Ideabooks and More

Happy Thursday!
Here's a link to the website I promised the other day - http://www.houzz.com/.   It is Houzz.Com and is LOADED with valuable photos and ideas!

Perfect if you are thinking about remodeling/redesigning and want to get great ideas while also staying organized.   It's got literally THOUSANDS of photos, which you can filter by room and/or style and a feature called "IdeaBook" where you can save any rooms and/or ideas that you like!   This is perfect for me (I can be rather disorganized and jump around from one project to another).    I hope you get a chance to check them out for yourselves!
I've saved a few "ideas" in an ideabook for my dining room redesign.    Here's a few photos to browse...

My favorite feature of these ideabooks is that you have an area that you can write a note along with each photo you save.   This is handy - I just went and browsed through them again, wondering why in the world I liked a certain room, but reading the notes I made was very helpful in reminding me.   In some instances, I have a photo saved just because I liked a centerpiece, or a wall color, etc...

I loved the colors, bench and the centerpiece in this room above.

For this room, I really liked the way the room was separated from the kitchen - Gorgeous built in cabinets with shelving and are those working windows above them?!   So charming...

The above photo shows a dining room set that I do NOT like in any way BUT, I really liked the idea of the extra tall wainscoting on the walls.

The above I saved with the caption "NOT!".   Not really sure why I bothered, other than at least I know what I DON'T want.

I was excited to find this photo - these I believe are ceiling medallions and would solve my problem with my "boob" lights if need be.

Check out the last photo below.   It's a great example of the phrases "To Each His Own" and "There's Something For Everyone".   

Hello??  

But if you are thinking of redoing any particular room or even corner in your home, Houzz.com just might be worth a look-see!

That's all for now.   I will update on the dining room as it moves along.   Next we'll move onto my daughter's room and our family room.

Ta for now!

Smiles and Hugs,
Joyce

How It All Began.........

Good Morning!


A little more from my "Come Inside" series...

As promised here, , I did some digging through old photos and have successfully figured out how to scan them INTO my computer!  Yay me!   My "techie" skills are in the dark ages, so this is pretty cool stuff.  

Anyways, here is a quickie post with some photos of how our home looked when we first purchased it.   I've said it before (and will probably say it again) but looking at these makes me MUCH less impatient for some reason for further redesigning - it helps to look back and see how far we've really come!

Here she is (was)...

I wish I could enlarge the photo a bit, but like I said, these are not originally digital pictures and they were scanned, by an idiot someone less experienced than others.   It was basically a very old, very grey, VERY SMALL bungalow.    We were sold on it because of (1) the price, (2) it is set back from the road about 400 feet and feels like a getaway in the woods, (3) there is a barn on the property (4) we basically just saw TONS of potential, and finally (5) we did not have children at that point and needed a project!

Here's a closer look at the front door...

The entire inside was redone by the previous owner.   It was absolutely lovely in many ways.  Tons of charming details, like custom woodwork, trim, cabinets, shelving, etc...   It was also absolutely DARK as in Dark Maroon (cranberry probably) and very dark hunter green.  

This was our original "entry way" and was actually the lightest room in the house.   They had these cool old factory style windows that let TONS of light in.   It gets worse from here though.   See how on the right side of this photo it looks basically like a black wall?   It's not a wall.   It's an opening to the rest of the house.  It was really that dark.   By the way, the viewpoint you are looking FROM in this photo is actually now a part of the kitchen where we have extra storage and a computer station.   It's where I'm sitting right now!  I can look right over my shoulder and see where that awful front door used to be! 

Here's another veiw of the outside (was probably later, because it's apparently after we started some painting on the exterior

Oh and by the way?   The yard needed a bunch of work too.   :)

Here's a quick drawing that Mr. Hubby came up with during our planning for the addition.   

And here's a recent shot of our exterior today....

We did end up working some with an architect, but I'd say hubby was pretty much right on the money as far as how it would turn out!  The architect DID give us some awsome ideas of what do to vs. what not to do - mostly on the interior remodeling which saved us a bunch.  Always a good thing for a cheap gal like myself.   I will point some of those tips out to you as I get further along in this lil' here series.

Some photos of a few things we love about this property...

These guys show up at LEAST once a week (and they always mysteriously disappear as Thanksgiving approaches - they must be smarter than they seem)

These ladies are also frequent visitors....

As I mentioned before, we got a barn along with the deal. 

I love how this red color "pops" in the snow...

The yard itself is fairly cleared out of trees, overgrowth, bushes, etc..... but we are also surrounded by woods in at least three directions...

The original part of the house is over 100 years old, and we find all kinds of neat old fashioned things around...

I don't know what it is either, but we've got a barnfull of stuff like this - I'm hoping to find the time to group them all somehow for a display.  

There is also some quirky "charm" to be found....

This is in the way back of the house, near a cellar door entrance, so I decided ot just leave it be!  

Or, how about this piece of work, courtesy of a neighbor across the "way"...

Yes, it's a shed.  Made out of doors.  And to be honest with you, if it was ever completed, it would probably be a welcome sight somehow.  Kind of the cute and quirky idea that I love.  Unfortunately, this particular neighbor has moved and we're left to decide how to deal with this little mess ourselves. 

So that's it for now!  I am gathering some more old photos of the interior to put together a few more posts for this series.    Next should be the dining room and living room...

Have a great weekend - Ta Ta For Now!

Smiles and Hugs,
Joyce