May 25, 2011

The House Decline

The previous owners of our current house were nothing like us.  A husband and wife in their sixties who's children (2) had left the nest.  They maintained a business from the house.  The office is now a playroom. In fact when I google my address, it comes up as the storage facility business they owned.  They were gardeners.  They were crafty.  They were ex-hippies.  She had an entire wall of the master bedroom dedicated to clothing stored in a wardrobe they had purchased from IKEA.  She had a lot of clothes!!!  But before you judge her to harshly she also knew how to make a bamboo coffee table with wrought iron legs she crafted herself, and boy could she do a nice rag technique on the walls.  Everyone asks me about it.  I always give her credit.

When we all happened to be in the same kitchen of the home during the stage where they were almost moved out and we were still at the Holiday Inn, she voiced real concern about the birds.  They had taken down the bird feeder and the birds were confused.  "Please have a heart and get a new feeder up as soon as possible.  The poor birds are starving!  They keep coming here and wondering where the food is"  She said with real worry in her voice.  Then she had her husband show me where they hang it just outside the windows.  We did as we were told, and we have enjoyed the bird show outside our window.  However I am quite certain that I do not keep the supply of bird seed coming as steadily as Sammie did.  In fact I totally stop feeding them for weeks until I can remember to get some seed at the grocery store.  No I don't go to the fancy 'Naturalist' store for my seed.  It's super expensive there. Once I did buy into the line about it being less full of the junk the birds let drop to the ground making it lasting longer.  I bought my one bag and decided the birds were pigging out just as fast.  I won't go back.  I bet Sammie would have though.

Sammie would probably be upset with the amount of weeds in her yard.  Especially on the South fence.  The bamboo is out of control.  That is one tricky weed to  keep up with!  I am raising children here not flower beds.  Although I am always impressed with a nicely tended yard.  Maybe I can train the kids to weed the yard.  At least I have kept up the tomato and herb gardens.

We did some improvements to the house with new appliances and automatic garage doors.  Just recently a new driveway was added.  A costly new driveway that ate up our music-lesson stash.  But it had to be done.  Sammie and Jeff's culvert was rotting away.  Anything that goes wrong we can put ownership on them right?

Even though we live very different lifestyles I totally appreciated what Jeff told us on closing day, he said  "We'll leave all the good vibes behind!"


Here is the vibe that was here before we moved in...
And this is the vibe we have going on now...  Keep your criticisms to yourself please.


Purple rag paint job... for M-Cat to see.  Does it seem dark?  We have gotten used to it.


Another rag job



6 comments:

Cheeseboy said...

Ha ha! Looks "lived in" to me. I like your way better. And those stupid birds will survive. Trust me.

Kelly said...

Funnily enough it was on this very porch that we decided to put an offer on the house. It was just such a nice spot. Almost out of a magazine. Too bad it looks so "lived in" now.

mCat said...

I would love the see the rag work on the walls.

I love the porch

Kelly said...

Your wish is my command M-Cat : )

Eileen said...

That IS impressive rag work! Lyle's poor mom decided to do a rag treatment on her walls. She is NOT crafty and her now polka-dotted walls prove that. It's seriously so bad. We laugh at it every time we're there (not in front of her, of course).

mCat said...

Okay, I am loving the rag paint job. I want that in my kitchen but I think I am going to hire someone. Me no likey painting!