You've Got To Have A Vision!!!

One thing my walk with the Lord has taught me - is that you must have a vision.  You must get the vision from Him.  You must stick to that vision, no matter what you see with your eyes, no matter what anyone else says to you - even if it looks like it will never come to pass.  You can have big and small visions, a vision for today - and a vision for your whole life.

Let me give you an example:

You may have to actually enlarge this picture to see the baby trees planted on each side of what is now turning into the road back to our house.  You can hardly see the almost 30 Red Shummard Oak trees unless you look REALLY hard!

 

..but you see, in my heart and mind, this is what I see!

 

..and this - although unless the Lord renames me Methusala (oldest man in the Bible) - I may not live to see them get this big!!

The Exact Spot...

..of our future home!!!

Tall pine tree to the left will have to go - or it will be sticking up out of the garage!  Will post a pic when it is all cleared out.

Breaking Ground

Last year we had electricity run to the back of the property, the place where we want to build our home.  It cost a LOT.   In fact, honestly I was shocked by how much it cost to do that. 

Well today, we hired a gentleman with a bull dozer to come in to do 3 things; clear out and level an area for a round pen we are putting in, bull doze and burn some dead trees and ... CLEAR OUT THE PLACE WE WANT TO BUILD THE HOUSE!!!

This is the area for the round riding pen.  I will try and get a picture tomorrow of the location of the dream house.

French Rugs

Did you know that my Mother was an Interior Designer? I think the thing that impressed me the most is that she could please a client who had the total opposite taste. After all, anyone could help you decorate who has the same likes and dislikes as you. She inspired me.

With that I want to share what I learned about antique French rugs.

Old, even gently warn rugs, give a room instant Old World charm. In Europe, rugs are passed down from one generation to the next and just get better and better as they are used.

AUBUSSON RUG
Aubussons are flat-weave wool tapestry rugs with a central medallion and floral motifs in muted pastel colors, originally made in France in a town of the same name, from the 16th to the 19th century.



SAVONNERIE RUG
Savonnerie are woven rugs but have a thicker pile than Aubusson carpets do. They were made in Paris starting in 1628. Designs created by court artists included floral arrangements, military and beraldic references, and architectural motifs. This one takes my breath away!


Authentic Savonneries are much more rare than Aubussons because they were made exclusively for the French Court and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the time of production, Aubussons were considered the "poor man's rug," although today they can cost well into the high tens of thousands of dollars.

To Be Perfectly Honest....

Want to know a secret about me? You may be shocked. It may cause you to look at me differently. Do you still want to know?

I HATE SLIP COVERS!!!

I always have ... and I can venture to say that I always will. I think they usually look sloppy and no matter how expensive, they just do not fit the same way new upholstery does! I am not going to post any pictures. My intention is not to hurt any ones feelings because I know that slip covers are the IN thing right now.. they are chic, trendy, cool looking...

Blech - I still don't like them.

There .. I said it..

Whew.. You know, I kind of feel relieved.


Opps - wait a minute...

I have one more thing to confess...

I hate all white rooms...

They look cold, hard, antiseptic, as if I am waiting for the smell of ammonia to hit me at any time.

Okay - so maybe this has something to do with the fact that I grew up in a family that was in the medical profession... and well - WAY BACK WHEN I was a child.. all procedure and operating rooms were stark solid cold WHITE..

So, as I plan our new home.. that is just 2 things I doubt you will see in any of my inspiration photos.

I'm just sayn'....
Please don't hate me.

A Wendy House

A Wendy House is a small playhouse for children, often replicating the main house on the property.

The name derives from a small house built for the character Wendy in the play Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie.

Cremone Bolt

I have been neglecting this blog and instead paying more attention to my Riding Aside Blog... well that is about to change. You see a lot is going on other than with my riding and I would love to share it with you.

First of all, let me say that Don has now completed the 12 week term of medication called Incevic. He has only been off of it for 1 day, so not much to report..other than he is glad to be done with it. He still has to continue taking the Riboviren and the Interferon injections for an additional 9 months.

I am sure you can tell we are taking our sweet time about building the house. We are in no hurry, which gives me a lot of time to research and ponder every single detail. I have been trying to educate myself (mostly through other blogs and books) about certain Interior Design styles and with my love of antiques, I have started to research and learn a lot. There are so many things I have seen in really old homes that I would love to incorporate into ours...So today I thought I would show you just one thing I have learned.

