Dream vs. Reality

Would you believe that I have been trying, FOR OVER A MONTH, (sorry, was that too loud?) to add another blog post. Actually, I was trying to add a picture and Blogger was misbehaving badly. I just checked and it appears to be fixed now but I was all ready to write a post that was words only, so here goes.
I have noticed something funny recently that maybe you already took note of. But I tend to romanticize people, places and events so it was a lesson I had to learn by living it and observing it.
If you have been reading this blog you know that I have recently moved into my dream house. I, of course, had a romantic notion of how the space would be, and how we would live in it. I have a great big, happy life by anyone's standards but I noticed that no matter how beautiful, elegant, stylish, spacious, (insert your own adjective) or fabulous your home is, the following is still going to occur:

You still make your own breakfast.
There are still breakfast dishes in the sink when you make dinner.
Sometimes, even if you love to cook and even if you have a fabulous new kitchen with a top of the line stove, you just don't feel like making dinner.
More bathrooms means more toilets to clean.
Light bulbs need changing.
Bigger closets don't mean you still don't leave your clothes on the floor, sometimes.
You still have to get up and go to work every day. When the alarm goes off at 6:00am it isn't easier to get up.
There is still lots of vacuuming, dusting, cleaning, scrubbing, tidying and organizing to do.
The garden hasn't suddenly decided to weed itself.
Things still break.
Things still leak. (make that twice for my bedroom ceiling!)

Still, I love it here.
Now, I've gotta go empty the dishwasher.

Happy New Year! 2013!

Following a quiet New Years Eve since I was playing nurse to a husband with the flu, awoke late, had a leisurely morning and we decided to celebrate a little late by going out for a nice lunch. He was feeling much better!
I had mentioned that I was feeling a "little French today" but that was just to start practicing my goal of learning to speak the language better. But soon, realized that my first meal of the day was in Paris! (Virginia!) After a beautiful ride through the countryside we had a lovely brunch at the Ashby Inn in Paris and I highly recommend it. We even drank French wine - he, a nice  Pinot Noir, and I with a white Chateneuf-de-Pape. Really, it doesn't get any better.
My thoughts always turn to resolutions - don't yours? And I received a thought provoking email on this subject, suggesting that you pick just ONE resolution and direct all your attention to it. To see the video, click here.
I have been thinking lately that instead of creating resolutions, couldn't I just have a THEME for the year? Such a different approach, but it seemed easier to me. Resolutions seem to follow themes anyway. For example, instead of "lose XX pounds", what if the theme was "Healthy"? So when you have a behavior or a decision to make, like eat the cupcake or not, you choose whether it follows your theme or not. Healthy or Not Healthy.

a bakery in the "real" Paris

One theme I have chosen for 2013 is "Simplify". The question I will be asking myself is "Will this simplify my life or complicate my life?" This can apply to all kinds of things: people, events, things, requests, commitments made and to be made.
The other theme I think could make a difference is "Self-Discipline" because I have seen a total decline in this area! ha! Just reminding myself of those two little words might help me develop some better, more life affirming habits.
So which is it for you? Resolutions or Themes?

Holiday Decor

So, here is the same room from a couple posts back showing how I decorated it for Christmas.

Right after taking down the Autumn decor, I received a shipment from Eloquence, a favorite new vendor. Hop over to their site if you want to see some beautiful furniture, chandeliers and other pieces with a French accent. I left the cottonballs and the pictureless frame and the clock I inherited at Thanksgiving.

The chandelier that was suppose to be installed in my new office ended up in the living room. It just feels right in there, plus it casts a lovely light at night.

The table, which is a reproduction drapery table, was supposed to go into my bedroom, but I thought if I put it in the living room, that room would at least feel finished until it really IS finished with a rug and draperies. Even though my specialty is window treatments the fact that this is a reproduction DRAPERY table was a happy coincidence.

It still feels cavernous to me, so I fill it up with people, every chance I get!

Law of Attraction

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Or to paraphrase, "Yes, Virginia, there really is a Law of Attraction".

This is a long story, so I've included pictures!

2 islands in the kitchen! It's huge. Notice the missing speakers in the ceiling and NO stove.

