jacquielin's Profile

Despite their trendiness? What "trendy" things are generally not useful? Canning jars have been around for decades and aren't going anywhere- they're practical, pretty, and inexpensive.

Also, that felt a lot like 'well now that my favorite band is on the radio, they're not my favorite band anymore'

come on.

My mom's visits always involve projects. She also usually times her visits a few weeks after a move (enough time for us to settle in, not enough time for me to start extra projects) We recently spent three days scrubbing years of paint flecks and splotches off of all of the woodwork in my craftsman rental. In the summer she tries to hit a nice few days outside and we refinish some furniture.
At first it made me feel really awful, like somehow I am failing at setting up house, but I feel like no matter where I live or what shape the place is in, she will find something to work on. I think she really likes the old houses I pick out, and how drastic the results of some of our projects can be, such as painting all of the previously seafoam green moldings white in my 100+ year old college rental. Who knew the walls were actually yellow, not beige? (not that we didn't get around to repainting them, too!)

"authentic" doesn't really bring IKEA to mind.

I feel like buying a cheap piece of furniture while waiting to find/afford/whatever what you really want can be incredibly wasteful, like when that placeholder is a piece of junk made out of particleboard. Buying a couch fully intending on taking it to the dump in five years because by that time it will be falling apart is ridiculous. Find one on craigslist, or the goodwill, garage sale, your parent's basement, or build yourself a bench, but for gods sake don't go to ikea with full intentions of literally dumping that furniture soon. Or, if you must, please keep those purchases to an absolute minimum. Our planet can't handle it forever.

I'm looking forward to wrapping everything in kraft paper this year with different plaid ribbons. The simplicity of plain paper can't be beat.

My parents split when my sister and I were in high school. The very first Christmas they were apart we spent Christmas morning with my mom, and then drove to my dad's (3 hours away) and did Christmas dinner with him. A few years later I found out that my mom cried the whole evening and while she would never intentionally guilt me into then planning the holidays around her, that is the way it happened. My dad travels a lot, which has made it easier just to catch him some other time, but I am feeling worse and worse about him spending every holiday alone. Now that I'm married and have a mother in law who feels it is absolutely acceptable to make you feel guilty about missing holidays, the problem compounds. I think I will throw the next in law family thanksgiving, and invite my dad and everyone is just going to be happy they didn't have to make the turkey.

I would put in a big asymmetrical mantel- across the top of the fireplace all the way over to one of the side walls, but not the other. I would use a piece of wood the with the same width as the beams and in the same stain. I think the horizontal line there would help make the room not quite so top heavy, and the asymmetry would modern things up a little. Then you could lean some large frames or decorative items on that ledge, and perhaps balance it with a large picture or mirror hung on the other side of the fireplace. It would cover up a little bit of your stone, yes, but I think there will still be plenty left visible to make quite the statement.

I agree with many other commenters about keeping whatever new hanging light fixtures you choose consistent. Hopefully you can ditch everything that is currently there, including the ceiling fan. Alternately, the idea of uplighting your ceiling was excellent. Perhaps that, and then a unique hanging fixture over a reading chair in a corner or something.

What an exciting challenge! Good luck!

Unless you live in the desert, like one commenter above, having a toaster oven and a real oven seems like a huge waste. All that counter space... ack. The real thing isn't so scary and doesn't take that much longer to heat up. I put toaster ovens in the same category as mini doughnut makers- a waste of space. or electric kettles, or keurigs. Is coffee so difficult? Keeping my counters as clear as possible for the actual making of things seems like a better use of space. Perhaps if my kitchen was gigantic I would have room for the counter clutter of electric things that save a minute or two of my life?

The guy who writes the blog manhattan nest painted the drywall in his bathroom black (which ends at about the same height as yours looks like in your photos), used a plain white shower curtain and had just a few cute little details. Since you like blue, I would consider navy or even a darker royal blue up there, plain shower curtain, switch out the mirror to something with an antique-y frame and switch the light fixture up. I think that would class it up a bit. Beautiful ceiling, though!!

I was thinking 'what a beautiful house!' then came 'what the hell, those cabinets look just like my shitty rental ones- why in the world would people with clearly such taste choose those suckers?' to 'oh yeah, read first, then look. they are stuck with awful cabinets, too!'

gorgeous house, sorry that the cabinets are part of the deal. I am in love with that red bathtub!!