The not-so-glamorous part of homeownership

Decorating is fun. Love it. Dealing with mundane stuff? Not so much.
Sigh. This is the week of the mundane. I ordered our final three replacement windows. (Energy Star is the only part of that that's sexy...), I am going to the store later today to order replacement doors for our kitchen, one to replace a hollow-core door between the kitchen and garage that turns our kitchen into an ice box every winter, and two to replace a pocket door that the last owner's dog ate through on one side. Splinters for baby? No thanks.

I am also having the marmoleum floor guys come out. We got a leak in the bathroom where we had the floor installed, and the water got under the tiles and ruined them, so I'm going to have them redo it. I could probably do it myself, but wouldn't get to it for 6 months, so in the interest of getting the Elvis bathroom up and running, I am just going to pay to have it done.

Then maybe I can get to the serious business of decorating.

Purple 1950s Ranch House

BEFORE


I painted the house this weekend. I know am fulfilling a life-long dream to live in a purple house. At first, the neighbors hated the painted chips, but now that it's on the whole house, they actually like it. Down with beige!

AFTER

Finally. The perfect tile for the bathroom

My "master" bath is a mess. It's 1950s, but not in a good way. All of the original tile loves to host toxic slimy mold and it's impossible to keep clean. And the vinyl tile floor. I won't even go there. Since we moved in two years ago, I have taken about a dozen samples of tile for the floor and the shower in there. I was not in love with any of them. It seemed like the plan didn't fall in place. They were nice, but...

Then, Saturday on a trip through Lowe's, I found IT. THE tile. Only by a fluke. It was a special order someone didn't pick up, or something, so they had a sample out in the bin. It's 1-inch square glass tile that is an iridescent aqua blue. It's BEAUTIFUL. I thought it might be too good to be true, like it wouldn't work in a bathroom. But I read up on it, and apparently, it's a pool tile, so of course it will work in a bathroom.

The moment I saw it the vision for the entire bathroom came together. It is THE tile.

Only problem is it's $9.25 a square foot. Our bathroom is small, so we could probably get away with doing the floor, shower, and one wall with this tile and still spend less than $1,000. still, now that I have found it, I am going to measure the bathroom, figure out how much I need and then wait. Yes, wait until it's on sale!
At least now I have a plan.

OMG: That house is... PURPLE!

Yes, I am painting my house purple. I am so sick and tired of every house in the Midwest being brown, yellow,white, or some variation of beige. I think that's why people perceive the Midwest as boring. Nothing fun to look at. So, in honor of my former hometown of 10 years New Orleans (please don't get destroyed by Gustav. Please.) I am painting my house purple. Here are the paint chips. The paint is from Lowe's. It's Olympic brand and the chip numbers are C 44-2 Frosted Lilac (for the stucco) and C44-4 Purple Surf for the garage door and wood accents on the front. You have to see the chips in person because they look kind of weird on a computer. My neighbor Peggy is skeptical, but I am sure it's going to look fabulous when it's finished. Even the "buttoned-up" neighbors will like it.

The garden plan

I have ambitious plans to beautify the outside of our house. Part of this is to eliminate grass,because I hate mowing, and since all of the full sun on our property is in the front, build beds large enough that I can secretly grow vegetables behind the flowers without raising the ire of the neighbors.

And then there's covering up those glamorous sink holes that showed up last year!
Here is the plan. The dark areas are the new beds. Now that the roof is finished, my goal is to dig the beds during the month of September. If all goes well, I will be able to buy stone and lay the stone retaining walls around the beds as well.

If that's done,then I will paint the house in October. I was going to post the paint chips for you today, but alas you will have to wait. I can't find them! I'll give you a hint: We're bringing a bit of New Orleans to Ohio by painting our house a purple I think our neighbors can handle