Blossoming

Do I really get paid to do this? It has been a fun and productive week, and I am happy to have some lovely photos to share!

As I mentioned a few days ago, I have been asked to arrange the flowers for a friend's upcoming wedding...so off to the flower distributor I went, and home I came with all kinds of beautiful buds to experiment with.

It has been a real treat to have all of the flowers in the house, and this morning with the fresh snow and bright sunshine outside there was a wonderful light in my dining room to get some pictures.

I am very pleased with the way things are coming together. Sheri, the bride, has chosen to go with collections of antique bottles and canning jars on each table, which I think will be perfect for the farm setting where the event will take place this April. So Exciting!

April and Spring will be here soon. Can't wait!

Have You Got Religion?

I think the answer had better be yes...

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of touring the abandoned Spring Valley AME Church. I have admired this humble country church as I have driven past it for the past 20 years or so.....always wondering who owned it, what would become of it....and wouldn't it be so charming if someone would just take a chance and fix it up??

Imagine my surprise when I passed it a week or so ago, and saw a "For Sale" sign posted right out front. I couldn't wait to talk to my business partner and see if she would be game to take a look. What would we do with the building?? I don't know....we can figure that out later, don't you think??

It is always a good start to a showing when the first thing Victor asks me while getting out of his truck is: "You want to tear that down, right??"......

We kicked around a few ideas as we looked at the property. With all of the development going on around it, we all felt that the former church could make an absolutely charming coffee or breakfast place...

Alas, it was not in the cards. I knew that there was a good chance that the old frame building would not be in any kind of shape for rehab after all of the years of neglect.  Victor confirmed that the foundation would have to be rebuilt, amid other expensive obstacles to the restoration--so a project that was already outside the scope of what we normally "do" fell victim to a fatal blow--we have made the decision to not proceed with making an offer. It makes me sad, but I still hold out hope that someone will have a vision for the property that does not include razing the building....

We have to have faith, right?

The Perfect Thing To Be Researching Now

I am so excited! I have been asked to design the tablescapes and flowers for a friend's wedding this April~ I can't wait! And I have to say that there is nothing better to be researching than flowers on these cold, dreary days of February.  It has been a little breath of fresh air to be taking in all these beautiful pictures of colorful blooms and pretty tables as I generate ideas for the event. Tomorrow I am venturing to the wholesale flower market and plan on sticking my nose deep in every fragrant blossom. What a mood elevator that should be!

I will keep you posted as things come together.....know you probably could use a big bouquet right about now too!

Thinking Outside the Box

There are many ways in which to think of your house. When frustrated with the flow and function of the interior spaces, sometimes it is helpful to envision the building as a large rigid box, with many smaller somewhat flexible boxes inside that can be shifted around and fit back together inside of the whole. The result can be a completely new relationship between the rooms, and a great improvement in the function of the home. In the whole house renovation that I participated in starting this past summer, that is essentially what we did to allow for a modern kitchen to be created, and maintain certain things that the homeowners did not want to change about the original floor plan of the house. You may remember this house. I have written about it here and here, and I am very excited to show you the end result of the kitchen renovation, which did indeed include moving the space from one front corner of the house to the other.

What we started with was a mid century gem of a house that had been lovingly designed by its original owner, an architect himself, for his family. The house was conceived during a time when the kitchen was for those who worked in the house, not for the lady of the house herself, and the kitchen was not the hub for family gathering that it is today. The pictures of the kitchen it its original state say it all:

The kitchen had an awkward L-shape to it, and on one end was an exterior entrance which had always been used as the main way to enter and exit by the family. You can see it at the far end of this picture....

When I proposed closing this door up, and instead turning the opening into a window so that we could have a workable kitchen layout, the response from my clients  was a polite but firm  "Hell No."

So, we were temporarily at an impasse.

Because I didn't want the owners to go through a costly renovation to have a pretty kitchen that would essentially function no better, I went back to the drawing board.

In our conversations about the house, I had learned that while the kitchen door had not been intended to be the front door of the house, visitors interpreted it to be just that. If they had not visited before, or weren't instructed to do otherwise, they often came here to knock, since it was the most visible door when you approached the house. The true front door was hidden from this angle, and therefore very seldom used.  In the picture below you can see the kitchen door as seen from the driveway....it is the one on the right, propped open in this picture taken during construction....

Since it was unthinkable to have this door not be a door (for functional and sentimental reasons), then why couldn't we then solve two problems at once and create an entry/foyer to be just inside of this opening, and then shift the kitchen down the front wall of the house, so that it would absorb the space that was once the entry hall??  The kitchen could then encompass a much larger and more functional space....

The answer I got this time was a resounding "YES!"

Victor Burgos, our so very knowledgeable, always patient,  favorite general contractor, was there to assure that the changes could be done, and we started working out all of the details that would need to be addressed. It is amazing to me that the view of the original front door went from this:

To this (a great but sadly blurry picture of Victor and me going over details during the demolition)....

to this:

Wow.

And here are some more......

Before:

and after:

(The curtained window above in the "before" is the very same window here in the upper left of the frame.)

Before:

and After....

I am so pleased with the way this project turned out. The craftsmanship and materials are just beautiful.

What was once the "front" door to the house is now a beautiful kitchen door, complete with a new light cut in it (asymmetrically placed to be true to the vintage of the house) to allow more natural light to enter the space.

And the staircase, which wasn't able to be fully appreciated before in the dark front hall, now adds so much architectural interest to the kitchen.

So, don't allow yourself to be boxed in! Creative thinking and not being married to the way things are, can help you to look forward to the possibilities of what could be!

Help Sorting It All Out

Yes, this is me. No, I hadn't been drinking. My nose is red from the cold, damp air in the garage I was working in late last week. Just had to share the picture, since I find it funny what you come across while decluttering....like yellowed snippets of newspaper listing old television channels--something very vital to someone not so long ago. I have to admit I did pause before I threw it away because of the clear instructions not to do so scrawled across the top.

(My daughter walked into the room and gasped when she saw me posting that picture. "Mom! That is a horrible picture of you!....Well, I guess it is okay. You are supposed to look super tired when you are working."....Thanks, Honey.)

The family that I was working for has gone through a lot of transition....and where there is transition, there is clutter. In the past two years, this family has lost an elderly parent, and sent their last child off to college.  I was so honored that they called me to help with all the of things that were pushed aside & piled in piles in the wake of that wave of change. The tide had settled just a bit, and all of the extra STUFF was weighing on them in a big way.

It is hard to decide what to do with some of the items that you come across in these situations (for instance, the full container of cellophane obviously from the 1950's with its cool packaging) and that is why it is a good practice to have a decluttering buddy with you as you sort things out (and an additional furry one is extra helpful). A person who is outside of your situation, either a professional organizer or close friend unafraid to be honest with you, can help you remove the emotion from the items you are sorting, and allow you see them objectively. The percentage of things you will end up keeping will be greatly reduced, and the things that do stay will have purpose and meaning to you.

And that means that they are NOT clutter! HOORAY!