 



I recently moved, and not just to any old house, but to my Dream House. I have hardly met anyone who would say they live in their dream house, but whenever I tell the story of how I came to own mine, the usual reaction is "Well it was just meant to be!"

Living Room with stone fireplace

About 8 or 9 years ago I talked my husband into going to look at a model home. It's one of my favorite things to do. We weren't particularly looking to move but I like to fuel my creative juices that way. We went to a particularly beautiful and spacious home and we immediately both fell in love with the house. It had every amenity we had ever, or would ever, dream of! For the next couple of years we revisited that model home every few months, but we could never really afford it and of course, during the real estate boom, the price kept going up. We had read something about visualization and how, to picture yourself with your heart's desire, you should put a photo on your wall. I think I had heard that instead of say, a picture of your favorite car, you should go to the dealership and have someone take a picture of YOU sitting in the car and then look at that picture. So on at least two occasions, we took pictures of each other sitting in various rooms in our dream house. About that time, we dubbed it the Dream CASTLE because it was so large to us.

Library with built ins

Well, I, for one, could never get that house out of my head. I would stalk the real estate ads and whenever a house with the same floorplan came on the market, I would go visit it. But the price was always out of reach. I had finally read the book The Secret - apparently the last person on earth to do so and actually didn't see the movie for several more years. But The Secret sounded like so much of the same stuff I was reading anyway and I believed  in the Law of Attraction. I read up on John Assaraf, one of the people featured in The Secret. One of the things I learned from him was something called a Vision Board. Some people call it a photomap. It is basically a piece of paper or cardboard covered with images of the things you want. (John has an interesting and compelling story of his own vision board and dream house.) First I made a little scrapbook with the picture of the Dream Castle on the cover. I got the picture from the real estate brochure.And I also put in the photos we had taken of ourselves in the various rooms of the model home. I  wrote one of my daily affirmations about how much I enjoyed living in the Dream Castle. That was 3 or 4 years ago.

Very castle- like entry room with fireplace (called the Reception Room!)

This past January, we went and looked at a vacation home about 3 hours away. On the drive home, we decided that if we bought a second home, then we would stay put in our current house and would have to let the dream of the Dream Castle go. But something told us not to do it. A week later we were visting yet another model, by the builder of the original Dream Castle. We asked if they would revive that old floor plan in another town and they said yes! We started the 4 month process, that eventually ended in April with our price and the builder's price meeting NOWHERE in the middle. The Universe was just not going to have it. But rather than be disappointed, I just KNEW that something better was going to come along.

Master Bedroom

Two weeks later, I was on the internet and happened (hm.......happened?) to see that the Dream Castle, the original, the model home, was going into foreclosure and would be auctioned off on the steps of the County Court House. The auction was the next day! My husband and I decided on a price that would be our highest bid and I went to the bank in the morning to get a cashier's check for the deposit. When I got to the auction, which was my first, the opening bid was (gulp!) TWO MILLION DOLLARS!!! Shot down again! But someone at the auction told me that they had heard the house had squatters and they had "stripped" the place and it was nothing like it was. A shadow of it's former self.

Family Room



Another two weeks passed and it was my birthday. We were going wine tasting with friends and on the way saw a sign for an estate sale. We decided to follow the signs and stop in. As we pulled up the long driveway and saw the house, I turned to my husband and whispered "It's the same as the Dream Castle". We entered the basement and aside from the wall to wall junk and the 20 or so cats, we could see that they had finished the basement exactly like the Dream Castle model! I was sure that anyone having an estate sale would be putting their house on the market shortly, so I started checking the internet. You are probably thinking that is how I came to get my house, but you would be wrong.

Family Room looking towards kitchen

Another two weeks went by. (The Universe is s-l-o-w to start working on your dreams, but apparently, speeds up at the end.) I was supposed to be working, but instead I thought I'd check my real estate sites to see if anything new had popped up. I typed in what I thought was the address of a house I had recently seen. I keep a little book of houses I want to look at. What I actually typed in (cue music from The Twilight Zone)  was the address from the real estate auction on the Court House steps. The Dream Castle. Up popped a listing, with my beloved picture from my scrapbook and the words, "Just listed 5 days ago. Foreclosure. Sold "as is". Bring all offers".  I called my husband at work and he picked up the phone, which is rare. I asked him if he was sitting at his computer and he said yes. I told him to type in the address. Five seconds passed and all I heard was "Oh. My. Gosh!" And then he said, "Call the Realtor!"

