This Is Where We Used to Live: Part 6

This is the last house that I lived in with my parents and brother before moving out on my own. I'm no boomerang kid - I moved out at 19 and never looked back (although I do love my family... just not living with them!)

 

It was 1996, and the housing market was pretty calm in the Twin Cities. There was definitely not a housing boom yet, so homes were affordable, but loans a little harder to get and interest rates a little higher. But buying a home during that time period was a much more financially savvy move than renting, and so after renting the townhome for a year, my parents embarked on the journey to become homeowners. This story is kind of hard for me to tell. Perhaps it's why I have so many issues regarding homeownership.

 

I didn't help them search for a house, which is something that makes me kind of sad. I was 16 and dating my first boyfriend, so I was off spending time with him, or my friends, and couldn't be bothered to help my parents house hunt. They chose this little 1950s ranch with a huge walkout basement. I recently asked my mom why she picked this house, and she said because of the big finished basement and the laundry chute from the upper floor bathroom to the laundry room downstairs (that WAS really cool!). The house had two small bedrooms upstairs, one bathroom, and a very outdated kitchen, dining and living room. Downstairs was a bedroom, bathroom and laundry. There was a huge backyard. A lot about the house was really pretty - hardwood floors in my room and my parent's, vintage tile in the bathroom. Two fireplaces. A built hutch in in the dining roomThere was a lot that needed help - there was super old rust-colored shag carpet in the living room and hallway, old appliances, bad wallpaper. It could have eventually been a beautiful home. In fact, it is one now (it was on the market a few years ago, and the real estate listings showed that the next owners had completely revamped the kitchen and ripped out the bad carpet to expose the hardwoods underneath.

 

Unfortunately, my parents ran into some financial troubles about two years after buying the house, and weren't able to fix it up, or to keep the home. After my brother and I moved out, they moved into a downtown rental apartment. They're actually much happier now, and say that owning a home was not for them. But it still makes me sad sometimes that the one house they owned in all their lives they couldn't hang on to. They lived there just a little bit longer than all the houses we rented growing up.

 

I actually live really close to this house now, and drive by it fairly often. It seems like a family with young children lives there, and that makes me happy. My family was going through such a rough time during the years that they lived at this house that I find I can't think about it too much.

Stop Waiting

I was reading a simple living blog, and there was a post about someone wishing they could live in the country and garden, craft, etc. This other person responded in the comments, and I just loved what she said, so I am posting it here, mostly for a reminder for myself.

 

For 3 years I have put off 'simple living' because I am in the city and felt like "as soon as I get my dream cottage I will learn knitting, quilting, baking etc" Well a year ago I decided that I wasn't content because I was 'waiting' to move on. So I decided I am going to live like this is the house I will be in forever. I planted a small garden, filled all my flower pots with herbs or other vegetables. I made a small shelf to keep my fabric and craft supplies on and keep them readily available. I pulled out the cookbooks and taught myself how to bake bread, grind wheat and make healthy meals. I have taken the small amount of earth that I do have and I give it 100% of my attention. I gather my kids around me at night and read to them. I homeschool and make use of the flowergardens to capture bugs and learn about nature. I am living like I am exactly where I want to be forever and it has made all the difference. Make the home you have now your safe haven. Surround yourself with things you love. If you want to learn how to bake bread, buy some bread pans and display them. If you want to quilt, get a small basket and put some fat quarters in it, ready to go. I have found that the most simple things bring me the most satisfaction and my life is different now. I am content and happy and have MADE my house a peaceful place to be full of my own touches and love. Good luck to you! Don't wait for the things you love, surround yourself with them now. Put a planter on the window, get a knitting basket next to your favorite chair. Quilt a pillow to keep on your couch or chair. It worked for me!

 

I'm sure that some day we'll have a little house with a yard to call our own. In the meantime, I'm never going to be happy in the moment if I keep wishing away the home I do have. I needed this reminder to stop waiting, and start living.

