Thea Purchased, Hank Approved

Putting together a house is a long process. You can lose yourself in the details and in turn lose perspective. Luckily my weekend house guest is there to give me some feedback.

Hank really likes the direction the living room is going. He says the sectional is spacious and comfortable.

The recovered bench was also to his liking.

And I took this to mean he approved of my new rug.

He was a fan of the guest room...

..but thought the master bed room was a little bland. I tried to explain that I hadn't done anything to it yet.

He likes the herb garden but was disappointed there was nothing to taste test.

He "marks" the iron gate every time he goes outside. I haven't figured out if that's a thumbs up or thumbs down but I think the patio furniture really won him over.

The jury is still out on his opinion of Pablo.

Oh well, you can't win them all.
　

Zig-Zagerific!

Slowly but surely my living room is coming together.  I still need to paint the sectional legs and the coffee table, and I also need to find some art.

My least favorite feature of the room is the beige carpet.  Aren't I Little Miss Anti-Beige these days?  Sadly new flooring is not in the budget at this time.  I usually am not a fan of carpet on carpet, but I decided it was the economical answer.

I fell in love with this rug on the cover of one of Jonathan Adler's books.  Of course his rugs retail in the $1,000s.  Might as well get all new floors.

After a little shopping around I found a similar rug at West Elm, but it was still a little more than I wanted to spend.

The next best thing I found was at The O, Overstock.com.  The chevrons were smaller and not stretched out as much but it was cheaper.  I was worried about it looking too busy, but once I figured it was 1/3 the price of the West Elm rug I was sold.  And shipping was only $2.95!  Double sold.

I loved it immediately.  I had a difficult time getting it under my sectional; it required taking it apart a bit.  Pablo was so confused.

 Then I put everything back together and Pablo resumed his normal activity of licking pillows.

I was originally going to get a whole new coffee table but the size of my old one seems to be working.  I figure I'll give painting it a shot first.  I'm thinking something kind of bold like a bright coral, orangish-red.  We'll see.

So it you ignore the brown coffee table along with the coffee table books and Wii Fit Board trying to uncurl the rug, I really think it works perfect.  It's loud enough to draw your eye away from the beige carpet yet it doesn't compete with the colors in the room.  (Sidenote:  I think the colors are bolder in real life.  My camera doesn't do a great job with indoor wideshot photos)

Indoor Gardening

One thing I was really looking forward to once I owned a house was gardening.  I'm really hoping to do a raised bed next planting season and trying to grow some basics: tomatoes, onions, peppers.  There seems to be no end to the 100+ temperatures outside lately so it will definitely need to wait.  Until then, I'm taking it inside!  I bought a cute Smith & Hawken herb set on clearance at Target.

 It came with seeds for Chives, Sweet Basil and Parsley.  That sounded like a good combo to start with.  The instructions had me soak the 4 soil pellets in 3 cups of lukewarm water until the water disappeared and potting soil remained.  It happened pretty darn fast! 

 I equally distributed the dirt into the three pots and then planted one type of seed in each one.  They suggested a sunny home for my growing herbs so I've stuck them on my windowsill in the Kitchen.  I can't wait until I can add my homegrown herbs to my favorite dishes!

Pavestone Patio

One hidden feature of my house that I didn't know about was the pavestone patio.  It comes off the back of the house about 4-5 feet deep and spans the entire length.  My backyard was so overgrown when first viewing it that I never noticed it.  I'd even had long conversations with my dad about what kind of patio I should put in, stone versus wood.  Imagine our surprise on move in day when we unearthed it!  My dad was clearing the yard enough to take down overgrown branches and stumbled upon it. 

I'm in the process of trying to kill off all over the grass that is growing through the stones but it's a long process.  Eventually my Roundup will get it all.  Because the patio was long and narrow I figured it would be great for a couch and coffee table patio set.  I have been keeping and eye on prices and once Home Depot marked all their outdoor furniture down I ordered a set.  They delivered it for free when I bought it online.  That was way easier than trying to fit it all in my car and driving it home. 

As you can see, I'm still trying to kill the patio grass.  The furniture arrived right before I left town so I still haven't had a chance to remove all the tags and stickers, but so far I love it.  It's comfy and fits the space perfectly.  Now if I can just get the weather to cool off a little so that I can actually enjoy it.

Be My Guest

My friends have been moving out of town at an alarming rate these past few years.  It's to the point that I'm beginning to think it's me.  At any rate, I've enjoyed visiting them in various cities: London, Philly, Chicago, New York, Destin, Corpus, Atlanta, Savannah, etc.  And now with my new house (read: more space) I'm more than happy to return the favor by hosting you guys.  Feel free to visit!

