Time, Tenants, and Transformation

My "Woodland Cottage" April 2006

Wow, as I type the date "April 2006" it's hard to believe that it was almost 6 years ago that I bought my first home on my own as a newly single woman. It was a scary but wonderful experience, and there were a lot of great God-stories in how it all came about. I was blessed by the Lord with a lovely little home to start my new life...

It was a nice, safe place at the end of a cul-de-sac, next door to my parent's home (long cool story). And although it was not a perfect house, it was perfect for me...

But, because the previous owners went to great effort to completely redo the house with new everything from flooring to paint to roof and then some, I had no need to do anything to move in...no painting, nothing. It was all done - easy-peasy, which was really what I needed at that time in my life...

(Entry 2006)

It was just a clean, blank slate...

(Master BR 2006)

...sunny and nice...

(Kitchen 2006)

...to which I added a handful of new purchases...

(Livingroom 2006)

...and threw in a few favorites from my "old" life...

(Dining Room 2006)

But as I stand here, in these same rooms today, 6 years later, I am amazed at the changes...in the home, and in me...

I realize that I had to go on a journey of discovery to find....me. I had a clean house that was someone else's neutral vision, filled mostly by old things from my old me. It was fine, nice, and functional, but it had no life or personality. And where it had a touch of whimsy or glimmer of fun or color, it was whispered as if in a prayer...

...waiting by faith to be given full voice....once I knew how to find it...

After I began to heal and then got remarried to my sweet John who helped me to begin to feel free to be me, I began to discover more of my "style". But because the house was still perfectly new and pristine, I did not paint any of the rooms with new colors, I just added touches here and there through thrifted accessories and a bit of hand painting like the mini transformation of the guest bath in 2007...

(Guest Bath 2006)

 (Guest Bath 2007)

I was just beginning to get to know the new me and try my decorating wings...

But when we moved John's paid-for mobile home after my layoff in 2009, we leased the house to a good friend who was a Godsend of a tenant - 60, single, fastidious, perfectionist. He took great care of our house and was planning to buy it, which at the time seemed like the best answer for our situation. But his life went in another direction and he moved out of state and that left us with few options - either sell or lease again. We tried to sell, but got nowhere - the market was soft, and we were running out of time, money, and answers. But then, just when it seemed like nothing was ever going to happen, we got a call from our Realtor that a couple was interested in leasing the house - what a relief... They were a young couple with no children and one small dog - sounded OK...

OK, fast forward to today, one year later from leasing to them, and they are finally out of the house - and boy were we wrong about them sounding OK! One dog became 2 plus a cat, apparently none of which were house trained...yuk!! These kids and their animals absolutely trashed the house (and the yard too), particularly the carpets in all the bedrooms and some of the laminate in the livingroom - it was so sad to see. They did manage to "clean" but it is a far cry from the pristine fresh home from 6 years ago, or even from the somewhat lived in but very clean home from just one year ago...

But, a rather wonderful thing is happening as a result of this unpleasant development - I am forced to redo the paint and flooring in each bedroom and the paint in all the other rooms, which means I am ready to actually add color to my previous neutral environment. If everything was still clean and pristine, I might not have taken the time and effort and expense to paint and put laminate instead of carpet in the bedrooms, which is what I was really wanting to do...

So, that is what we are doing now - re-cleaning, re-painting, ripping up what's left of the carpet, and re-flooring. It's what we will be doing for a couple of weeks or so at least. But it is good, therapeutic work. And I can honestly say I am glad to be forced to do this. I love picking out paint, I love it that I will have fresh pretty color on every wall. I love it that it will be a better reflection of the new more colorful me... (oh and thanks sweet hubby for encouraging me to express myself in the house however I want, florals and colors and girly cottage touches and all!!)

I'll share the before and after photos as we continue to progress - it's sure to be quite a transformation....

Where do I start...?

(click any image to enlarge)

Don't worry - everything is fine here, but there's just been several things going on that I haven't had time to write about. So let me catch you up a bit on what's happening in my neck of the woods...

The image above is just a little taste of the design work I have been doing since I got back from the CHA show in early February. I am so happy to announce that I have received my first new art licensing contract from a manufacturer I met at the show!! I wish I could show you the design(s) and tell you all about it, but I just can't right now (it's a 2013 thing). Suffice to say the deal has pretty great potential and the products may show up in quite a few large retailers around the country! We'll see...  

I'm so excited, and very grateful to God for all the opportunities He's provided! One of the best outcomes of all this work I've been doing, and one of the things I am most grateful for is how much I have been stretched. I have been making some changes to my style that will make for better for product printing and more style diversity (and hopefully more cuteness!). Growing is great...learning new techniques is great...and the growth in confidence that comes from that is...priceless.

(our "Woodland Cottage")

In other important developments, my hubby and I and Maddie our dog are moving...back! We are moving back to the house we had to leave 3 years ago when my corporate job was outsourced (I can't believe it's been 3 years already!). For those of you new to the blog, hubby owned a paid-for mobile home on a paid-for acre before we got married in 2007, and it was there waiting for us when the need arose. We rented out our house in The Woodlands (north of Houston) and remodeled the old mobile home and moved in. Our little mobile "country cottage" has served us well these past three years, but it is so very far from hubby's job in Houston, and the gasoline costs are high and growing higher. The Woodlands house is half the distance to his job, so that right there will be a significant savings. Combined with refinancing and new income prospects from my art licensing and this move is now in the realm of do-able - Thank You Lord! It's still a pretty big faith step, but we know the Lord will provide every resource we need...

(we will keep the mobile home as a weekend place, and it's possible that we may rent it out at some point, but that's not on the radar at the moment)

 So, the next step after our current tenants are out of the house on March 19th is to assess the condition of the house, put new flooring in the bedrooms (probably just carpet at this point), paint where necessary, and begin the process of moving/decorating! The advantage we have now is that we can move at out leisure since we will remain at the country house during the make ready. That way we can go room by room and get it the way we want it before moving all our stuff in. And, for perhaps the first time in my life, I am going to go all out with my decorating style which I call "Colorful Cottage". You can take a look at my Pinterest board called "My Colorful Cottage Style" to get an idea of what I mean...

When I look at the board, I see a few common themes - color as well as black and white basics, painted furniture, lots of gingham, lots of florals, vintage goodies, lots of quilts, mis-matched china, a dose of whimsy, a touch of kitsch, and a ton of casual comfort. I can't wait take my inspiration and make it reality...on a budget...should be a LOT of fun!!

As I wrap up a lot of the design work that has had me working 7 days a week for a month or more, I will welcome the change of pace that will come with moving and redecorating.  I am planning to blog much more during the whole process of making out little "Woodland Cottage" come to life - lots of befores and afters, lots of thrifting finds (most of which will be from my own massive stash from my antique store days), and lots of fun DIY decorating projects...I can't wait!!

Thanks to all of you my dear friends for your support and encouragement to me in the various seasons of my life that have played out here on the blog! I treasure you all and can never thank you enough for the prayers, well wishes, and kind words! I am seeing my dreams come true and it is amazing and humbling and wonderful!! I am so very blessed...