And So My Life in Hooterville Begins…

I predicted I would probably get emotional when the moving van pulled away from My Cottage of Bliss with all my furniture inside.  However, I was not prepared to start crying the minute the moving van pulled up in front of the house…before the movers  had even turned the engine off or got out of the truck!    Aside from that,  the move to the house in Hooterville was fairly uneventful.  

Through the tears, I couldn’t help chuckle about  the size of the truck they brought.  One might get the impression My Cottage of Bliss was a McMansion instead of a little 1300 sq ft. house.

 

Obviously, since we had already moved the majority of our smaller items, the larger furniture pieces they moved for us didn’t even begin to fill that truck up! 

The 3-man moving crew was great though.  They were fast, efficient and very careful with our furniture.  Not a single thing was dinged or broken and, as a bonus, the final bill ended up being less than the estimate we were quoted.   Quite refreshing considering all the horror stories you hear about moving companies holding peoples’ belongings hostage until they pay up more money.

My hubby must have  felt bad…really bad…that I cried over leaving My Cottage of Bliss because he came home from work that afternoon with this beautiful flower arrangement…the first flowers I have received from him in years.

 

Since moving day, I have been putting in some  long days attempting to get boxes unpacked and trying to decide on furniture placement.  There is still so much to do.  I can see it is going to be a slow process but soon I hope to have some pictures of how things are starting to come together.

We’ve also made several trips back to My Cottage of Bliss to start getting  it cleaned up and ready for the nice couple who will be renting it from us.  They are both school teachers who are retiring from the Pennsylvania school system at the end of this school year.  Their daughter, son-in-law and 2 young granddaughters live just one street over, and they also have other relatives in the immediate neighborhood  that we have known for years.  We were happy to find someone who we know will take good care of our house and they were thrilled to find a house so close to their family members. 

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Meanwhile, also happening in Hooterville…

Remember the ugly homemade light that hung from the ceiling in the old kitchen?

 

It finally met its demise in the burn pile today (oh happy day!),  along with some of the old cabinets, some brush and other miscellaneous junk. 

It was quite an inferno hubby had going.  The heat radiating off of it was surprisingly intense.  I suppose being able to burn your  junk, trash and brush on your property could be considered  one of the advantages of living out in the country.   ;)

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The father of one of my daughter’s riding students volunteered to make  some jumps for the jump course in our riding arena.  When he pulled up yesterday with the first set  in the back of his truck, it caused quite a stir.

 

Shamu!  Times two! 

Awesome!  Can’t wait to see what  other designs he comes  up with for the other jumps.

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And finally, it’s Strawberry season again in Hooterville.  All the strawberry  fields in the area are in full bloom, including the one right next to our property .

The berries are plentiful and cheap, but unfortunately the ones we’ve had this season have been somewhat disappointing, taste-wise.  Still pretty to look at though.

 

Good-Bye My Cottage of Bliss

Little by little over the past 4 to 6 months, we have moved  the majority of our smaller belongings  over to the house in Hooterville. 

Tomorrow  morning, March 4th, the movers are scheduled to come and move  the large pieces of furniture for us. 

It’s been a long, sometimes stressful, and very emotional journey to get there but, after Friday I will officially be a full-time resident of Hooterville.

The best way I can describe my feelings about this move to Hooterville  is “bittersweet.”

During the 35 years we’ve lived here, many memories have been made in this house—the cozy little home that is the namesake of my blog.  This was the first home my hubby and I bought.  A couple times through the years we considered moving  but we never did because we liked the neighborhood so well.  I think  I may have  mentioned  before that I also spent my childhood years   in this same  neighborhood,  living and playing just a mere 4 streets away, and attending schools in the immediate area.  Needless to say, my roots here run very deep and it is extremely difficult for me to leave this house and neighborhood without feeling some pangs of sadness.

Good-bye My Cottage of Bliss.

You weren’t big or fancy but you were “home” in every sense of the word.   I’m sure going to miss you.

P.S.  Effective Friday, I’ll be off-line for an undetermined length of time until my blogging computer is moved and reconnected at the house in Hooterville.    See ya’ll soon!

Huge Moving Sale!

After  spending the past 4 months going through every inch of  the “My Cottage of Bliss” house, garage and backyard storage sheds weeding stuff out…

and weeks of cleaning, pricing and organizing items…

this past Friday and Saturday we held our

And what a GREAT yard sale it was too!  

It was extremely successful  and profitable.  Probably 85% of the items I was trying to get rid of sold and we made a little over $1300.00.

Yes, $1300.00!  And it’s not like that included a lot of big ticket items either.  There was one item that sold for $125.00 and there were a few $10,  $20 or $30 items but the rest of that total was reached by selling items that were marked $4.00 or less!   

