Fine Dining

There have been numerous requests for more photos...so, here you go!

In honor of the upcoming holiday of feasting, I give you (drumroll!) my dining room.

This is one of my favorite transformations because it wasn't flashy. It didn't require hacking anything apart or doing a major overhaul. We really capitalized on what was already in the room, and by simply using paint colors wisely and paying attention to the furniture we already had, we really got a lot of bang for our buck here.

Here's what we started with:

The chandelier was not something I would have originally gravitated towards, but keeping it proved to be a smart decision. You'l notice that there's a lot of natural light the floods the living room and illuminates the dining room. The corner china cabinets represent a sense of whimsy but also evoke something about the 1950s-1960s that I can't quite put my finger on- needless to say, we loved them and kept them, too.

Halfway through...

In this picture, the floors were sanded but not yet refinished. We used a color on the walls called Reisling by Ralph Lauren. I loved it because it changes with the daylight. Sometimes it looks almost taupe, and other times it has a beautiful soft lemony tone. We used bright white on the ceilings and a softer white on the trim and cabinets. The color contrast and the fresh paint really made the cabinets pop!

All finished!

I like to give you the view of the room as you see it when you walk in the door, but of course since this is about the dining room more than the living room, I included a picture of just the dining room for good measure. Quite a contrast from the first photo, right?

The room, as large as it is, needed a bit of color and a bit of texture, and hopefully that's what it now has. Don't worry, I'll talk more about adding those aspects to the dining room and living room in the next few posts. :) Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!



The Landscaping isn't so lush...

This is the "landscaping" between our house and our neighbors' home. 

Didn't Robert Frost once say that a bunch of brush and some electrical wires make good neighbors?

To date, we’ve had 7 trees removed from our yard. The sad news is that there are more that need to go.

Tara sits on just over an acre and with no gorgeous trees, and it was a blow to remove seven from the start. In my dreams I see mature magnolias and delicate dogwoods lining the drive, but instead we’ve got a ragtag group of hackberries (what IS a hackberry, by the way?) among a myriad of sad, dilapidated, poor excuses for trees. Nevermind that the first four trees you see when you come up the driveway each have a huge red X on the trunk (thanks, local electrical company…when were you planning on talking those down or did you just spray the red Xs for fun?). Combine that with the grass that refuses to grow on the steep slopes in our yard, and you have landscaping that is nothing to call home about, to say the least.

I think Rhett has a hidden desire to be a farmer, because he’s coming home today with a HUGE lawnmower that he wrangled from some guy in the ‘burbs who owns a lawnmower shop. Back where I come from we hire people to mow our yards, but for Rhett, the idea of sitting atop (or in his case, standing behind) a huge contraption for a few hours every Saturday sounds like Heaven. Whatever. He’s done the math and he figures that in two years the investment of the lawn mower will be paid off compared to how much it would cost someone to mow our yard. I guess this is his answer to my going to step class on Saturday mornings- he just gets his “time” on the back of a gigantic lawnmower slowly chugging all over the steep hills of our yard.

You have to remember that in buying this house, we knew we were purchasing the neighborhood eyesore. However, by doing so we got a great deal. If capital gains didn’t exist, we could sell our house now, 6 months later, and make a nice profit. Not only is the inside now simply spectacular (read: finally livable!) but they say the three things that matter in real estate are location, location, and location, and baby, that’s one thing we do have. I am so spoiled by my simple commute to practically anywhere that moving one day will be painful because I can’t get a better commute anywhere else. Anyways, when the appearance of our front yard makes me want to disinvite friends and neighbors over (or have them come after dark?) being reminded of my location does nothing to ease my mind about the yard.

The first order of business for fixing the landscaping was to remove seven trees, and our trusty contractor, Frank, offered to supervise this for us. We’ll call him Jonas to keep with the Gone with the Wind theme. His two sidekicks, Freddie and Ceasar, we’ll refer to as Big Sam and Pork.