A Cremone Bolt is a device applied from top to bottom to the surface of a window or a door suround that locks the door or sash into the frame by a turn of a knob or lever.

Do you remember seeing these? My Grandparents had these types of locks on their French doors that led from their master bedroom onto the enclosed sun porch.

Expansion and Improvments!

Over the last several weeks, we have been tearing out old rickety and broken wood fencing and replacing it with beautiful new Blackline fencing.

..to say that the new fencing adds beauty to the scenery is an understatement.

Along with the replaced fencing, we added a new paddock..

..and to replace just some of the trees we lost in the drought this summer, we planted 12 Shummard Red Oak trees down the fence line.

..and although it does not look like it... here is one of the more 'extravagant' (code for expensive!) things we did... we had electricity run from one side of the farm to the other.Call me naive.. but I thought doing this would be cheap seeing how in doing it, we would incur a new lifelong electric bill..... WRONG! It was jaw dropping expensive... I mean a descent used car amount of money expensive!

Humph... can you tell I am still a bit miffed about it? Well - only because it robbed a chunk of money out of our future 'real home' savings account!

Laundry Room..

Have you noticed how fancy laundry rooms have become lately? I guess really artistic people can make any room really creative - even the plain ole laundry room. So - with that, I may just have to put up something like this..


..or this....in ours when we build our house!

Collecting Ideas

Most of us love to collect pictures that inspire us to make changes to our gardens, wardrobe, but probably most of all to our homes. I believe this is why Pinterest.com has become so popular. It is not only a place to save your own favorite inspiration pictures, but also get the ability to take a peek at other peoples as well!

One of my favorite bloggers is Cote De Texas. Here a just a couple of recent pictures she has featured on her blog that were "must saves" for me! Thanks so much Joni for all of your inspiration!

Look at these wonderful X design bar stools! I WANT THEM!!

Not only is this bathroom just beautiful, but notice the unique way the sink is mounted. It is off side. Very Unique!!

..and this is a salvaged door used on the home owners pantry. What I love about this is that the big hardware (hinges) are there just for the decor. The operating hinges are normal. Ohh - I could easily adapt this idea, especially into our barn-home!

Stone

We met with the architect again and sent him home to tweak the plans. I was amazed at how close he came to getting exactly what we wanted just by our first meeting! The first floor is almost completely done.

What surprised me though was that he told us that in order for him to draw the blue prints, we need to pick out what type of exterior stone we want on our house. Apparently the difference of the thickness of each product is so different, it can completely change the actual house measurements! Who knew??

Anyway - I am hoping Don and I can venture out next week and start doing some research...on if we want something like one of these..

..or this ..

or this..grin!

Dream Closet?

'NUF SAID!!

Do You Bike?

Yesterday I did a post about Mud Rooms and I wanted to add this picture .. just because it is such a simple and good idea!
I do not even own a bicycle... but still wanted to keep this picture in my 'files'!

Mud Room

Don is having a hard time dealing with going on leave for a year. Actually, according to his doctor, he should ALREADY be on leave! He loves to work. He is really good at what he does and has so many people who enjoy working with him that don't really want him to leave either - even if it is only for a while. We both know that his job will not be waiting for him when he gets back and I think that worries him.

Sooo - We had to have a long talk this morning.

The short version of it is that he told me that he feels guilty because he knows how much I want this house. After all, we have been waiting to build it for about 8 years now....

I told him that I don't want the house if he is not there to enjoy it with me. I also told him that I was fine with waiting and that while we are, I could put the final touches on every single room in our dream house..so that we would not ever say, "I wish we had done this differently".. or that we had rushed into building and missed important details that we wanted.

So - with that in mind:

Soon, I will post a picture of the house plans we are playing with. There is an entrance from the Portico (fancy word for car port!) and that area is labeled Mud Room. It is a small space where if you were to walk to the left, you will end up in the laundry room...Opps - I mean the UTILITY room; and if you take a right turn, you will end up in the bathroom and if you go straight you will walk into the kitchen!

Well, giving consideration to the fact that I am often dirty..like muddy dirty, either from the horses or from gardening, I thought it would be a good idea to really utilize this space... hence the full bathroom in very close proximity!

Anyway - I thought something like this would be very handy in that space... but it has to have an equestrian flair to it.

..so maybe I could borrow some ideas from this picture to display some of my less expensive horse collectibles!

Oh,.. and how about something like this for the back door instead of something plain!

