is East of where I currently live. The house is in need of cosmetic updates and eventually some new windows. So nothing too major. However thanks to the selling banks delay in responding, I’ll have to extend my lease to the end of January so we’re not rushing everything.

He’s contemplating replacing the kitchen cabinets. I have to admit, they do need it. The living room he wants to replace the carpet with some kind of hard flooring, tiles or wood of some kind. So far the top contender for that is Bamboo found at a pretty decent price at Floor and Decor last night. Eventually the bathroom vanities will all be replaced as well. And the closet doors!! All of the closet doors (except for the master closet) are metal louvered doors. I don’t mind the louvered part, it’s the metal I have an issue with. So those will be replaced soon as well. The former owners were kind enough to leave the window coverings. And while the drapes are not what I’d choose, they’re not hideously ugly, so they’ll stay for now. After all, that’s one less thing we have to go get right now.

We also haven’t decided ANYTHING regarding paint yet. We have a lot of paint strips though. I think we’re waiting until we do the primer first before going through and deciding what color we want in which room and then deciding what might be a good color for that room. That or he’s already decided everything and is just humoring me regarding all of these strips. Wouldn’t put that past him   So this year there isn’t going to any Christmas decorations for me. I could pull out my little tree and decorate it, but given how much time we’re going to be spending at the house getting it ready, it seems a bit pointless. I’m planning on taking my camera over there this weekend so pictures are to come, I promise

House Hunting

J has been house hunting for awhile now and I don’t always get to go with thanks to my work schedule.  The few times I have gone I’ve wished I had my camera with.  Simply because some of the things people have done to these houses, and all because they think it improves the look, is beyond description.  There was the house with the beautiful living room.  And the enclosed area that was part of the patio.  At one point it looked like the master bedroom and dining area both had doors leading to the patio.  Now, it’s just an open space in the wall.  Then there was the house that had patio doors leading to the back yard.  But before you could get into the back yard after opening the patio doors, you also had to open the solid door, similar to a front door. 

So yesterday we headed out with the realtor and I remembered my camera.  Granted some of these aren’t as strange and WTF inducing as other things we’ve seen.  But they were still odd and deserved to be captured for your entertainment.

First we have the doorway to heaven.  This is a two story house and apparently the builder decided the AC unit stuff needed to go in the space above the stairs.  And of course there needs to be access to it.  So we have the floating door.  J is tall enough that he can actually reach to the handle while standing a step or two up.  But the rest of us not really all that short people?  Yeah, not happening there. 

This is the same house.  The house has a 1/2 bath downstairs, right next to the stairs.  I actually thought this was a clever idea, this little door is for a small storage space under the stairs.  And even though it’s clever, the little door that would fit one of Snow White’s Dwarf friends was actually pretty cute and funny.

This is a short sale that apparently had a leak in the pool.  The guy fixed it, but since it’s a short sale didn’t want to be hassled with cleaning the pool.  So not only is it this pretty green color, but there’s also tadpoles.  Lots and lots and lots of fat tadpoles.  Frog legs anyone?  The scary part?  This is one of the houses J is seriously considering.  Anyone want to come clean a pool?  We’ll let you take a dip to cool off when you’re done   And we’ll even find a way to grill up some frog leg’s for you.

Pretty sure this was the same house as the pool.  This is the master bath and the realtor said this is a “Roman” bath.  I guess the faucet at the bottom is for cleaning feet.  Heh, it’s the foot version of the bidet.

And last but not least is this video.  It was in a house that looked like they enclosed part of the patio, possibly.  The jury is still out on that.  I’m not sure what the purpose of this area was for, but my best guess is maybe the family had either boy/girl twins or very young children who needed to share this space for some reason.   I don’t know,  you guys decide.