I knew I had purged a lot of stuff but…really?!

Having a yard sale is an eye-opening experience on many different levels,  but particularly when it comes to human behavior.  Of course, we had  several of **those** people—the ones who make you want to pull your hair out when they insist you sell them a pile of stuff for $1.00 and then get indigent when you say no.  But we had a lot of really nice, friendly, polite  people too.  I can’t even count how many people said it was one of the nicest, cleanest, most organized and/or most reasonably priced yard sales they had ever been to.  That almost made all the hours of preparation I put into it worth it right there.

I had put ads on Craigslist and in the local newspaper, listing  the start time of the yard sale as 9:00 a.m. Friday.  Knowing full well people would be showing up earlier than 9:00, we were outside setting up by 5:45 a.m.  I don’t think I’ve been up that early since I quit working.  It was still dark!  As soon as daylight started to break, passing cars began slowing down to look and  before 8:00 a.m., there was already a crowd of people in line to pay for stuff they wanted to buy.  It was crazy!

We used  8  large tables  and still didn’t have enough room so the overflow was displayed under the tables  and around the yard.  It was kind of interesting to see what was hot and what was not.

All of my daughter’s old toys--Teddy Ruxpin bear, Barbies, miscellaneous other dolls, dollhouse etc.--FLEW off the tables.  Completely gone within  the first 2 hours or so.   Her old crib,  rocking chair and table and chair set went fairly quickly too.

 

Faux flowers and plants were definitely on the list of “hot,” in-demand items.  With the exception of one fall season arrangement, they were all gone in a blink of  an eye.   We’ve all heard how the  professional decorators have proclaimed using fake flowers and plants is a huge decorating no-no but it was clear to me this weekend  a lot of people either haven’t heard that, or they simply don’t care what the decorators think!  ;)

In the past, I’ve had pretty good luck selling clothes so I was a little surprised very few of my name brand career  jackets and tops sold, despite being priced in the $2.00 to $5.00 range. 

I also had a lot of cute Christmas decorations that didn’t generate much interest, including a 2 ft. tabletop white tree that I had only used once or twice.  Wrong time of year for people to be thinking about Christmas, I guess.

There are still a few pieces of furniture I hope will sell on Craigslist but I am extremely pleased my life is a whole lot less cluttered and my bank account is $1300 richer.  A definite win-win in my book!

Dear “Grandma”…

If you’ve been visiting my blog for a while you probably know I have a daughter.  I do mention her  frequently, but from time to time I’ve also written specific  posts about her (like here and here) or written about something exciting she has been involved in  (like here).  And, of course, there are a couple photos of her with one of her horses on my sidebar.

My daughter isn’t married but that doesn’t stop me from hoping that someday, when she finds “Mr. Right” and the timing is right,  she will bless me with at least one grandchild.  I’m quite partial to little girls so I dream of being able to buy a granddaughter cute girly things like this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and….

well, I think you get the idea.

However, even though my daughter likes kids, she readily admits she likes animals a whole lot more so I have often joked the only “grandchildren” I’ll probably ever have are the four-legged, furry-faced kind, like cats, dogs and obviously, horses.

Yesterday  I got an email  from a retail website that made me laugh.    Of course for you  to fully see the humor in this email,  I should probably remind you that  Jolie is one of my daughter’s horses.  The email read:

Subject:  Look What Jolie Found at Red Haute Horse

Dear Grandma,

Jolie thought you might be interested in learning about the following item:

Zebra on Purple Polka High Fashion Horse Halter

Our Red Haute Horse High Fashion Horse product line is made in the U.S.A. of 100% vibrant color-fast polyester.

I like this!

Visit Red Haute Horse to view the full selection of products available at Red Haute Horse

 

Since Jolie apparently likes purple, I wonder  if  “Grandma” could talk her into 4 of these adorable little lavender numbers for her hooves instead?

 

I Snooze, I Lose.

Do you want to see what was listed on Craigslist that I missed out on because I was ambivalent?

This white French chair with beautiful lines and carved details.  Look at those legs!

I know.  I’m kicking myself.  

Want to know how much they were asking for it?

$80.00.

I know!  You can kick me too.

The table was only $45.00.

I thought the chair would probably look  really nice  in the formal living room at the house in Hooterville with my white matelasse slip-covered sofa and loveseat and other white furniture but I was ambivalent about the shell design on the fabric (even though I love shells).

I hesitated over spending $80 for a really beautiful chair.

Meanwhile, while I was hesitating, somebody else jumped right on it.

Oh, when will I ever learn?

