The “Fruits” of My Labor

ScarecrowI have built a vegetable garden, in some form, at nearly every home I’ve lived in as an adult. They have taken many forms – big and small, in raised beds and in rows – but no matter their size or shape, I’ve always loved starting with literally nothing, creating something and then watching it grow.

And I’ve had fun with the gardens in other ways too. I used to live in a corner house with a nice size front/side yard. There, in addition to building a vegetable garden, I created a new “lady” scarecrow every year. It became something of an urban garden for the neighborhood, with people stopping by on walks with their dogs or babies to see how the garden was growing. It was so sweet!

Getting Social and Walking the “Plank”

I thought there was a good chance I would escape social media altogether. My sweet daughter, Katie, has been gently encouraging me for a while to start a lifestyle blog; but up until a few months ago, I had never tweeted, Instagramed or Facebooked. In fact I wasn’t even interested in finding out what any of that meant. Boy, I didn’t know what I was missing!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my daughter (and two nephews) encouraged me to get on Instagram. They set up an account for me, and then, even after we’d parted, they continued to email and text me with corrections, tips and ideas. As I write this, it has been two months, and I have more than 2,100 people following me on Instagram—yippy! It is so much fun and a bit of an obsession to boot … I love the #tbt and #fbf … great fun!

Okay, so that’s how I came to the world of social media … but what about this blog? Let’s back up a little first…

Having a Vision

A few weeks ago, I blogged about “Having a Vision”and my friend Marlowe’s ambitious project of renovating a house that is over 100 years old. While I showed the progress over 3 weeks but it took Marlowe many months but she has completed it and it is absolutely beautiful. All the charm of an old house but with all the modern conveniences of a new one. It helps that

she has beautiful taste (believe me I was salivating)! A nice ending to this story is that she sold it before it ever went on the market to a nice family with young children who will enjoy it for years to come. Marlowe and her family made a nice profit and feel incredible pride for a job well done. She stuck with her vision and made it happen. I took a little walking tour so you could all see the finished product…. hope you enjoy!

 

Approaching the finish line

There have been some fun advances in my friends remodel. Oh, by the way, her name is Marlowe … just so I can stop saying my friend! She has similar taste to mine and we both love old houses, so it’s been great fun that she let me be a part of her project. She is getting close to the finish line and people are already clamoring for the sale. I know she and I will be sad, because it’s now the house we would both like to live in and are attached to our ideas. It has such beautiful open spaces that flow from one room to the next and wonderful high ceilings.

Work in progress/ home improvement idea

Another week of my friends remodel brought some fun ideas for me to share with you.

The downstairs has a long hallway that was not well lit. To brighten it up she put transom windows above the doorway on either side and painted it a light gray. She decided it still needed more light and that reflective would work. She had a handy man nail boards down the hall and will be painting the lower half a gloss paint in Benjamin Moore Linen White. It is not quite finished but has already added so much to the overall look of just an ordinary hallway for little effort and expense. This is an easy project that you can do yourself.

My latest project

A good friend of mine needed to add a bathroom to a little guesthouse she has in her back yard. It is a converted old garage I suppose (perhaps for a model T) with an extra room connected to it. She had been contemplating for a while about adding the bath but all the bids she got were outrageous. I mentioned to her that another friend of ours was doing a big remodel and that her brother was her contractor. So I asked him to please come by and give her a bid for her project. I offered to help her pick out tiles, decor, ect., knowing that I could find what she wanted for less money than she was thinking she had to spend. She got the bid from our friends brother and a plumber and with some simple drawings to the city for permits, it was a go.