Welcome to the Lake!

Hello friends!

I've had people ask me for awhile now to do a house tour so I finally am taking the time to take some recent pics to show you around.  Most of the pictures are very recent either from this summer or from today, September 26th, 2014.

Come and check out the lake house with me!

This is the outside of the house this summer with a fresh coat of paint on the shutters, front door and house trim.  The picture below that is the maple tree in the front yard.

The pictures below are pictures of around the house and yard.  The first picture is the black walnut tree that sits just outside of our bedroom window.  The squirrels from this tree are very entertaining for our dog, Max, all throughout the year!  We have the lights on a timer so they go on at dusk and stay on throughout the night.

There are a few pictures of our back deck area and the side of the house as well.

Below is what I lovingly refer to as "the stairway to heaven".  They are the steps down to the lake and dock area.  We built these steps back in 2011 and have 2 landing areas with benches so we can rest on the way up.... boy is it a hike! 

Above are pictures of the 2 legged feathered friends that come to visit us down at the dock!  Love feeding these guys! 

Below is a corner in our dining room.  It's just a little nook with a small fireplace next to the patio doors that lead out back.  It's fall so I have it decorated for the holidays.

These are pictures from our dining room area. 

The pictures below are of our great room area.  There is another fireplace in there along with our grand piano.

This is a picture I made on canvas that is hanging in our great room.  I love this picture and every time I see it, it reminds me of God's love for me.   <3

More pictures of the great room area all decorated for fall.....

And now.... one of my favorite rooms in our home ...  our kitchen.  When we moved in back in 2010, we took down the wall between the living room and the kitchen to make an island.  We also relocated a washer and dryer to down stairs which opened up room for the fridge/pantry area.

These curtains are one of my very first sewing projects ever!  I remember it took me like 2 days to make them!  The bottom brown fabric is actually a table cloth.  The only thing I did not do when making them was I did not line them.  It's something I will probably go back and do so you can't see through the brown fabric but other than that, I love how they turned out! 

I found this awesome vase thingy at Kirklands in Toledo.  I fell in love with it!

I bought this picture from Kirkland's in Toledo, too.  It is HUGE!  It hangs above our bed in the master bedroom.  When I look at it I feel like I can feel the breeze blowing through the white curtains and I can hear the sounds of the waves from the ocean.  One of my favorite pictures of all time!

The above picture is Max on squirrel patrol.  This is one of his favorite perches in the house. 

The below picture does say poop.  You are not reading it wrong.  It hangs just above the toilet in our main bath.  :)

The  other pictures are of our main guest bathroom.  I remodeled this bathroom in 2013 when my husband went on a work trip for 6 weeks.  It took me most of the 6 weeks to gut the bathroom, research everything on google because I had NO CLUE how to do any of it, and then put everything back in.  The bathroom was painted, tiled, and replumbed.  I added in  new vanity, new lighting, wainscotting, new tile floor, and a new toilet.  I was pooped, no pun intended, when I was done but it turned out pretty well.

Below are pictures of my shop.  The window seat is Max's favorite spot in the entire house! 

Below are a few oars hanging around the house.  If we ever had an intruder, they wouldn't stand a chance.  There are oars around every corner in this house!  :) 

And there you have it!  A tour of the lake house!  Hope you enjoyed yourself!

Welcome to the lake!

Words

I love words.

Not because I love to talk or because I love to spell.

I love words like you may love chocolate.  Or like you may love drawing or reading.

Words, to me, can mend my soul.  They are like a song is to a bird.  Like waves are to the sea. Like wood is to a tree.  Words have purpose.  They have a way of speaking to us.  A way of telling us the truth.  Of lifting a shadow or clearing a cloud that is over you.  Letters formed into words, can change your day.  

I surround myself with words; quotes or phrases that speak to me.  They are everywhere in our house.  Some are signs that may just be one word.  A single word that can remind me of a happy memory or point me in the right direction.  Some signs are many words and can be sentences long.  Some I purchased.  Some were given to me and some are signs that I made myself.  Some are made of wood.  Some are on canvas.  Some are from fortune cookies and some are hand written on index cards.  Although they are different words and come to me in different forms, they all speak to me.

Do you have words or phrases that are dear to your heart?

Maybe if you are a new mom your words could be "I can do this".

