summerland's Profile

What a great story. The pics are lovely and the writing honest yet inspiring. It's one of the best blog posts I've read in awhile!

It's a pet peeve of mine to arrive at someone's home and be asked to take my shoes off. Especially if it's for a party or an occasion where I'm dressed nicely for it. Shoes are usually part of a woman's ensemble plus I'm only five feet tall and most of the time my pants drag under my feet without shoes! It makes me feel uncomfortable. If it's a good friend or I'm the only guest, I usually have no problem abiding by the no shoes rule. I get it. On a day to day basis everyone in my family sheds their shoes at the door. But I think if you're inviting people into your home, their experience and comfort level should trump a little extra vacuuming on your part.

This is a completely inspiring story. Love everything about it.

Another market in Seattle that often has items like this is 2nd Saturdayz at Warren Magnuson Park. It's every 2nd Saturday year round (with the exception of Aug). You can spend a lot of time there -- it's great.

Awesome interview -- feel like I was right there with you guys. She seems so down to earth and natural. Gotta love that in a tv personality!

I was totally going to thumbs up but the woman on the toilet pick just soured the whole thing for me.

I sell furniture from my Etsy shop and regularly use Greyhound with great success. When I first began, the always friendly and helpful desk attendant told me that unlike UPS or FedEx, boxes don't ever get dropped on a conveyor belt. When the boxes transfer from bus to bus, they're picked up by person or forklift.

As a shipper, the hardest part is finding a box to fit larger furniture items and packing them well. Most of the time you can't beat the price even when shipping cross country.

Ten years ago we bought our first place on Summerland Rd in a lake community. When I saw the name of the road for the first time I actually said out loud "what a happy sounding place!" So it was only fitting that when I started my furniture and home decor company from my garage five years ago I named it -- Summerland Style.

Does anyone remember the legend of the China Doll that made the rounds in the late 70's? We told that creepy story so many times that I was petrified by them then and still to this day. I too am a junk store picker and will gasp/shriek out loud if I turn a corner and find myself standing eye to eye with one!

I think the rainbow paint job is beautifully done. I'm definitely a live and let live sort when it comes to home ownership. If I lived somewhere where there was an HOA I'd be in a constant state of worry that someone's going to be offended enough to make a "suggestion" which would devastate the people pleaser in me.

Because we live on acreage out of view of all but one neighbor, we have the freedom to try out home design ideas which take us a LONG time to complete. But since we have the freedom to create - using our house as our canvas - we've already been featured on a home and landscape tour and it has helped spawn businesses for both me and my husband.