I’ve delighted in designing my own interiors for a long time — since I was a child, actually, when my sister and I would rearrange our furniture over and over.
Here are some of the rooms for which I’ve done some designing. Pictures and stories will adorn this page eventually.
Howard Drive (September 2017-ongoing)
Covid Projects and other 2020 updates
Wire shelving as we installed it in 2018. The problem is that the can storage was awkward….
…so Jack built these great little can drawers. It’s easy now to see what we have and to stay organized!
Right across from the can storage is this cookbook storage.
and on the other side is our broom and duster storage. I’m telling you this, in case you want to clean my house.
Grooming Table in my bathroom. She climbs up on our laundry bin and then up onto the table. This is the day before we took her for a professional grooming, btw.
And the table folds up beautifully flat against the wall!
Coming: Pictures and writeup for drawers under my cabinet, shelf under my sink, GR furniture rearranged, new sectional, improvements for sectional, beam with lighting above sectional, TV cabinet with swivel and storage, fan relocation, dining light relocation, Murphy bed with storage and desk, bedroom reading area added
The big remodel: 2017-18
Kitchen
Before: These pendants and the sky tube were the only lighting. Cabinets were 80’s. But the previous owners did “remodel.” They put in new flooring and countertops.
A dining nook and kitchen desk may have been great things in the ’80’s, but not now. We extended the kitchen wall on the left, bringing it almost to that horrid light fixture. This created our walk-around to the garage and laundry/drop zone areas.
I suppose there are uglier kitchens.
I think that the original designer built these houses for winter visitors. Don’t know. How about that blue valance? <shudder>
During: This is after they had put up the new wall. Our dropzone and laundry areas are behind this wall. The top of the wall’s drywall has been cut out because the county inspectors needed to see what was behind there.
Kitchen mostly finished. Notice the stripes of accent tile above the stovetop.
We opted to break up the sea of white behind the stovetop. Here, Jack has taken out some tiles in preparation for the new ones.
This shows some of my favorite things. The tray storage above the ovens, which is placed ABOVE a shelf for our recipe card boxes!
Cutouts for the appliance garages and our light fixture in place. The doorway beneath the air return is our pantry.
Cabinets have arrived! Yes, that is a 12-foot island. But that’s because we don’t have the countertop. With our overhangs, that will make it a 14-foot island.
Shimming the cabinets
Painting done and new door has arrived.
Flooring in. This is vinyl plank. That refrigerator, the only survivor of the original appliances, didn’t survive the dust. We ended up replacing it, too.
Updates: (2020) Jack built a crate under the counter for Jodie, by simply making new vented doors. This is when she was pretty small, but, even now, it fits her perfectly.
Great Room and Entry
We took out the wall that you see here with the arched doorway. This opened up the great room into what they were using as a study. And another horrid light fixture.
Looking from their study toward our great room. The wall will be gone.
All of the walls you see here, except the ones to the outside, were removed. In this picture, we are looking from the entryway. The kitchen is through the arch to the right, the study is through the arch to the left, and the great room is through the arch in the center.
It was pretty tile, but, with all of the walls coming down, we had to get rid of the tile. “Rent this machine,” they said. “Just walk behind it,” they said. “It will be easy. The tiles pop right up,” they said. It was hard and exhausting and took us many days to get all of it up, thinset up, and the stuff shoveled up. We did this ourselves and saved $5000.
Bags of Sakrete, a ladder in the middle of the floor, and extension cords running all around. Oh, and the walls are down!
This was our room after we moved in. Looking from the oven wall.
Looking from the front door. We kept that table there just a short time. It’s now a project table in the office.
Looking from just inside the entryway
Entryway
Ladder, pipes for island, trench filled, light fixture not up yet.
The old front door
New front door!
Fall 2020 changing up the Great Room
Bedroom
Windows on middle wall have been taken out and patched. New window is going in at the left. More Sakrete.
Lilac walls are painted, window is in, and we’re ready for flooring and outlets! Jack put in most of the outlets.
This is my 2nd redecoration of this room. l had it like this for 2 years.
Office
The previous owners used this beautiful room, with a golf course view, for the master bedroom. We have redesigned it for our office/music room and spare bedroom.
Carpet up, blinds down, and new paint.
Again, I’ve arranged and rearranged this room in the 3 years we have been here. The piano is now under the pics of us.
My grandma with her family when she was a girl, Jack and me, and a painting from my Aunt Dots.
Bathrooms
My toidy. We redid the door swing, light, paint color, tp placement, floor, and toilet.
Not sure when I’ve ever seen an uglier bathroom
How about that tile countertop?
my closet before
I love my snail shower! The controls are to the left, so I don’t have to get wet turning it on. There are no curbs.
my closet after my installation of my Elfa shelving from Container Store. Still no baseboards.
putting in tile
Jack’s bathroom. We did the same finishes for both.
Jack’s bathroom finished
Jack’s closet before. I took all of this out and put in Elfa storage systems.
Jack’s toidy. We changed everything except where the toilet is. Why they would put a towel bar above the toilet remains a mystery to me.
Jack’s bathroom before. Oh so 80’s!
Jack’s bathroom
Laundry Room / Pantry
Laundry room before. The doorway to the far right went to the garage. We changed that. We put a wall about where the doorway starts, separating the laundry to the other side, by the new garage door location and the dropzone.
new laundry wall
laundry plumbed
dropzone getting new cabinets. This is on the back side of the kitchen. The new cabinets are going in BELOW our appliance garages.
New pantry. I opted for these wire shelving units. We put a bookcase on the wall you can’t see to the right. On the left, on the wall as you enter the pantry, we have a broom hanger. In 2020, Jack built drawers for small stuff. I’ll have pictures in the Covid project section at the top of this page.
Laundry.
I love how, even in this small laundry space, I have room for all my supplies (and batteries and tape, and glue) and also a nice folding area and hanging space.
Laundry. The cupboard on the left contains cleaning supplies, just in case you want to come and clean my house.
New cabinets for our dropzone.
Garage / Golf Cart Garage
Cabinets, appliances, and tools– oh my! No room for a car here!
Cart Garage with the bedroom on the right side of the frame. Notice we have our new outdoor light up. Old lighting is on the pavers. The blob on the wall is me trying out paint. We did not get this one. Lowe’s truck is out front.
They have patched up the bedroom windows to the right, which looked out to this creepy walkway. We extended the cart garage to enclose this area.
We donated these windows. We also donated our old appliances and cabinets. We reused some of the new carpet which we took out, making it into our dining room rug. Plus we filled 2 dumpsters to the rim.
#338 (Summer 2016) This is a cottage at Far Horizons. We designed this to be a rental, but ended up selling it. I like the pops of red to contrast with the neutrals.
Track lighting along with the light over the sink provides great kitchen lighting. The pendants over the peninsula are part of the track lighting.
A cozy dining area seats 4 and the counter is a fine breakfast spot. Over the dining area, an incorrectly positioned electric box inspired the cleverly contemporary pendant “swag.”
A reclining love seat and a comfy chair add adequate seating.
Solid-surface countertops with an integrated sink play nicely with the contemporary faucet and stainless appliances.
Coffee station adds a layer of “handy.” The dazzle strip gives an added pop without much added expense.
The flooring is vinyl plank.
We carried the backsplash tile from the kitchen into the bath. In a small space like this (400 sq feet!), you don’t want too much going on.
This is a peel-off decal over the bed.
Fellowship Square (2016)
This was a decorating job for an apartment in an assisted living facility. I love the color scheme and how these colors energize the small space.