Or maybe I’ll just call them Freddie and Ceasar.

Regardless, these guys were tree-removal experts in their native Mexico and they worked tirelessly taking down huge, dead trees from our yard this summer.

One day, my oldest and I were playing in the den when we heard a knock on the back door. Jonas’ oldest son had come to ask if we had any ice. Much to my dismay, Rhett had yet to hook up the ice maker (yes, honey, that is a dig), so I told him the best I could do was a bag of frozen peas. But why did he need them? He replied that Jonas had simply turned his ankle in one of the small potholes in our yard. Whoops.

Turns out our contractor actually broke his ankle and foot, and his injury required 2 pins and a cast for two months! We worried there was some sort of worker’s comp he could file against us, but ol’ Jonas toughed it out and spent the rest of the summer directing Freddie and Ceasar from the inside of his white pickup.

The scene of the crime (and yes, those are minature trees of some sort that thwart my plans for pretty grass...)

With the trees gone, the landscape looks even more bare and lonely. For my part, I planted a good deal of pansies in the front and around the back deck, but it doesn’t help the overall appearance of the yard.

So here’s my question for you- do you think we should spend more money improving the landscape and repaving the driveway? Is the first appearance that important, or should we invest in the house again before we invest in the yard? (See posting below).

We got a quote from a local landscaping company we trust…but do we want to put that money elsewhere and deal with the yard another day/year?

Let me know at renovatingtara@gmail.com.

You've got mail. To send me.

Dolly Parton once said (don’t you LOVE blogs that begin like this?!), in her most fabulous role as Truvy in my favorite (read: the greatest) movie of all time, “Sammy’s so confused, he don’t know whether to scratch his watch or wind his butt.” (If you’re keeping track of how many times I will mention Steel Magnolias in this blog, this is only the second time.) Confusion and indecisiveness are tricky little buggers and folks, the hard truth is that Rhett and I are right there, feet firmly planted in the land of indecisiveness.

First, let’s address the big pink elephant in the room, shall we? Apologies all around to those who’ve been missing updates and stories of calamity at Tara (bah- it’s been exactly a month!) We’ve been busy bees, busy with everything but the house, mainly as a result of the aforementioned indecisiveness. But any excuse is a pitiful one, I understand, and to make it up to you I am back, writing away, ignoring the needs of my children and desires of my spouse (kidding!).

As the holidays approach, you’d probably not be shocked to find that home renovations typically slow down. After all, no one shouts in frustration “There’s nowhere to hang the garland, Delores!” and is met with a response of something like, “Well then let’s just level the whole front room!” Just because it ‘tis NOT the season for renovating doesn’t mean that people aren’t thinking about it. So while we’re not doing anything to the house at the moment, we sure are thinking about it. And the holidays bring up a lot of issues. Having guests over for parties makes you notice the cracked front steps. When relatives come stay, you wish you had a bigger guest bedroom. You get the picture.

Such is our predicament with Tara. The inside is completed (cue Hallelujah chorus) but what about the outside? Landscaping? Exterior paint and a bit of a facelift for the front? What about that back deck? Want to replace it and screen it in? How about a fireplace on the screened in porch…that would be nice.

Or wait…do you want to bust out a wall of our bedroom and add a master bath? Remember our house is only a 2 bath, so that would surely add to the resale value. And what about doing that playroom upstairs (er…we’d need to BUILD an upstairs first) for the girls? Or do we want to just insulate part of the flooring in the attic and make an office using the existing stairs that are in the garage?

Oh, and by the way the driveway is a mess. And we probably need a new AC unit.

See what I mean about confusion?

This is where you come in. I’ve cleverly commandeered renovatingtara@gmail.com so you can email me your suggestions. If you had a 4 bedroom, 2 bath ranch, what would YOU do?

In the meantime, I won’t leave you hanging. There’s a lot that we’ve done that you’ve yet to hear about! So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and help us with our house, reading a little about what we’ve already done along the way.