Apartment Therapy

Over the weekend I read Apartment Therapy, and I am a total convert. I've been looking at the blog for a couple of years now, but never really knew what "The Cure" was. Now I am so glad I finally got around to reading the book. It's exactly what I've been needing in my life (which sounds a little dramatic, but it's true!) I am going to be starting my 8-week home cure next weekend, and am really excited. As I read through the book, I realized I've been doing a lot of this stuff lately with my blog-inspired home redecorating, mostly trying to address the problem areas in my house and revamp the space for better flow and functionality. A lot has changed and improved in my home, thanks to this blog. Having it inspired me to repaint the fireplace, makeover our bedroom, get a new couch and turn the dining room into a playroom. So I feel like I have a relatively good start on the Cure, and on decorating in general. I don't think I'll spend a lot of time on the finding your style aspects of the Cure, but I am really excited to organize, do a deep clean, purge out some unnecessary stuff, and set up a landing strip by the front door. And buy fresh flowers every week! I can't wait for that.

 

Mostly, I need Apartment Therapy for the therapy aspect of things. I have been way too negative about my house the past year or so. I need to make peace with my condo as it is, and not constantly think about the future, and whether we will be able to sell it ever and move to a house. If I could sell right now, I'm not even sure I would, so I need to table those thoughts for the time being. AT seems to say that if you do The Cure, your attitude about your living space will change, you'll feel lighter, happier, and even sleep better. I'll be embarking on this journey in hopes that it will cure my negative thoughts about condo living.

 

I'll post my progress as I go along, as well as my insights into the book.

Playroom - Mostly Done!

We've been slowly working on the playroom, and I'm ready to actually start calling it the playroom. According to my little inspiration board, I wanted to:

-Recover the blue chair

-Buy the gray Ikea rug

-Use the Expedit bookcase as toy and game storage, instead of a dining hutch

-Turn an old coffee table into a train table.

 

We've accomplished everything but the train table, which we're starting to think would be a nice Christmas present for S.

 

I really like what we've done with the room! I love, love, love the new blue chair (it's actually kind of grayish green now, but it will forever be the blue chair). We have a nice little LED candle on one of the shelves that I really like to turn on, settle into the chair and read. Sebastian now has lots of toy storage, and we had room to get him a little basketball hoop. Matt can have his keyboard out for practicing his choir music. It's way more functional.

 

Every once in awhile, I turn to put something on the dining room table and realize it's gone, but otherwise, this is really working for us.

This Is Where We Used to Live: Part 4

The next place we moved to was the great state of Minnesota. I've blogged about how wonderful this move was for me: I met some of my best friends and my husband here, I went to a great high school, enjoyed college and got a decent job right out of school. Minnesota is my home, and I would never move back to California. That said, the first place we lived wasn't our favorite. In the early-mid 90s in Minnesota, homes were dirt cheap and rentals expensive and hard to find. We were completely shocked that hardly anyone rented in Minnesota, and that a single family home to rent was near impossible to find. That's why we ended up in this rental townhome (these have since turned into owned townhomes).

 

It was my first real experience with communal living. We'd lived in an apartment when I was a baby, but all my memories up until this point were of houses. There was a lot to like about the townhouse - it was multi-level, so you came in on the ground floor and could either go downstairs to a walkout basement (completely novel to us Californians), or go up a level to the living room, dining room and kitchen. Another level up were me and my brother's rooms and a bathroom. Up another flight of stairs and you were in the master. It was kind of neat to have all those stairs, especially when we were used to living in one-level ranches. There were two big decks - one on the main level and a smaller one off my parent's bedroom. There were some neat woods behind the townhouses, but I don't remember spending much time outside at all. For one, we moved in the dead of winter (a huge shock) and two, my brother and I were at the ages when hanging out with friends and exploring the wonders of dial-up internet took precedence over playing outside.

