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.

Half

I know many of you will probably think I am crazy.  Heck, maybe you already do.  But I am going room by room, nook by nook trying to get rid of about half of our stuff.  Why? Well, we have too much.

Yes, I can be a bit of a shop-aholic when it comes to clothes but I am pretty practical about other stuff.  And I am not a hoarder.  Really.  Friends pay me with free lunches to help them organize and purge.  Still, I have had this deep yearning for less.  Less space, less property taxes, less rooms and furniture and books and papers.  And a pool.  We really want a pool (our backyard is too small because our house is too big for our city dwelling lot).  I have blogged about this before.

I don't want a formal dining room and a breakfast room.  I just want one big farmhouse table that can serve as both.  I don't want a formal living room but yearn for a cozy sectional where we can read and watch movies as a family.

So, we are doing two things.  We are keeping our eyes out for a smaller, original house in our neighborhood that we can renovate (VERY hard to find).  AND in preparation, I am trying to pare down to half of what we own. So far, so good.

We got rid of half the games, books, toys in the media/play room.  I have gone through some closets and drawers and gotten rid of plenty of kid clothes.

On this rainy Monday, I am working on my closet.  Now keep in mind, I just did this to my closet (and much of the house) in March for Lent.  But now I am trying to be ruthless. Still, it is hard.  It is hard to part with shoes and clothes that I think I might want to wear about a day after I get rid of them.  It has happened before.

Another toughie is this armoire...



Is FULL of paper and design/shelter magazines that I cannot part with.  I need to but I am struggling.  I have years and years of Traditional Home and Southern Accents and Veranda and House Beautiful in there.  I don't need them.  I never look at them but I am attached to them. Why?

And then there is this little table....




It was Harry's kindergarten class auction project in Charlottesville.  Each child did a self portrait on a tile and someone made it into a table.  We bid on it at the auction and it has been his bedside table ever since.  But he is in 7th grade now.  He does not know any of those kids anymore since we moved away.  He has outgrown it and so have we.  But still, it is so hard to get rid of it.

Here is Harry's tile...



It is way too heavy to ship or I would see if anyone from his old kinder class wanted it.

I know that I will feel lighter once we make these changes in our life.  Will is going to college in 3 years  (and it might take us that long to find a house).  We don't need everything that we have been blessed with.  It is not what life is about.

I will share one tip with you....we are not interested in having a garage sale for lots of reasons (one is that I am purging slowly over time).  So instead, as I have a room finished, I e-mail my church Mom's group and let them all know that the items are on my front porch and free for the taking.  I invite people to come take what they want and after a day or two, I pack the rest up and donate it. Win-win!

P.S. If you are looking to simplify your life, this book was really eye opening to me....7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess and this blog too.  Janet lives a very simple, pared down life and she constantly inspires me.