The guest room is all set up!  I currently have a day bed with a trundle but hope to someday upgrade to a full or queen.  The beige drapes that came with the house just happened to match my guest bedding so that worked out well.

You will have reading material, a work station, and plenty of closet space during your stay at Hotel Thea. 

Your own private full bath awaits you.  And did you forget something?  Pop a button?  Don't worry, I got you covered.

So far I've had no complaints about the accomodations.  I've only had one guest.  But still, 100% customer satifaction!  Book early, space is limited.

Still Spraying

I'm really scared about the day I run out of things to spray paint.  There's no telling how I'll handle it.  If you come over and Pablo's pink, you'll know what happened.  Luckily I'm still finding things around the house to alter.  In moving to the new house, I'm changing my color palette pretty extremely.  This means I have a lot of random decorative items that just don't match.  They are perfectly good objects, just the wrong color.  Well, that's nothing me and a can of Rustoleum can't fix!

Enter Red Vase/Bottle Thing.  This was given to me by an exboyfriend's mom because she knew I had a red kitchen.  Which I did.  But now I don't.  I have been on the search for tall objects to bring in some color on my fireplace mantle and right as I was giving up, I spotted this vase/bottle thing in my cast offs.  All it needed was a little yellow spray paint and I had some in the garage!

 I started with a coat of white primer to make sure the red didn't bleed thru and the yellow didn't come off.

A couple of coats of glossy Sun Yellow and I had completely repurposed my Red Vase/Bottle Thing.

I love the way the bright yellow looks against the dark grey.  It also ties in with my yellow pillows and my random yellow chick.

So thank you Red Vase/Bottle Thing for feeding my habit for a few more days!

State of the Garden Address

Bet you're wondering if I've killed off all my plants yet.  Well surprisingly, I have not.  Between my Brown Thumb and the 100+ temperatures I was positive everything would be dead by now.  I thought we'd check in with some of my plants.  It's been a little over 2 weeks since planting.

 Above you will see the little Hosta plant in the middle and below that a few of my Vincas.

 My Hosta sprouting a lovely little bloom!  Wikipedia claims it's edible but I'll just take their word for it.

The Vincas are still holding on as well.  I lose a bloom here and there, but their leaves are staying very hardy looking.

 For some reason I have no photos of this little guy after I planted him.  But above you can see how sad he was as he was waiting to be planted.

 And here is my red Begonia.  Home Depot didn't have any flats of begonias so instead I just planted a big hanging basket.

As you can see, my Impatiens has perked up.  At least that is what the pot labeled it as...I think the leaves look like something else.  I have yet to see a bloom but at least the plant is happy.  My Begonia has lost blooms but seems to be hanging in there.

I think it really helps that most of my front yard is partially shaded by the giant oak tree.  It's giving me confidence to plant more eventually.  I'd like to be able to put some fall color out there in a couple of months, but I'm not all that sure Dallas actually has a fall.  I'll have to consult my mom on that one.  Her thumb's greener than mine. 

Garage Tour

My house only came with a one car garage.  Not ideal but I figured I could just add a shed to the back yard for additional storage.  Then came move in day.  With the help of my dad we figured out my car is about 6 inches too long for my garage.  This was kind of a shocker considering the house was built in the 40's and I thought cars back then were huge.  No worries, I would just park in my driveway and use my garage for storage.  Now I didn't need to buy a shed.

 I managed to fill the garage up pretty quickly so now it's just a matter of making sure I keep it organized.

My most used tools are on this nifty little peg board I installed.  The empty spaces are probably scattered around my house right now, awaiting projects to be finished.  Below the peg board I have drawers for larger items and a divided case for keeping track of all my small hardware.

Next to that I put up some shelves to hold paint, power tools, and other random garage items.  Here's my growing collection of spray paint just begging for attention.

Next to the shelves I've add some wall mounted storage accessories to help cut down on the clutter.

My favorite find so far has been my $5 Husky strap

It makes it so easy to rehang my extension cord, just velcro it back in!  Much easier than winding it on a roller-thingy, or whatever they're called. 

I've got my new ladder hanging on the opposite wall on a couple of rubber wrapped ladder hooks.  I bought a pack of several heavy duty hooks and will hopefully get my bike and bike rack hung soon!  With all the new tools required of owning and maintaining a lawn, my little garage is filling up quickly.  Here's the latest addition to my yard arsenal:

A leaf blower!  I went with the cheapest one I could find at Home Depot ($29.99) even though it only claimed a power level of 3 out of 10.  After using it last weekend, I can't imagine why I'd ever need more power!  That thing swept of the sidewalks and patio in seconds.  It has the power of my Dyson...but in reverse!  My manual sweeping days are over and I couldn't be more excited.  Now if I could just find a good place to keep it in the garage.