It's all in the details

Today's home is one that has special meaning to me.  It was built in 1902 for John and Hattie Lee who happen to be my husband's great grandparents.  Here's a snapshot of them...not sure of the date maybe the 30's or 40's...

I only had access to this photo of their home and it just happens to include John and Hattie's daughter Jessie who is my husband's grandmother.  (I love her coat hat and gloves by the way, wouldn't it be fun to wear those?)

The home has long been a Hyde Park Icon of sorts.  The Victorian on Center Street.  The family sold it after John and Hattie died and it has been through several changes of ownership since then.  In the summer of 2005 it had a fire in the upper bedroom (the window just to the left of Grandma Jessie's head) which caused a fair amount of damage and it took several years for the home to be restored.  

This is the exterior today.

I tried to get an angle view but that darn tree covers up the whole house if I don't shoot the photo just right, and unfortunately I am not a great photographer...

Here's another exterior from straight on.

Hope I look that good at 112!  This home is one of the inspirations for my blog.  Do you ever go out for a drive...at dusk...and drive passed the same street...very...slowly...hoping the lights are on...so you can catch...just...a...glimpse?  Come on, I know you do it!  People have admitted to me that they peek in my windows maybe only because they are so big with thin bamboo window coverings, but hey, they are looking.

Anyway, if you live in Hyde Park you have most likely have tried to sneak a peek inside the windows of this particular home.  Well it's not a full tour but here is your chance...

This is one of the front doors; notice in the picture of with the full house there are two.  I just wanted to show they are the original wood doors (though now they have protective glass doors in front of them) with great wood detailing.  

This is the inside of the front door.  Notice the unique doorknob complete with skeleton key holes.  I also wanted to use this picture because you can see the detail of  the hand painted wood grain.  It was common practice of the time to use pine in construction since it was less expensive but then painting it to look like quarter-sawn oak.  During this era many techniques were used to make things look higher grade than they actually were.  This whole stair railing was once hand painted; again they wanted it to look like Oak.

Can you imagine the time and effort to paint all of that?  It actually makes it more dear than the oak would have been because of the labor of love involved.  Here is a detail of the box newel post.

Notice it's all in the details here.  I love that about homes of this period, the details were important to people.  Unfortunately it looks like the top of the newel post was replaced at one time and the wood and faux paint job do not match the rest of it.  

I love to hear about the history of things so I am going to insert a story here about this house that illustrates the hard work and ingenuity of this home's original owner Great Grandma Hattie.  So indulge me if you will...

She looks like the no nonsense type doesn't she?  Well when Hattie had a houseful of kids around 1907 or so her husband John was called to serve an LDS mission so she was left to care for her home, farm and family by herself.  Her husband left the family finances in the care of his brother Frank.  Well, in 1909 the High Creek Light and Power Company came to Hyde Park and people could pay to have their homes wired for electricity.   Of course Hattie wanted to be among the ones getting power supplied to their homes so she asked her brother in law Frank for the money and he denied her request.  Don't even get me started on how I would react if my brother in law were in charge of my family finances...

Well, Hattie didn't give up.  She found that the men doing the work for the power company worked long hard hours and couldn't return home to eat so she offered to feed the workers during the day if they would wire her home.  Grandma Jessie told the story of being a very young girl being bounced on the knees of the power workers as they were at her home for mealtimes.  They even gave her a couple of nick-names, "CrossPatch, and Brighteyes".   I love the independence and determination of Hattie Lee to get what she wanted to make her home more of a joy by having the convenience of electricity.  You can bet that Hattie knew the meaning of hard work!

Here are a couple more door details.  I know doors aren't as exciting to some but the interior details and construction of this time are what allowed these homes to endure.  I feel like today molding and doors are hardly a passing thought.  But I think every detail counts.

This is one of two sliding pocket doors that divide the dining room and front parlor.

This is the back door with beautiful woodwork.  A door like this made new today would likely have to be custom made and would have a several thousand dollar pricetag.

Okay, I know you want to see more than the woodwork details so I will offer you just one peek at the kitchen of this home.  Hey, I have to let you keep some curiosity so you still have some reason to drive by at dusk, right?

This is the kitchen today.  While it is not true to the original, luckily for the current owners it has all of the conveniences of today, and it is beautiful too!