Or, if you have a fear that has taken hold of you maybe the words, "Your faith is bigger than your fear" can help you.

Maybe you love God and the verse "Be still and know that I am God" can bring you comfort and peace.

Either way, words can serve a purpose and can be life savers.  So what words do you have in your home?  What words do you have on display to remind you that you are loved or that helps you keep a happy memory alive?

Below are some of my words.  Some phrases and signs that I have hanging around that, with just a glance, can bring a smile to my face and that can warm my heart! 

I hope you can find a word or phrase that can bring you some happiness.  You don't need to spend money on some elaborate piece of art either and you don't need to be crafty or creative.  Take a post-it.  Write down a word or phrase and put it in a place where you will see it everyday.

Words can give life.

What words are you living out today?!

Easy Curb Appeal to Brighten Any ...... Curb!!!

Have you been wanting to add curb appeal to your home but just haven't found the time or do you think that adding curb appeal is going to be too costly and it's just not in the budget?

Adding curb appeal doesn't have to be expensive, time consuming or even a ton of work! 

It can be done by doing something as simple as changing your address numbers, or buying a can of paint and adding a new color to your front door or shutters!  Maybe adding curb appeal, for you, means splitting some hostas and transplanting some existing plants or simply adding a few hanging baskets to bring life and color to your home!

Below are a few things we have done, over time, to add curb appeal to our home.  Hopefully you will find a few ideas that you can use!  

When we bought our house in 2010, it was brown on brown on top of brown.  We had a brown roof, brown front door, brown shutters, brown brick, brown garage door, brown trim.... brown brown brown!

In the summer of 2010, we pulled out most of the old landscaping and added new plants, shrubs and trees to the house.  Below is a picture of the house in process (notice all the brown!) .....

We added: 

Japanese Maple Tree

3 yellow evergreen bushes

3 Japanese Barberry bushes

1 Orange Rocket Barberry

3 Ornamental Grasses (which we have now relocated)

Euonymus Golden Bush

3 White Edged Hostas

Seed um

  

 Tip:  When adding plants, the rule of thumb is that you should always plant in odd numbered groupings.  1,3, & 5.  Symmetry when doing landscaping is not usually your friend.

In 2011, we replaced our roof.  We went with a colored roof of teals, browns and golds (the colors don't show up great in this picture).  Below is the picture of the new landscaping and the new roof. 

Tip:  When picking plants, choose different colors that will standout from your house and from each other!  Reds, greens and yellows all work well together because they will all stand out from one another.  

In 2013, I re-painted our front door.  It was a light brown color so I painted it a sea-foam blue color and then distressed the door to allow the light brown underneath to come through.  This made a HUGE difference to the front of the house and to the curb appeal!  So simple and it didn't cost more than $20 to do.

In 2014, we changed the paint on our shutters to match the front door.  This also made a HUGE difference to the front of our house!  It was so simple and I just used the same paint from the front door!  Makes me wish I would have done it sooner because of the positive difference it made to our home!

Tip:  Notice our address plaque in the picture above.  Instead of house numbers, we ordered this plaque to dress up our front porch.  It was under $100 and shipped free.

Tip:  Planters and pots can be added to your landscaping for additional texture, color and depth!  Pick a colored pot and add plants and flowers to create a raised garden right in your landscaping! 

 Curb appeal doesn't have to stop with the front of your house!  Adding bricks and flowers around a tree can add appeal and dress up your yard!  

Adding a few window boxes beneath your windows can add beauty and life to your home from any angle!  These 2 boxes are on the side of our house and face east and get lots of morning sun and do well every year!  Something so simple that can add beauty and curb appeal all year long!

Other ideas for adding curb appeal are:
-Freshening up your address numbers on your house or add a porch plaque
-A new coat of paint on your mailbox
-Add a few hanging baskets or a window box
-A new welcome mat
-A flag pole with seasonal flags
-Add flowering annuals like impatiens, geraniums or petunias to add color and life to your landscaping
-Plant bulbs like daffodils, hyacinths, or tulips that will come up every spring
-Add perennial flowering plants like Brown Eyed Susans, Daisies or Cone Flowers that will come back year after year and add texture and color to your landscaping
-Paint your gutters and house trim a new color
-Simply power wash your house to freshen up your existing siding or paint

Hopefully these ideas will help you bring some life to your home and add curb appeal for you, your neighbors and your community!