 

My parents liked how new the townhouse was, but didn't like having neighbors so close. The kids next door would leave their toys right in the entry way of our house, and you could hear lots of noise coming from next door. My brother and I would knock on the wall when they got too loud, which in hindsight was kind of rude. We had a communal pool, which was nice, but overall, these townhouses were seen as "trashy" by kids at school, who claimed that this perfectly fine suburban neighborhood was "the ghetto." I think there was a real stigma to renting in Minnesota, especially during that period of time in the housing market.

 

I had a nice bedroom with a bright sunny window. There's a really serene picture I have somewhere of my room with the light streaming in onto a pale yellow quilt and my sleeping kitty (and now dearly departed) Rex. I had my first real boyfriend at this house, and received my first kiss on the doorstep. My best friend to this day lived just down the block in an apartment complex, and we'd go swimming at her pool and spend summer days making our Empire Records website.

 

I find it interesting that you can now buy a townhouse in this development. I'm sure that happened during the housing boom. My mom scoffed when she heard this, and said, "who would want to own one of those?" It was a decent place to live for a year or two, but it always felt temporary.

Random Thoughts

It was a wonderful long weekend. Made even longer by a power outage at work that caused everyone to have to go home. I have to say, it was one of the greatest days ever. Somehow, summer had gotten the memo that school was now in session, and the weather swiftly changed to autumn in a day. It was blustery, cold and rainy. I love days like that, and hated having to get out of bed. But I did, only to discover that half our office was without power. I had a computer, so I logged in and started working. Then went and got some coffee down the street because the coffeemaker was without power (the horror!). Got back, was working some more and then there was a loud boom, and everything went pitch black. Maintenance came by and said a transformer had blown, and we'd be without power all day. Four day weekend! I sped home, and Sebastian was napping. I relieved the sitter (my wonderful dad), and had lunch and blogged. I spent the rest of my day catching up on laundry and playing with my son indoors while it rained softly outside.

 

It was the perfect mix of fun and domesticity this weekend. We saw many friends and relatives from out of town, hit up the state fair, played in the pool in Wisconsin, ate out a lot, but also cleaned the refrigerator (and my, what a difference it makes!), recovered our chair (see my last post), went for walks and cozied up on the couch watching Mad Men.

 

Yes, I think every weekend should be four days long.

Reupholstering the Blue Chair

Well, we did it! We tackled the blue chair this weekend, and I have to say I love the results. I can't take too much credit, because I was mostly just a helper in this project. I have a tendency to be a "finisher," which means I get things done... but not always in the right way. Matt's the opposite. He won't start a project unless he can do it right. We frustrate each other, but I think we're a pretty good team. Especially on this one, since we got the project done, and did it right.

Vinyl blue chair: Before

We took the dust guard off the bottom of the chair, and unbolted the arms. This gave us room to wrap the fabric pieces around each individual part of the chair (arms, seat and back) and then staple at the bottom. It worked much better than my original plan, which was to slipcover. It ended up looking much more tailored.

The chair was super gross in between the cushions. Whomever had the chair before me must have had a Kraft cheese and crackers obsession, as I found a bunch of those little red sticks. Shudder.

We added a small piece of foam over the cushion that we had leftover from another project. It covered up the rip in the vinyl, and made it cushier to sit on.

Basically, we wrapped the arms entirely, and stapled along the bottom. Then we wrapped the seat in fabric, and stapled on three sides (tucking it in as far as we could on the fourth side, the center of the chair). On the back we tucked in the middle, then wrapped the fabric around and stapled underneath. I may go back and sew a stitch or two to secure the back piece of fabric to the arms.

The project took about three hours, and an extra trip to JoAnn's for more fabric. We used about 4 yards, and have quite a few scraps leftover to make a couple throw pillows for the couch. We spent about $60, so 10 times the cost of the chair itself (a garage sale find), but not a bad price for a custom arm chair.

I now have my cozy little reading chair. Except the cats won't leave it alone. :) I am so happy that we transformed one of my favorite pieces of furniture, and hopefully have given it a whole new lease on life. I had this chair in my living room since I moved out on my own 11 years ago. I love the clean lines and the retro styling, but it had seen better days. Now it is softer and cozier, and perfect for our playroom.