House Made

kitchen curtains in vintage fabric
Originally uploaded by merideth.

…by turning adorable vintage fabric into cutey-cute curtains. That is what Beth has done and I can’t even stand how great they look. She’s turning into quite the master (mistress?) curtain fabricator. Every set she makes seems to perfectly finish off a room. And I love that she doesn’t even bother with patterns. She just decides what she wants and sews them up. So cool.

I think these are so darling and kitschy…they just make me happy.

…as Santa was soooooo very good to us! Well, our families in their guise of santa were good to us. We got loads of wonderful stuff from everyone, not the least of which was a down vest from Beth’s mom that quite frankly my friends and neighbors will grow tired of seeing me wear. I seem to have forgotten that I own other items of apparel.

But! The items you most care about, house-centric friends, are the…well, the house-centric ones. And boy did we SCORE there! My sister and brother-in-law got us an outdoor firepit. DUDE. I have wanted one of these since I first discovered their existence when I lived in Monterrey…and we’ve been shopping for one…but THEY DIDNT KNOW IT. That’s right! They full-on thought it was a good idea with no hintyness on our part. Awesome. And from my parents, we got a loverly simple upholstered bench for streamlined seating under our front windows. And get this: We almost bought the EXACT one they got us but stopped because, well, it was Christmas and we weren’t supposed to be buying things for ourselves. And once again Mom and Dad DIDNT KNOW THAT! And as an added bonus, Home Depot gift certificate from Bunny & Gary…new chop saw here we come. (Photos will follow when everything is in its place…or at least out of its boxes…or I find my camera.)

Beth also got me something for the house but I’m not pulling the curtain off that one for you until I see it. It’s due to arrive any day and I’m soooooooo excited. HOOORAY for being more nice than naughty! Or at least naughty in a nice way (insert devilish eye batting here).

mccoy pottery
Originally uploaded by merideth.

While in Nebraska, my sister-in-law took us to see all the gorgeous houses in her area (HUUmongous four-squares and Chicago-style bungalows). There were plenty of beautiful old homes that can be had for under 200k in quaint little neighborhoods on tree-lined streets. (I went nuts over their vintage holiday decorations.) I would be tempted, but did I mention that it was three degrees while we were there?

We also went to a couple of neat antique shops including an architectural salvage (oh, how I LOVE those) place with more light fixtures, doorknobs, drawer pulls, and soap dishes than you could comprehend. Anyway, while there, we stumbled across this great little piece of McCoy pottery. It’s just so cute.

We arrived home from our Christmas in beautiful Nebraska (did I mention it was three degrees in the day time at one point?) to find that, while we were gone, it had been raining cats and dogs, mice and frogs, sheep and goats…dude…just freaking COMIN’ down. In fact, we’ve been home all day today and the downpour has been constant. And guess what? The roof repair is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! No drips, no drops, no sneaking streams slowly poking down the kitchen wall. The repair seems to be sound. Yee ha.

We also arrived home to find a kindly message from our gutter/roofer guy saying he was sorry we weren’t happy with the work and asked us to only pay what we felt was fair. I love when people amaze me in a good way. So since the roof work he did has proven good, we will happily pay him for that as well as the downspouts (material not installation) as we’ll likely use those in the gutter work we do ourselves.

All in all, I feel it’s a reasonable compromise and I’m happy to put it down in my book with a check in the “fair and square” column.

stained glass
Originally uploaded by merideth.

My mom got us this great peice of stained glass for our dining room window. She got it thinking that it would subtly camouflage the view of the sadly uncared for bungalow next door (it’s a tragedy that that house has been neglected).

Boy was she a genius. Not only does it disguise the view, it does it while not blocking any light and by featuring amber panels that will go well with the copper color we plan to paint on the walls.

Way to go, Mom!

spice door with banana cream pie
Originally uploaded by merideth.

Yesterday Beth went around the house and did all of the tiny crap chores that we’ve just been avoiding.

She touched up the paint in all the rooms where the termite guy piped in the death foam; painted the holes in the office that I’d filled when the shelf melted out of the wall; re-hung the shelf; and biggest deal of all, painted and hung the pantry door.

Now all the spices are hidden away behind the door that has been, since last February, leaning against the wall in the dining room. Ahhhh…lovely.

Three cheers for Beth!

gutter leader head
Originally uploaded by merideth.

Yup. This is what our gutter installer guy left us with. Does this leader head look like it fits the downspout? No. Is it fastened to the downspout in anyway? No. Is it all scratched up because it’s just galvanized steel spray painted white? Yes. Did Beth call to tell him “no way”? You’d better believe it. Have we heard back? Ahhhh no.

The upside is that we’ve given Gutter Guy no money. And in all fairness he seems to have done a good job with our roof flashing, fixing a leak, and cutting out the holes in our trim (the big u-shaped thing up there) so that gunk doesnt jam up the drainage.

But seriously. When you can look around at our house and see that we’re in the middle of restoration/renovation, why would you ever think we would find this acceptable?

my gorgeous mantle
Originally uploaded by merideth.

My mantle is beautiful. Our tree is beautiful. The outside of our house is beautiful. So this is just a little post of bragging about our mad holiday decorating skillz. I feel like my mantle looks like something you’d see in a swank hotel. Beth’s tree looks like one a fancy department store would aspire to.

prettiest tree ever
Originally uploaded by merideth.

The tree is a noble fir and the garlands are fresh balsam straight from Michigan. We are fully on the pagan bandwagon with our houseload of decorative greenery. I’m one step away from sending out “Merry Saturnalia” cards. No, we haven’t done anything else to the house. Okay, now I’m off to wrap presents.

Ha ha!!! Today is the last day of my current contract! Which means that my next two projects are ones I’ll be working on out of my home studio. Which means…yay! I’ll be home for the next FIVE weeks. (Little jig with bad Irish impression here.)

I’m so excited. I will, of course, be freezing while I work because we have no insulation and we can’t just be turning on the heat willy nilly (what are we MADE of, money?), but still…track pants. Working in track pants. And slippers.

And maybe, depending on how efficient I am, extra time to work on the house. And certainly cook. Joy!

I feel like Zeus…ready to hold lightning bolts and juggle them with aplomb! I have caused light to shine where it was once dark! I have taken control of the light so it arrives and departs at my whim! And soon I will do even greater tasks than these…AH hahahahaha HAAAAAA!

What this means is that I installed three out of four exterior lights (Beth did the fourth one, so she’s got some Power power too), including one that involved a whole rigamarole of patching, drilling, gluing, spackling, walking counter clockwise in a circle three times while throwing salt over your left shoulder, epoxying, blah blah blah. But now it finally works and looks great! (It’s the new light by the front door…matches the one over the mailbox.)

But the really cool thing I did is install a timer on the INSIDE of the house that controls the new front EXTERIOR lights. Now here’s why this is a big deal: 1. The wires are OLD…1922 house remember…old, fabric coated wires with big ass solders and 2. The instructions were all in Spanish. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, but BOTH SIDES of the sheet were, in fact, Spanish. And I did it anyway and made it work and now the timer turns the lights on at 5 pm and off at 7:30 am. I rule. Bow to me demi-gods and lesser mortals.

(The really cool thing about this is that after all this I’m no longer intimidated by electricity, and plan to fool with the rest of our switches and outlets.)