OM Gosh - Having SO Much Fun!

Update on the Farm:

STILL waiting for the fencing to get here so we can proceed with that. 2 weeks turned into 4 when we increased the product order. Well - 4 weeks was the 12th of October... so now I am hearing 4 to 6 weeks. Uggghh -

Oh well - lot of OTHER great things going on to distract us. First of all, the electric poles are in and done!! They do not look intrusive where they are located following the boundary fence line and only one limb on one tree had to be trimmed!

We are going to wait until all of the bills come in for the fencing before we go ahead with the water well...

BUT - the best news is that we met with the builder (also an architect) to discuss what we wanted in a house several weeks ago and he gave us the preliminary drawings for our dream house!! This is where the real fun begins for me. I love to look at them and in my minds eye, walk through the house. In doing this, I have made changes to the plans so that views into one room from another are just as beautiful as the room is itself!

For instance, I moved the kitchen opening to get a view of the kitchen from the family room to look like this:

We used this picture to create our bedroom:

In fact, we found the multiple ideas for our dream home on the Internet. What a wonderful tool!

Home Depot Wins This Round..

Usually I much prefer Lowe's over Home Depot since their customer service is about a billion times better... but in this one instance - when looking for an Island Kitchen Light, I was overwhelmed by the huge selection Home Depot has.

Remember this kitchen picture that I love, well look closely at the light. I want one like that - not exactly .. but close in design.

This one cost a mere $301.00

..and this one is $235.00

this one is $458.00

..and this one is $436.00 Which one do you like best?

Likes and Dislikes..

As we gather ideas and items to build our dream home, I have been on the search for bloggers who like some of the things that I do.. It has become more of a challenge than I thought it would. You see, there are tons of Interior Designer blogs.. but most cater to the 'mob'.. IOW - they cater to what most people are trending right now. I can find that in the latest magazine on display at the grocery store. There are a few exceptions .. Cote de Texas being one. My next search had to do with Equestrian blogs - again, I came up empty.. finding blogs only about horses, barns and I even found one written from the prospective of the horse! So onward I search. If you know of a blog I might like from the list below - please let me know!

For me - it has NOTHING to do about what is trendy or in fashion...and for that reason I have a hard time finding other bloggers who have my identical taste.

LOVE
English, Victorian Antique Furniture, preferably dark wood
English Equestrian Design
French Design
Warm Vanilla-cream colored walls
Meaningful Collections displayed
Windows with wood grills, and cranks that open them outward.
Solid brass egg interior door knobs
Window seats
fire places - several
Animals in the house
leaded glass

DISLIKE
Stark white - it feels cold and sterile to me.
Swedish style.. it is too minimalist
Western Country / Texas decor
Rustic Anything
..and DARE I SAY - that I will never paint an antique piece of furniture white and then proceed to bang it with a chain.. Shabby Chic is not my thing either!

You probably can get an idea by the pictures I have already posted anyway!

I hope I did not offend anyone - What I love you may hate ... and vice versa..

Kitchen.. The Heart of The Home..

Dear Mr. Architect / Builder,

I want this kitchen,

.. with this French Butcher Block Table.Now - how easy is that?!!

Staircase...

.. It has to be curved!

The Builder Told Us ..

..to start 'collecting' any speciality things that we wanted for the house. In other words, if we wanted to have a piece of stained glass as a window.. or if we wanted a certain type of door knobs.. or appliance or..??

By taking our time with this building project, it does allow us to be a bit more creative.. but the above statement sent my mind spinning. HELLOOOOO... obviously I want details! I am ALL ABOUT THE DETAILS! In fact - I truly believe what makes a house a home.. what makes one house stand apart from another is not so much the size or even the floor plan... but IT IS IN THE DETAILS!!!

Tom, our builder, also told us that the actual kitchen cabinets would not be drawn to scale until we knew exactly what kind of appliances we wanted. Gone are the days where all ovens, stoves, refrigerators and even sinks are the same size!

So, here is what I have found so far:

I love this Graff 'Bridge Faucet'...

..to be used in the kitchen with this Shaw Apron Sink...

..and this picture gives you an idea of the total look.
I have not yet purchased these items, but am now gathering cost, design and product information.

...Ummm - this seems dangerously fun!... but on the other hand, I hope to be able to shop and get the best deal on what we want as well. If anyone has any ideas about the best places to buy these types of items, please chime in!