That's it for this week, check back next week for another look at one of Cache Valley's notable homes!

Keeping it together

First of all, let me apologize for being MIA for almost a week!  Life has been hectic. But hopefully today's post will be worth the wait!  It's our first peek into one of Cache Valley's notable homes.  My friend Tammy was kind enough to allow us into her home to see some of the things that she has done to make her house a Home.

As you can see, this home invites you to "come on in" right from the driveway.  Don't those chairs just beg you  to come on over and sit down with a cool glass of lemonade and enjoy the shade?  Well, don't dawdle for too long...it's time for the peek inside the front door.  Are you ready??

Here we go...

Step inside and Tammy has created a welcoming entryway that is very true to her personal style.  I love how it is layered.  The woodwork was done by Tammy and her husband and creates a nice detailed backdrop.  Add the bench and maybe a picture and most people would call it good.  But it's the layers of color and texture and shapes that make it interesting.  It is her style, and as we go through the house you will see a unifying theme.  It is comforting, not too precious, yet elegant.

A few steps deeper into the house and you come to this pass through window that allows the family to communicate with those in the family room while maintaining a separate eat in kitchen.  Again, I love the layers.  The bench, then the window frame, then the kitchen peaking through.  It's interesting and simultaneously  comforting.  The mix of wood on the cabinetry repeats that inviting, layered, non stuffy theme.

This is a peek at a built in ledge in the Master Bedroom.  Again, I love the custom woodwork, the vertical boards especially.  It's not too much, something they did themselves, but it adds personality to the home.  You know it's hard to have personality in a new home without spending a lot of money.  You have to think about adding details like these, otherwise you end up with lots of drywall and very little architectural detail. 

One last room...the mudroom.

I love how you feel the theme throughout the house...she didn't even skip the mudroom!  When you are adding personal touches to your home don't forget the spaces that are functional or practical.  Even the hardworking rooms deserve to have a little something special!

A big "Thank You!" to my dear friend Tammy for letting us take a look inside her home.  It is not "for sale" by the way so don't even think about it.  However, if you resonate with her style she is available for hire if you want her to help you add your own unique touches to your home.

So what do you think?  What is your personal style?  How do you maintain the flow with your style throughout your home?

Enough!

Hmmm, the out of control pantry.  If you are like me, it's easy to have "my stuff together" everywhere else in my home but the pantry and closets are another story.  I dream of having my pantry perfectly organized, products arranged by size, and use, all labeled, NO sticky fingerprints....something like this...

But let's face it.  I have three boys who touch the pantry doors more often than they touch anything else in the whole house with the exception of the x-box.  No matter how I gripe, or how many times a day I wipe them off, sticky fingerprints are here to stay for a while.  (Someone once told me I will miss them when they are gone but just between you and me, I'm not buying that one.)

So what's it to be...me cleaning and yelling all the time because the yelling is going to happen if even one container is left open...or I find one yucky splotch on the perfectly organized shelf.  You know with organization it's easy to go all or nothing.  When you finally achieve that perfectly organized pantry only to have it rearranged within the hour, with honey drips streaming from shelf to shelf, it makes me want to give up.  I'm not kidding by the way, my family can make a mess in a hurry!  It's tempting to just say you guys win, let's just keep the pantry doors open and with packages and boxes strewn everywhere (lots of them empty because no one can throw them away because they "didn't use them last") tops of the boxes open and gooey messes galore...but that doesn't work either...can you say, cue the ants...!

I have decided that pantries are an opportunity for compromise.  That means I give up the perfectly labeled, uniform look, but I get to keep some special containers and a general shelf location for certain items.  Sound acceptable?  I think acceptable is something I can live with, how about you?  There's a song I like by Switchfoot I think called "Let that be Enough" and I think that phrase applies here.  I want my kids to have access to the pantry so I'm not short order cook and snack maker all day long, so I need to relax... a little. But I think i can also expect that SOME things should have a place (hint shelves over 4 feet)at the same time. 

