Rita @thissortaoldlife.com's Profile

I hate negative, snarky comments here on AT and have vowed never to leave such. But, this collection leaves me feeling cranky. Most of these kitchens feel as if looking great is the first priority, and, oh yeah, maybe some cooking will happen here, too. It's great to have a whole bunch of books in your kitchen, but arranging them in stacks doesn't create easy access, and having the shelves stick out from the counter makes it impossible to get close to the counter. And what's up with the huge peacock on the fridge that's having a stare-down with the ornate crystal chandelier? That just seems pretentious as hell. And a little silly. Sorry in advance for offending anyone who loves this stuff. I actually wrote and deleted a similar comment to this post yesterday, but seeing it featured in my inbox made me cranky all over again. Would like AT editors to know that this isn't what I come here to read. Much prefer real spaces lived in by regular folks. You know, the kind who do their own cooking.

We put one of these in when we needed to retile our shower--and we think it's the smartest thing we did. We did the retiling job ourselves, and it wasn't much work at all to add the niche. Highly recommend it.

I would say that everything in our home has either a practical purpose or is meaningful because it represents someone or something we love. Not all items are directly tied to a loved one, but they have some kind of meaning in terms of what we value. I don't think we have anything that is purely decorative, and I think that's why our home feels good and is a haven when we need to retreat from the world. Absolutely treasure most those things that come from family--my grandma's desk, a bowl carved by my grandpa, my great-grandma's teacups. They make me happy, not sad.

To solve the damp vs. art issue, we put aluminum photo prints in our bathroom. We used our own photos and had them made by Adorama Pix. Not cheap, but we waited until they had a 40% off deal. You can see ours here: http://www.thissortaoldlife.com/2012/10/18/aluminum-photo-prints/

We put reclaimed wood on our risers and love the way it looks. No need to paint/repaint, and much more character than the carpet we started with. Tutorial (of sorts) here: http://www.thissortaoldlife.com/2013/01/08/diy-stairs-from-salvaged-wood/

Thank you so much for sharing our post here. Knowing that our words/work are helpful to someone else makes us really happy. A great lunchtime surprise to find this here!

When we moved in together, we were both mature (ahem) adults--which meant we each had lots of stuff. We put most of it in our garage at first. We put in furniture that we needed for function and that we agreed upon. We bought a few new pieces together that we both liked. We left the walls and surfaces mostly bare.

After a few months of living together in that space, we had a much better idea of what we wanted and needed. And, we'd had some time away from much of our previous stuff and time to grow into the new couple we became from living together.

Not that we were super-conscious or planned it this way. We were mostly just overwhelmed and didn't have time to do more than we did. But in retrospect, it worked really well for us.

I'm not sure about the aesthetic component of your choice, but we've got cork floors and dogs, and we love our floors. We put it into the living/dining room, kitchen, and hallway of our split-entry home about a year and a half ago, and they are great. If you do go that route, I'd be sure to get cork with a high-quality, durable finish. We used Wicanders, and it was still much less expensive than other options. The cork is really warm and super-easy to care for. We learned a ton researching it, which you can see here: http://www.thissortaoldlife.com/2011/10/14/everything-you-really-need-to-know-about-cork-flooring/ (That's also got some before/after pics, so you can see what a difference it made to our space.)

I think the gratitude list is the most important thing on your list.

I know. I really do know. But still. Reading a book electronically feels a bit like connecting with friends electronically. It's good. It's better than nothing. But it can't beat face to face. I want to feel the pages the way I feel a friend's hand, hear the pages whisper as I turn them.