Tag: Wakefield

A Bit of Progress

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Since I shared my starting points for my home back in January, I have made a little progress.  I thought I would share an update with photos and also share some of the upstairs bedrooms.  Very little is complete but there has been a little bit done to every room that moved it toward the goal.  Some boxes have been put away and some still remain.  I still don’t have a dining room table and don’t expect to for quite some time.  I know what I want but can’t find the right one at the right price.  Isn’t that always the way it is?  AND I just bought a patio set to be able to enjoy this beautiful spring weather so the dining table will have to wait again.

The family room is mostly complete but I change little every now and then.  I love decorating with old books and I have them in several places all over the house.

I finally got a foyer table from World Market and this is the entry way at the front door.  I created sort of a collage wall above it and added some photos, old books and items, and favorite family pieces.  The angel on the right is one from my mom and I have always loved it.  She sits on old family bibles, two from my 3 times great grandmother.  I treasure old family heirlooms and these are very special to me.

The living room is a little more organized and, although I loved all of this in my old house, this is not what my vision looked like here.  I think I am going to have to take it all out and start over!  But that’s another day!  The table between the two chairs holds a lamp from my great grandparents, a box full of old letters and photos, some antique reading glasses, a medical kit from my 3 times great grandfather who was a Dr., some small books of antique maps and a diary from my 4 times great grandfather.  There is also a photo of my great grandparent’s house, later my grandparent’s, in Clarksville, TN before it was renovated.  Many of the old things in my house were in that house.

.The pantry is much more organized now and I have painted one of the barstools for the kitchen, although it is not the color I want and I will have to figure that out before I paint the others.  The upper left photo is my great, great grandmother’s cook books and my grandmother’s and mom’s rolling pins and large crock.

The one room that is finished – the powder room downstairs.

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Let’s go upstairs.  I have not shared any photos yet of the “before” because they were just empty rooms full of boxes.  I have cleared out the boxes and started to put together some “decor” but it is bare minimum.  In fact, one of the mattresses is still on the floor.  One day . . . there will be bed frames and headboards and curtains and dressers.  🙂

Kayson’s room is the only one complete but he is still not used to the house so he doesn’t sleep in it.  When he spends the night, he sleeps with Nana, of course.

The unfinished upstairs – the bonus room, the master bedroom, master bath, master closet, and laundry room.  They are in my plan for the next year and will require new furniture for the bonus room so they are off the radar right now.  And I am the only person that spends any time in the master area and laundry room so I plan on taking my time and really thinking about what I want.  I am VERY lucky that I have a lot of space in these rooms so I can do something fun and creative.

So that’s the progress report.  I would love to hear your creative suggestions for any of the rooms.  Leave a comment with suggestions!

 

Welcome Home

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I closed on the 17th of December, 2015.  I moved from the apartment on the 18th.  I moved the majority of my “stuff” from the old house in the storage units on the 21st.  I have been “moving in” for the last 3 – 4 weeks.

 

I wanted to document the before.  When I get finished with the unpacking, the throwing away, the rearranging, the hanging, and the furnishing, I want to have those memories of where I started.  The pictures are dark and not done well since I did them quickly on my cell phone.  As things progress, I promise I will use my camera and do a better job of presenting things.

 

Frankly, it’s a mess and it’s constantly changing.  But’s it’s an exciting mess as it starts to come together.  My sister Mickey was a big help this past weekend.  She came and unpacked boxes, broke down and hauled away tons of empty boxes, helped rearrange and hang things and we just might have done a little shopping too.  It really helped me to feel like we accomplished a lot but there is still so much to do.

 

So come on in and I will give you a tour.  This is the entry which includes the living room and dining.  Every room downstairs is open to the other rooms.  I love the open feel.  The model had the dining room and living room closed in with a wall between.  But the plans had the wall open between the two.  We could not find an example in Knoxville that did not have that wall but I liked the idea of the open concept so I went with it.  I love it!  So happy.   I want to add a narrow console table to the wall in the entry area but have not purchased it yet.  There is one from World Market that I have my eye on.

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The living room is at the front of the house and the dining room is next, with the stairs dividing the front of the house from the back.  The living and dining rooms have pretty much become my staging areas for now.  I am hoping that, by the end of the week, I will have the living room set up and everything moved to the dining room so all the “stuff” is in one area.  I don’t have a dining table yet.  I am looking for a farmhouse style table that will seat 10 – 12 people.  I have lots of space so why not fill it up, right?  I have not found one I like yet at a price I can afford so it will be a journey for that room to come together.

Behind the stairs is the kitchen, dining area, and family room with fireplace.  This area spans the back of the house with a covered patio off the kitchen/eating area.  This space is the only one in which I feel like I have made progress.  I ordered two IKEA gray slipcovered sofas and found 2 patterned chairs on sale at a local furniture store.  I found a TV console cabinet at another local store.  I pulled out my antique trunk, my chippy farmhouse end table and coffee tables, crocks, and other paraphernalia and ordered a rug to pull it all together.  I still have some tweaking and need to hang things on the wall but I feel like the foundation is there now and I just love being in this room.

