the happy living Blog

myperfectcolor : the blog

I have mentioned Myperfectcolor before when I was looking for that perfect Martha Stewart green that my friend used in her kitchen.  They are a New Jersery based retailer that matches colors from every paint company and can even make colors that are discontinued like that perfect green.

They have been blogging since January and I am enjoying their posts.  God knows we have a lot of painting to do around here and I need all the help I can get.  There's a fun one titled How to paint and save your marriage in three easy steps....  What I love most about Myperfectcolor are their 16 oz. sample cans.  All this, and now they are offering free shipping on orders over $50!  Yes, you can get all your paint samples and full size cans of paint delivered right to your door.

shop : read

Check them out and happy painting!

a new blog :: Dear Cottage Living

"Great curb appeal is not about the size or style of your home, but making the most of what you already have."

Have any questions about or need help with suggestions on your home's curb appeal?  Write to architect Hoyte Johnson and Cottage Living editor Rex Perry at the new blog at Cottage Living.  Or just have fun checking out sweet cottages.

renovate! :: the new series

The short version about the new series: I want to gather and show you inspiring exterior and whole house renovation projects.  Is it that simple?  Not exactly, but that is where I am going to start and I will go from there.

The first in the series is one of my favorites and is a whole-house renovation.  What I mean by whole-house is after the renovation the house looks very different on the outside than it did before.  It is not just a room-by-room interior renovation.  Thought is given to the exterior envelope as well as all the interior rooms.  Platt Dana Architects from New York renovated Hope Dana's Connecticut family home.   They took a banal and uninteresting home that had good 'bones' and was on a nice property and made it into a modern version of a 5-bay (5 windows across the front) farmhouse.  You may have seen this featured in Domino last year.

Look at the changes to the exterior of the house.  Note the different window proportions/sizes, they scrapped the bizarre brick corners for simple horizontal wood siding.  The vertical lines in the standing seam metal roof adds a bit of height to the roof.  They also recessed the front door slightly so that you have a bit of cover when entering the front.

photo from Domino article, October 2006

photo from Platt Dana Architects

Photo from Platt Dana Architects

Look for the subtle changes in the floor plan.  There are quite a few of them that when totaled together have a huge impact on the feel and function of the house.

floor plan image from Domino article

floor plan image from Domino article

And because I can't bring myself to deprive you of great interiors... Note the simple but quality materials on the inside.  They carry the horizontal wood paneling through the house and use the same wood floors in every room to tie them together.

photo on left from Domino, photo on right from Platt Dana Architects

living room before photo from Domino

living room after photo from Platt Dana Architects

photo from Platt Dana Architects

photo from Platt Dana Architects

sparkle-ly windows : a facial for your house?

The windows at my day job (two sides of a 3-story Victorian twin) were cleaned today, inside and out, storm windows and sashes.  I could see the classical white columns of the Presbyterian church across the street very clearly now that the film of grime and dirt had been wiped away and I enjoyed the winter light and sky during the workday for the first time. 

I think having windows washed is like a facial for a house.  It is typically not something one has done regularly but when you do it is like uncovering a whole new person.  I think the same feeling applies to a house.  Not only do clean windows add sparkle and curb-appeal, but your view from the inside looking out is so much more enjoyable.

But let's be real here.  I was lucky to clean my windows at our previous home once a year if even that often.  Ideally I would get myself on a regular window cleaning schedule but I am not.  Before we moved I was lucky enough to have my mom come over and clean most of our windows.  They already need to done again. 

I think there is definitely value in hiring a window cleaner.  The prices that I have heard quoted for a typical residence were very reasonable.  Sure the act and process of window cleaning is something that most people can tackle on their own, but time = money.  I find it difficult enough to get laundry done sometimes let alone set aside at minimum a half day to wash my windows.  Value.  Remember, Time=Money.

If you do it yourself I recommend...

Basic H2 Organic Cleaning Concentrate from Shaklee
1-2 drops mixed with 16 oz. of water, I swear it works!

Super Microfiber Window Cloth also from Shaklee

happy cleaning!

I feel fall coming on...

some autumn yard and garden clean-up and possibly a Sunday d.i.y. project.  Today was the first day here in the Philly area that I had to wear a jacket and it was the perfect cool and breezy morning for a cappuccino and pumpkin scone on the way to work...a wonderful friday treat.

photo by gangakinarewala

We are renting out our 'old' house until it sells (the renters move in next weekend) so we'll spend some time tomorrow morning getting the yard and garden all tidy for their arrival.  I will be sad to say goodbye to my summery tomato plants, but I think their time has officially ended.

photo by Sikario

Fall is a great time for some deep-cleaning around the house and for seasonal projects.  I like this fall chore checklist by Organized Home.  Honestly, I NEVER get through an entire list like that.  I would have to take a week off of work!  But it's a good reminder of some of the important items to take care of.  Here's another good checklist by This Old House.  And before winter officially arrives, why not try out this home energy saving checklist by Lowe's.

