Honey-do's

We devoted the remainder of the summer to an infinite, growing list of honey-dos. It was full of the typical stuff everyone puts off, from pruning hedges to washing windows. But, we also decided to tackle some of our decorating woes.

When we moved to this house, we scrambled to fill all the new spaces. Decorators crammed the rooms with furnishings and the house was complete...but it was not us. We could never explain to anyone what it was we wanted. In recent months, we have achieved a tighter grasp of what we like, and because we love our location, we decided to do what we can to make the inside of the structure, more like home for us. We started purging the excessive nick-knacks and buying new furniture last year. Then, this spring, we began some of the more significant changes. There is so far to go, but we managed to get the honey-dos mostly done and to tackle a few of the improvements we have been craving.

I feel terrible some days, because I really have no place to sell the things I am getting rid of, so many of them get donated...when they actually have value. But, someone will appreciate them and I love the outcome in the house.

The upstairs hall and main staircase was stripped of carpet and replaced with hardwood.
The master closets were demolished and upgraded.
We finally settled on a commissioned art piece for the stairs, courtesy of my friend Jane (Garrison) Davidian.

We painted some furniture that was too colorful for us.
We started removing patio furniture and replacing it with Teak and staining that darker.
We gutted the garage and brought in some better storage pieces.
I finally covered over the floor to ceiling mural in the kids' playroom....

but stay tuned...we have more up our sleeves. We are just trying to figure out which projects come first, since most of them turn the house upside down for a bit. Can't wait to see where we end up.