Bee's Buzzings

Snow, and more snow

Well, this recent round of snow certainly is beautiful, but I'm pretty much sick of it.

Minneapolis broke records in December (greatest monthly snowfall on record) and this month (greatest one day total) and we're looking at a third place finish for greatest monthly totals for February, as well.  And winter isn't done with us yet since March is historically the snowiest month.  Ugh. 

Just hoping our spruce trees are okay - look at the heavy blanket of snow on the limbs.  (I'm not even going to mention the sadness I feel when spying all the snow on our diving board.)

On a brighter note, tickets have been booked to fly to Florida in 6 weeks, so no matter what things look like here in April, I'll be enjoying temps in the 80s before long.  Sweet.

They say the valleys make the peaks that much more glorious.  I'm thinking Spring and Summer are going to be mighty fine this year!

Pantry Cabinet Makeover - The Before And After

There's one really big upside about living in five different brand new homes over the past eighteen
years.  They'd all had great kitchens.  Usually with some solid surface counters, hardwood flooring . . . and pantries.  NICE pantries.  But there was something I'd learned from living in so many places, and cooking in so many kitchens. Surprisingly, I do not prefer walk-in pantries. 

In our last house, we specifically designed the kitchen with a wall of very shallow 12" cabinets, and several narrow, roll out drawers where the cabinets required a depth of 24".  You don't lose food this way, and there's very little 'pull these items out to get at that' going on.

So here we are, in my first house bought as a resale.  A house I love.  A yard I love.  A neighborhood I love.  But a kitchen, that while awesome in layout, will be seeing a lot of updates in the next few years.  First stop:  The Pantry.  As you can see from the above photo, the stationary shelves made this 24" deep pantry almost a waste of space.  I kid you not when I say we lived out of a lot of grocery sacks scattered around the perimeter of the dining area, at least until the new roll-out shelves were installed.

(click photo to enlarge)

And I knew exactly who to call - I'd worked with many master craftsmen in my previous life as a Selections Coordinator at a custom home builder.  Marty Erlien (reachable at (612) 644-9007 if you're in the Minneapolis area) came out, measured, talked about spacing requirements, and his assistant returned a few weeks later to retrofit the cabinet and install some custom made shelving.  As you can see - it's a perfect solution.  Amazing what these guys (and some full extension glides) can do to make a space SO much more functional.  It's now finally fully utilized and a pleasure to use every time we open the pantry doors.  I'm loving it!

If you like this, just wait until you see what they did for the new tub in our remodeled bathroom!

p.s. don't forget about the free Box of 12 Note Cards giveaway, just leave a comment to automatically be entered.  Just a few more days until a winner is drawn at random.

a few of my favorite things

Jim and I are using the same furniture we had in our last house, but have managed to infuse this home with different backdrop colors and accents. Getting away from deep burgundy and sage greens walls, we now have buttery yellows to brighten our days.  And with the purchase of our new dining area rug, we have many more colors to use in our future decorating - for chair covers, additional pillows, and other fun accents.

This rug is one of my favorite things. It never fails to make me smile.  I think that's what decorating should be all about.  The two pillows help pull the palette together.  And the coffee mug?  When our french exchange students were out for a visit, we did "paint your own pottery" and I couldn't resist doing up a mug in the same vein to add even more smiles to my day.

Just a few of my favorite things.

p.s. all comments this week receive an entry in the Giveaway!

 

favorite room in the new house

 At long last I am finally getting around to taking some decent photos of the new-ish place.  (I mean really, it's been six months.  After three months of renovation and another three months of organizing, can it still be called new?)

More importantly, I'm finally finding the time to post here on a more regular basis.  While we still have a garage full of stuff to put away - the inside spaces are really starting to come together.  Cannot wait to decorate for the Holidays.

This is my absolute favorite room.  Love our new house, and especially the Living Room with oversized windows and southern and eastern exposures. SO happy here ♥

notice: Jinx the Cat, on the back of the left sofa (she's a bit camera shy . . . hiding behind the pillow) 

Overlooking the Living Room from the upstairs landing.  This is the sight that greets me every morning.  *sigh* 

Friends and family members questioned why we would want to down-size from our last place, but somehow even after shaving 500 square feet off our previous home's living area, this place lives just as large, and more importantly - it fits us.

More photos soon.

