Dreaming of a bungalow/cottage…the guest room.

I know that I have written of our wish to downsize before.  Every time Dave and I talk about this people try to talk us out of it…telling us we need our space with teens.  Well, the fact of the matter is Will goes off to college in a year and Harry will be gone 3 years after that.  Also, I don't really think we need as much space as we have.  I think we will be fine with less. I actually crave less stuff and less space. I am also craving a creative design project.

If the perfect cottage/bunglaow came up in our neighborhood we would grab it.  But they never come for sale or builders buy them and tear them down.  So, we are looking in surrounding neighborhoods with the intent to rent the house out for about 3-4 years and then remodel it to suit our needs.

Currently, I feel frustrated because I love remodeling/designing/building.  Before I ever blogged, Dave and I bought an old home in a fabulous neighborhood and we gutted and designed a new kitchen.  This was 14-15 years ago (I was pregnant with Harry:). It was stressful but I loved the creative process.

Then, we built our house in Virginia.  These were the pre-pinterest days and I had an artists sketchbook full of ideas and photos of what I wanted in that house. I had been collecting those images and ideas for years.  I took them to the architect and challenged him to design the house.  He did and it was a fabulous house.  I loved choosing all of the details for that house.

The market in Houston is tough.  Things go quickly so we have missed out on some opportunities.

So, I am going to get my creative urges out here through the blog and pinterest.  I've done it before but I intend to go room by room fantasizing about my dream home.  I want fewer room but not small rooms. We have giant hallways in our current home.  They are beautiful but they are completely wasted space.  Kate does have her balance beam set up in one hallway;)

Today I will start with what I will call the guest room.  In all likelihood our next house will be a 3 bedroom that we move into when both boys are in college so it will be their room when they come home for summer/Christmas breaks or a guest room when they are gone. Therefore, it makes sense to me to have two twin beds.

I like that this has both masculine and feminine touches.
But it might be a little too feminine for the boys.

Source

I like this simple masculine look above.  I think I'd use much more streamlined sconces though.

The cords and wires bother me.

Source

This Sarah Richardson design is also clean and simple and can be changed easily with accessories.
Plus it seems very gender neutral for the guest room/boys room.




I love this one above but I would use a different light fixture.  Something more modern and less feminine. I'd also have a dark gray  chest in the middle instead of white.  These are full beds which would be too big for most of the cottages we're looking at but I love the idea of two full beds in a guest room if they fit.




I think this is from Martin Bullard but could not verify the original source.

This one is my favorite which kind of surprises me.  I am not usually a fan of this bed style. I think I like the light and dark with touches of coral.  Plus the draped fabric over the beds visually separates them a bit.  I like the clean simplicity of all of these. I think this is the look I am leaning toward.

What Dave and I really need is either The Property Borthers or Chip and Joanna Gaines to come help us makeover one of these original bungalows.  We saw one today that we know had potential but everything needed to be re-done. Seriously, it had a pond/fountain in the dining room y'all!  It also needed more repairs than made financial sense. It seemed too overwhelming even though I could visualize it down the road.

Seek first

I wanted to show you what Kate does during Mass sometimes....  Usually, she goes to her little Sunday school class but if they don't have class, she comes to Mass with us.  And she has always been very well behaved in Church.  I bring a composition book and a pencil and she draws and tries to sing all the songs.  Often, I think she is not really paying attention to the readings or the homily but this week I was reminded that she does in fact listen.  I glanced at her drawings this week and this is what I saw.....

I asked Kate who the little boy in her pictures was and I fully expected her to say "Habu" as he is one of her favorite subjects but instead she said, "Samuel."  I repeated, "Samuel?"  And she said, "yeah the boy they are talking about today in the book."

Here she drew him as if to be saying, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."

Sunday's readings and homily were about how God does call each and everyone of us.  EVERY single one of us is called by God to greatness.  That makes us all so special.  But do we hear the call?  Do we listen?  Do we ignore it?

I know that I sometimes hear whispers but fail to act out of plain fear.  In fact, there is something God has been nudging me to do for a very long time now but I keep stalling because I am afraid of failing.  My heart is racing right now just thinking about it.

One of the things our minister said this week was the way to hear God's call is to seek FIRST the kingdom of God.  That really struck me.  I thought about our life.  Do we seek God's kingdom first in our daily life?  Do I reach for the Bible first when I have time to read or the captivating and engrossing Steve Jobs biography I am devouring?  Do I go to Bible study or surf the net?  Do I stop to help a stranger in need or rush off to my next important "thing to do"?  Am I living my life seeking the kingdom of God first.  Probably not as much as I could.

The summer camp my kids attend has a motto First is Third (FIT).  They teach the kids that if you put God first, others second and yourself third....you will always come out ahead.  I LOVE that principle and my kids embrace it too.   Our family needs to put into daily practice.

I am trying to remind myself each morning 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:33

Pare Down and Look Up

I have been reading on a lot of blogs and hearing on the radio people choosing one word for the new year...a word to guide them.  I tried really hard to think of one word.  I prayed about my word.  But you all know by now...I am wordy (see, I need to pare down).  These words above kept coming to me.  I could not get them out of my head. And it's true.  I do need to pare down. 

 Although one very kind reader asked the other day if I lost weight (thank you Debbie), the truth is that in 2011, I gained 10 pounds. I am a small person and I don't think it is too noticeable.  In fact, I was a little surprised at my check-up (we don't own a scale) but I am not happy at this weight/size.  I am not sure how that happened but likely when we let gluten back into the house.  I have been exercising a lot and I plan to pare back down to my normal weight by getting back to our old healthy eating habits.  But that is only the start.  I need to pare down everywhere. I need to de-clutter, pare down my spending (yes, you read that correctly, Dave), my activity and commitments, my overall stuff. I need to delete some of the 90 million photos on my computer. I need to simplify. I will be focusing my Lenten sacrifice on paring down again this year and I am so excited.  I almost cannot wait for Lent.

The other thing I need to do is Look Up...To God.  In 2010, I read the whole Bible.  In 2011, I did not read the Bible very much.  I noticed a BIG difference in who I was on a daily basis and I did not like it.  If I keep my eyes on God, I am so much more focused on what matters in life.  I am so much more grounded.  I am a kinder Kim.  I have a lot of work to do this year to get back on track.  I hope you'll join me as I work on these things.

I was going to pick one photo from each month of 2011 and do a retrospect but I could not 

"pare down" to just one so I am skipping that. I did find these though from New Years Day last year and I don't think I ever posted them. They are not very flattering photos of me and they are not completely in focus (which is probably why I never posted them) but I love the playfulness behind them. Harry or Will must have taken them for us and I am sure they hated us having a little smooch.

Looking at these photos..I realized that my hair is a lot shorter...maybe that 10 pounds is just my longer hair!?  Ha-wishful thinking!!!

Happy New Year to you all.  What are your goals for 2012?