Remember this chair?  Well instead of the Joel Dewberry fabric I was considering, I decided to go with Amy Butler's Lotus fabric in Yellow Full Moon from purl soho.  And it arrived today!  Once I get it covered, we can stop calling it the 'bird poo' chair.  (they are actually paint drips, not poo)

Have a great weekend!

classes for the clueless decorator...

or anyone looking for some new tips.

I received two emails this week about national chain stores offering classes at local shops. 

Via Smith & Hawken, Cottage Living is offering a class on Saturday, August 18th on Aging Your Garden: Easy Ways to Add Patina to Containers, Furniture and More. Call your local Smith & Hawken store.

Pottery Barn is offering a class on how to Create the Perfect Workspace on Sunday, August 19th.  Call your local store to reserve your space.

Ooh.  You could make a weekend of it!  Maybe a little decorating overload?  I would opt for the Workspace class at Pottery Barn since the Mid-Atlantic gardening season will quickly come to an end once school starts.

It's Friday :: time to sit on the porch and watch the world go by

Probably not this weekend for us and we also don't have a porch.  But I've been collecting images of porches, both open and screened-in, and thought I would share them.  There is a screened-in porch on our new-to-us house and I'm collecting ideas for what to do with it.  I'm thinking of white-washing the inside of the walls and painting the ceiling a typical robin's egg blue.  But all of these are lovely, I think.





images from the Design Assistant via Cottage Living, Southern Living, Coastal Living, Sunset and Southern Accents magazines.

::good book:: The Simple Home: The Luxury of Enough

The Simple Home: The Luxury of Enough by Sarah Nettleton

I definitely crave a more simple lifestyle and I love that someone has finally written an entire book on how our homes can either foster or work against the type of lifestyle that we are trying to achieve.  In a time where we can go into any bookstore and find hundreds of books and magazines on de-cluttering, organizing and simplifying our lives and homes, our builders and developers around the country are still building hugely over-sized homes with more rooms than any family of four ever needs or even wants to take care of.  Ms. Nettleton has identified this bizarre "disconnect".

Some highlights to entice you!

"The Simple Home is for people who crave a simpler lifestyle - not only in how they live, but also in where they live.  The simple home is not an end in itself, but the means by which we can enjoy our own simple pleasures..."

"Shaker and folk crafts come from an era when time was much more abundant than the money to buy and ship fancy materials.  Today, we have many more options in materials, but we need to invest the time to craft our own environment, to be selective about what we buy and how much we really need."

Ms Nettleton quotes Gaston Bachelard from one of my favorite books, The Poetics of Space.  Bachelard wrote, "The home is a place that shelters dreaming."  She elaborates, "He meant that the homes that nurture us are not fortresses of exclusion, but rather clearings in a busy world that help us dream new ideas and to be creative in our own way."

The book is filled with amazing photos of some of the most beautifully crafted new and old homes around the country.  Even if you are not thinking about renovating your existing home or building a new home, you can get something out of this book if you desire a simple home.  I think many of us want that, but most of us don't know what a simple home looks like.  There is some great inspiration to be found in The Simple Home.

Photos from book by Randy O'Rourke.

the weekend AND plan & organize your garden with a garden Keeper

w e e k e n d  =
dining with friends and family
studying
container gardening
eating breakfast out
watching the race
more studying
simple baking
slowed cooked pork on the grill

 

o r g a n i z e  t h e  g a r d e n

You didn't hear it here first: garden Keeper.  I got the idea from this product from the The GardenKeeper Company.  But call it whatever you like: garden journal, garden organizer, garden book, garden planner.  The actual GardenKeeper is $34.95.  Very cute, compact and seems very useful. 

On the cheap: I just bought a binder from staples, some plastic protector sheets and some stick on tabs and made one myself.  I collected all the things I've torn out of magazines (my favorites are the gardens featured in Cottage Living) or printed from the internet, along with catalogs and forms I got from You Grow Girl and organized them in the binder.

My tabs (loosely based on the The GardenKeeper):

• Basics (info on climate, soil nutrition, maintenance, weed, disease & pest control, glossary, etc.)
• Plot (planning & plotting ideas for my garden, drawings, plans and recommended plant lists)
• Plant Lists (like a reference and wish list of various types of plants and shrubs)
• My Plants (actual plants, trees and shrubs that we have in our garden and care instructions)
• Tasks (timetables, schedules for garden prep and clean-up, etc.)
• Records (tracking progress)
• Notes
• Resources

The protector sheets are great for keeping the tags and markers that come with the plants that we've purchased.  This is probably a little more organization than we need, but I like having everything in one place.

Here are some other nice garden journals.