Finally got the bedroom drapes up

There's always a fine line when balancing "hard" and "soft" elements when decorating.  And of course, personal preference (and climate) plays a part in the equation, as well.  As cold as it is here in Minnesota, I'm definitely drawn towards cozying things up.  And our bedroom is no exception - especially with such a large expanse of windows on the southern wall.  So almost exactly 180 days since moving in, I finally installed the draperies - and WOW what a difference it makes.  

Proof, here is a Before photo

and a shot from the upper landing, looking in.

After waking up this morning to 20 degree temps outside (and a slick of ice covering every imaginable surface), we really appreciated how comfortable things are finally starting to feel inside.

Jim teases me that he's tired of hearing me say it . . . but I really LOVE this house ♥

six months later - new house, new pool, new addition

Okay, I'll admit it. Six months since my last post I'd hoped to have everything in my life in order and be eating bon bons on a regular basis.  Or at least be sipping lemonade by the pool while reading magazines - yes the ones that go mostly unread month after month for too many years to count even though I continue to renew my subscriptions (after all I can get THREE years for the price of one!) but alas, the stack continues to grow.  Much like the items on my To Do List.

But things are definitely looking brighter.  And one thing Jim and I made certain to do amidst the chaos was enjoy our newly installed pool, if even only for 20 minutes a day.   For those of you who have had one built, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  The 'we paid waaaay too much to not get in it'.  Right??  And growing up outside of Boston, I have a case of what's know as Yankee Thrift.  Buy a new shirt?  Heck, if it's on sale for only $35.99 and I wear it at least once a month for the next three years, it's only a dollar each time I wear it. What a deal!

So I've decided to live in the pool.  Even in the winter.  In Minnesota.

All kidding aside, we had a very interesting six months.  Sold our house, packed it up, moved a lot of stuff into storage, moved into the new house, closed on both houses the same day, broke ground on the pool less than a week later.  And two weeks after that we moved more stuff into a second storage unit and ripped the roof off the garage to begin a 700 square foot, 2 bedroom addition.

It's been a wild ride.  More details and photos coming soon :)

 

Frosty Minneapolis Morning

What can I say?  I love the way the bare trees and shrubs look on those glorious winter mornings when the air temperatures exceed the ground temps.  Voila!  An instant Winter Wonderland.  Today was another such morning, so these shots were taken before the moisture was wicked away by the sunshine that's just broken through.

Think I've taken similar photos every year when this has happened.  And probably always will - since the effect never fails to enchant me. I especially love the way this shot of our side yard hydrangea turned out.

Off to a movie and dinner later this afternoon with Katie.  Think we're going to catch "New Moon" since it's still in the theaters.  She'll be starting her spring semester at U-W, River Falls in another couple of weeks, so we're getting in some together-time before her schedule once again becomes too hectic.

Hope you are staying warm, and discovering similar little blessings as we round the corner towards Spring! 

Before and After House Photos

our Family Room - after hardwood was added to the room and the existing hardwood was refinished (kitchen, under barstools, foyer and hallway)

our Kitchen - after floors were re-finished, some existing furniture was enameled and new stainless steel appliances were installed

Love the updated look - we really are pleased with the results!  Now we just hope someone else falls in love with the house and makes us an offer  :)

but if not, I'm very happy with my early Christmas and Birthday gifts!  LOL

hugs,  Bee

House pictures . . . as promised

Well, not long after putting our home on the market, Jim and I made a decision to perfect the imperfections.  A backwards move, I know, but four kids and four pets had wrought enough wear and tear on the Family Room carpet to warrant it being replaced, and the existing hardwood floors were in need of a refinishing.  In our little pipe dream world, we'd hoped that potential buyers could see past these flaws, but soon discovered with buyers SO few and far between nothing less than immaculate would pass muster.

So instead of replacing the carpet with more carpet, we ripped it up and had hardwood installed all the way into the Family Room instead of just partway.  We also had the existing hardwood floors stripped and refinished.  I must say, they're looking quite spectacular now!  And since we had the house 'unavailable for showing' anyway, we also decided to spring for new stainless steel appliances in the kitchen - they're being delivered on Friday.

It's still a work in progress, but as promised, here are some more photos of the house . . .  The Dining Room, with built in cherry cabinets, buffet and lighted china display.  The Kitchen with 'before' appliances.  Can't wait for the new stainless steel ones to arrive it two days!  And the Foyer, with the now gleaming hardwood floors (final top coat is being applied as I type this!)