So here is my pantry today.  I know, I'm really opening up here.  It's not perfect.  It has fingerprints all over the inside of the doors and the lower half of the outside (which I cleaned just yesterday by the way).  It still has some open box lids BUT I can stand to look in it and not have my blood pressure rise at the mess or craziness.  So here's my thought for the day...let that be enough!  It's okay that this picture won't make it onto anyone's Pinterest board!  It's okay that my containers don't have labels...I still know what's in them!  It's okay that the honey jar on the middle shelf seems to have a leak though I know it really doesn't!  It's enough.  I hope you will find your pantry compromise where it is enough for you too! Good luck!

What's on YOUR foundation?

Have you given much thought to the foundation of your home?  Let's take a minute and talk about why maybe you should....

Not everyone has a concrete foundation on their home and some homes have very little concrete exposed.  If you have one of those homes or perhaps one with a rock foundation, this post may not apply to you.

For those with concrete: read on.  When a concrete foundation is poured using forms, the cement is left with what I would call scabs or scars from the forms.  It doesn't have a nice smooth appearance.  I never once thought that there was more that needed to be done with those scars until we finished construction on our current home.  Our foundation had over 2 1/2 feet of exposed concrete with very unsightly scabs. What to do?

We learned that a thin layer of a plaster or cement mix can be applied to smooth out the appearance of the foundation. While the project of applying this doesn't look too technical, we decided to hire a professional to do ours.  We are glad we did, it was fairly inexpensive (under $500) and the pro had it done in a day.  Voila!  Good looking foundation achieved, and scars gone! This is our garage foundation today, and we had it covered a couple of years ago.

The older section of our home took the process one step further with a layer of paint on top.  That paint is many years old and starting to peel so of course I didn't take a picture of that mess.  Instead I took a picture of my friend's home with a classy new dark foundation that adds contrast to her white siding so you can visualize another option.  This is another great opportunity to customize your home with little $$.

So, maybe it's time to think about what's on your foundation.  Does it have some unsightly scabs or scars that need to be covered?  You would be surprised how many exposed concrete foundations are around.  It's not bad...it could just look a lot better.  So if you have been in your home over a year and you still have a naked foundation don't you think it's about time to cover up?

The paint color test....is it really necessary?

The paint color on my living room wall is Benjamin Moore Dried Parsley.  That's it on the right of the book case.  It looks green in real life, in fact the day I painted it, I was somewhat worried that is was too green.  In person in looks like dried parsley looks, green...not beige.

This is the paint in liquid form outside in natural light. Surprisingly (to me at least) it still looks beige!  The lesson here is to always check your paint choice in the room where you will be painting in all of the different forms of light: natural sunlight, night time (lamplight), morning and evening light.  Otherwise you could end up with a paint color very different from what you expected.  

I have loved this color because even though it looks beige here, it is a cheerful green during the long winter months of grey outside.  So that's another consideration for choosing your paint color, what are the seasons where you live and how do you live during those seasons?  Here in beautiful Cache Valley we have long cold winters, so it's nice to have a room or two in a cheerful hue.  Hey that rhymed!

Have fun looking at paint chips, bring lots and lots of them home and invest in one of those mini paint pots or even in a quart and bring it home and try it out in the room to be painted.  You will be glad you did.  For more on paint stay tuned...  

About Me

I suppose I should start with a little bit about me.  I am a new Real Estate Agent with Century 21 N&N Realtors.  I have wanted to be involved in real estate for probably most of my life and have been waiting for the right time to begin my career. The following is the information I share on the Century 21 website:

 I absolutely love my home, but it is not just what’s between the outer walls that I love.  It’s the neighborhood, the local landscape and the relationships tied together with the house itself that really make my house my home.  I love to see new places but there is nothing like the feeling that I get when I walk back through the door of my home.  I want to help you find the same sense of belonging and joy in the place you want to call home.    

I also understand that life can change all too quickly, and maybe what met those needs for you before have changed and no longer bring you the same sense of satisfaction.  When it’s time to sell and move on to a new phase of life I want to be there for you then too.

I have wanted the opportunity to be involved in Real Estate for a very long time and I’m excited every day that I get to help others with it!

And Just in case you would like to know some of the typical Bio information from me, I am a (an): wife, mother (to 3 amazing boys), bachelor degree holder, yoga teacher, opera singer, breast cancer survivor, hobby cake decorator, avid reader, and CrossFitter.