Master Bath

I wish that I could say that everything worked easily from that point but it wouldn't be true. It took over a month just to agree on the price. (They were kidding when they said to bring all offers.)We were tested every inch of the way. From a MIA listing agent who apparently couldn't care less about selling a house, an unscrupulous appraiser who needed an attitude adjustment, and doors that just wouldn't seem to stay locked, to a long list of insurance companies who didn't want to insure the place, we really had to decide, over and over, that we did, indeed, want the house. I was so sure we weren't actually going to close, that the settlement seemed anticlimactic. We drove up to the house, OUR house with a bottle of champagne and I said, "Wow, is this really ours???"

Butler's pantry

I hope to show you over the coming months the progress we are making on our Dream Castle. The person who warned me on the Court House steps that the place had been stripped was half right. Some of it had been. There was no big beautiful stove, and very few of it's many chandeliers left. Odd things like toilet paper holders, a medicine cabinet and speakers from the sound system were missing. But there were two Viking wall ovens, a Subzero refrigerator, a home gym and a wine cellar left intact.

Wine cellar intact. Gorgeous iron door is on the floor.

This is the party side of the basement!

I have learned that making a dream come true is like any act of creation. Wishing and hoping is only the beginning. Believing it is going to happen is necessary. Rolling up you sleeves and putting in the effort is what makes the dream a reality.
I can hardly wait for 2013 to get here. Let the dreaming begin!

Autumn Decor

 

 

Time to take down the Autumn Decor. Seems like I just put it up.
This is my new living room. The story is coming soon. It looks so cozy in this picture with my oversized pumpkin and cottonball swag on the mantel.
But in reality, I don't have nearly enough furniture for this new house and some of my old furniture is just acting as placeholders until I can get around to decorating. I've pulled back in this next picture so you can see just how much work I have ahead to cozy the place up.

 

You still can't see that I have a sofa against the wall on the left side.

I need a rug, pictures and window treatments. All in good time.

The ceiling over the fireplace leaked during the hurricane (so did the ceiling up in my bedroom),

so we have to take care of those things before we get to the fun stuff.

Shhhhh....don't tell, but I DID already order a few things when I was in High Point in October!

Coming soon!

Now, to get ready for Christmas! Deck the Halls!

Lucky me!

Isn't this lovely? It's the new chandelier I ordered for my new office when I was in High Point last week. This was at one of my favorite new vendors, Eloquence, a company based in California. The story of why I have a new office will have to wait, because it is a LONG story and it is also the reason I have not posted here for so long. But you can be sure that I will tell the story soon enough and for now we will all have to wait the 5 or so weeks for the chandelier to arrive, to see how it looks here with me.
(look at the shadows she casts on the walls. can you stand it????)

Traditional......again!

It occurs to me that almost all of the window treatments that have gone out of my studio in the last few months have been rather traditional and almost all of the fabrics have been large scale prints. Dare I say that prints are back? It seems all I did for awhile were plain silks (loved that) or linens (and that) and a few velvets (oh, that too!) And another interesting bit of trivia is that all of the print lovers are about the same age. Hmmmm.


This beautiful print from Kravet was the inspiration for the entire family room, which you will see later when it is finished. But for now, you get a peek at the draperies. These were just simple drapery panels hung from rings. We had to keep some blue in the room because that is the husband's favorite color.

 But there was so much blue throughout the house that we repainted the walls in a lighter neutral tone and the background color in the fabric is light blue. We also had the backs of the bookshelves, which originally were all white, also painted a light blue. Pretty.

Drapery panels were in the family room and the breakfast area of the kitchen.

This is the sink area "Before":

Over the sink in the kitchen we had short pinch pleat valances made, using the same fabric for some continuity, but trimming the edges in this pretty scalloped trim.

The lining we used was a sort of napped sateen which was like a thick interlining fused to a drapery lining. It really gave the treatments a lot of ooomph!
Hardware by Kirsch. Painting by Fauxtastic Finishes. Trim by Stout Bros.