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I keep saying that the kitchen and pantry were my reasons for buying the house.  I love the open layout, the island, the amount of counter space, the tons of white cabinets, the blue subway tile, the granite and the huge pantry (which is a disorganized disaster right now).  It is my dream kitchen.  The eating area is feeling a little neglected with my 18 year old tile topped farmhouse table with chairs from another kitchen table I used to have.  The area is large and I need a larger table, a round one I think.  Again, that will have to happen down the road so this will have to do for now.

I have actually done some wall decorating and set up a coffee bar in the kitchen/eating area.  I found a coffee maker that does regular brewed coffee and Kuerig pods also.  I still need to get some hooks to hang the coffee mugs and I really want some large white coffee mugs.  More shopping.  Not sure if this will stay this way but for now, it’s up!

As you can see, I love Farmhouse Style.  My favorite show is Fixer Upper.  Joanna Gaines is my Spirit Animal.  🙂  I have many antiques and treasures that belonged to family members like my grandparents and great grandparents.  I love these things and want to keep them out where I can see them and remember the memories associated with them but I also want to add some modern touches too.  I have a lot to do to the upstairs so that will have to be a separate post soon.

 

So I have been in the house almost 4 weeks and this is where I’m starting.  It’s a process and a journey and it will take some time.  The other night, as I sat on my couch in the family room, wrapped in my cozy blanket and the fireplace going, I just kept saying “I love this house, I am so happy”.  I truly am.

My Big Adventure

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I am building a house.  I have never done that before.  I have learned a lot.  And I cannot wait to be in that house which should happen in mid-December.

The process started in April.  I was going to sell my house and move to a newer house. I had lived in that house since 1997.  It was our first time buying a house .  Although both my kids were born in Alabama before we moved to Tennessee, we had only rented before moving into this house.  My kids basically grew up there.  My husband died there.  My grandson came home to that house and they lived there with me for 2 1/2 years.  Lots of memories.  But not a lot of outlets.  It needed new . . . everything.  And I needed a change.

My realtor sent me many home listings to look at.  He is a friend and he knows me well so he knew what I was looking for.  I didn’t want to live right up next to people with no spaces between homes.  I wanted something newer, not necessarily bigger.  My home was 2000 square feet and I was the only one living there so the size was fine.  I loved my sunroom that I had built on and I spent a lot of time in that room and little time elsewhere in the house.  I just needed the new space to be more useable space with a little room for entertaining.  My house was a tri-level, built in 1978 so the space tended to be chopped up and closed in.  I needed more counter space and storage space.  And I needed more outlets.

He sent me several new builds which I had previously not even considered because I didn’t think I could afford them.  As I looked at them . . . ding, ding, ding!  I COULD afford them.  Why would I keep looking at someone else’s home when I could build one I wanted with EXACTLY what I wanted?  I decided I needed a master on the main and a large kitchen.  My knees didn’t really want to do stairs and I am, after all, a Nana and only getting older.   He took me to look at some models. I really WAS trying to be practical.  Really.  And then I fell in love with a house.  Well, really I fell in love with a kitchen.

The Wakefield kitchen is part of a large open space across the entire back of the house.  The kitchen had tons of cabinets, tons of counter space, a huge pantry, a large bar and lots of light.  It was open to the eating area and family room with fireplace.  The cabinets were white, the granite was light in color and there was a light blue subway tile backsplash.  It was beautiful and exactly my style.  It was MY kitchen.  I wanted it.

I didn’t care that the house was 3500 square feet, much too large for just me.  I was so excited that my family could come and visit and would have space to stay.  I didn’t care that there was virtually no yard and the homes were 10 feet apart.  I didn’t care that the stairs were steep and straight up to the second floor.  I didn’t care that the master was upstairs because the master/master bath/laundry room were all amazing too.  I wanted it.  And I could afford it.  That is, IF I got the right price for my existing home.

Everything went smoothly into motion.  I proceeded with faith that this was going to happen.  I put my house on the market in late May and it sold for what I wanted and in less than 3 weeks.  OH, there bumps along the way, including a raccoon having babies in the walls under my master bath.  That’s another story for another day.  But it sold and I moved into a 1 bedroom apartment to wait patiently for my kitchen, I mean my house, to be built.

While I waited, I began to wonder if this was the right thing for me or if I was being selfish.  This house is too big for just me, what if I lost my job, what about the upkeep, am I being crazy?  But here’s the thing . . . I am 54 years old.  I always dreamed of having a house like this.  If not now, when?

I have worked hard and supported myself and my family.  I have done it alone since 2001.  I don’t want to say I “deserve” it.  No one “deserves” anything, good or bad.  I believe if you make your life choices based on the right reasons and think them through, you will make choices that enhance your life as well as others.  Sometimes it’s what you desire and sometimes it’s a learning experience.  But you always grow.  And sometimes you gotta take a chance.

I’m taking my chance.