Linking up to White Wednesday #88 @ Faded Charm

A Media Console and Coffee Table for the Family Room, Finally!

For months…

and months…

and months…

I have been searching for a media console and coffee table for the family room at the house in Hooterville.  I  mentioned in this post how I was really leaning more toward a pine finish rather than a dark finish and how that was severely hindering my ability to find something I liked since darker finishes are definitely more in vogue right now. 

In that post, I even showed some possible table and media console contenders.  But then, for one reason or another,  I vetoed them all  and started looking again.

Finally, I found this for the TV and media equipment from here and fell in love. 

As far as I was concerned, this was IT but just as I was all ready to go buy it, hubby decided to get a new, larger TV during the pre-Christmas sales. 

We measured the new TV.  Then we went to RTG and measured the TV console.  Just my luck…the new TV ended up being one-half inch too big to fit into the media cabinet that had stolen my heart!!

ONE-HALF INCH!  ::groan::

Hubby was not amused when I suggested he take his really B-I-G  TV back and trade it for a slightly smaller one.

Back to the drawing board.  I started looking at TV consoles…AGAIN.

About a month ago, I found this Newberry console.  It was a brand spanking new item on the PB website . 

photo source:  Pottery Barn

I didn’t  ♥♥♥  it as much as the other one but it did have possibilities,  namely… 

#1.  The finish was a pine stain. 

#2.  It had plenty of room to hold hubby’s electronic stuff  “components.”  

#3.  There was no enclosed  cabinet to worry about the really B-I-G new TV  fitting into.

So here it sits (with the new really B-I-G TV on it) in the semi-naked family room waiting for hubby to finish setting up the electronic components, and hiding the wires and cords, and me to decide on some art for the walls and other miscellaneous decor.

 

Now what I did ♥♥♥ was the coordinating Newberry coffee table!  

  photo source:  Pottery Barn

Even though it was so “me,” I ruled it out right away because hubby doesn’t completely share my enthusiasm for white.  We  I already have a lot of white  in the house (white or off-white  furniture in almost every room, white carpet in the formal living/dining room, white kitchen, bathroom and laundry room cabinets etc.)  so I was going to try to steer clear of more white furniture.

But he said he liked it.  In fact, he said he liked it better than the coffee table I was considering.  Huh?   He repeatedly encouraged me to get it.     (Maybe because I didn’t pitch a fit and insist he take back the  B-I-G TV that didn’t fit into the media cabinet I really loved?  Maybe.)

We went to the store, bought the Newberry coffee table, got it home, unboxed it and……..

Ohhhhh nooooo!   It had a big crack in it.   :(

 

The only other one they had in the store was the floor model and the manager told me it had a crack in it too.   He said it would probably be at least 6 weeks before they would get any more in but he’s suppose to  call me when they arrive.

Two more decorating decisions crossed off the list. 

Only about a “bazillion” more to go.

A Purple Orchid, the Bathroom Storage Cabinet, and the Next Big Renovation Project

I’m still working on finishing up a few things in  the new bathroom at the house in Hooterville.    Hubby got the pieces of chair rail molding cut for me but I see another trip to Lowe’s in my future before I can get it painted and installed.  I was all set to start painting and remembered I was out of white semi-gloss paint.    Darn!

I still need a towel rack but I’m mulling over ideas for that.  I’d also like to find a piece of art to hang over the toilet but I haven’t seen anything that really grabs me yet.

Something else I have been on the lookout for was some type of flowering plant to add a pop of color.  (A realistic looking faux, of course, since I don’t do live plants.  No  green thumb here, folks.) 

In my head, I was envisioning something in a pretty pink but when I spotted this faux orchid plant at TJMaxx the other day,  the vivid shade of purple  made me stop and do  a double-take. 

I wasn’t sure how the reddish purple  was going to look with the bluish gray paint on the walls but I figured if it didn’t work, I could always return it. 

But I think I like it!   The color is different enough from the paint to be interesting and add the pop of color I was looking for.

The amazing cabinet guy who built my kitchen cabinets and fabricated the sink and countertop for the vanity in this bathroom  has now finished and installed the custom storage cabinet in here.  Once again, he has outdone himself!   He took the vague ideas I had and was able to turn  them into a beautiful, functional cabinet that seamlessly flows with the rest of the bathroom.   I’m 200% pleased.

 

With 4 generous sized drawers on the bottom…

The view from the doorway of the adjoining bedroom

…and 4 adjustable shelves in the upper section, I should have ample storage space for all those bathroom necessities that I want and need to have handy but hate to leave sitting out in plain view.

The next (and last) really big inside project on the agenda at the house in Hooterville will be the 3rd bathroom.  The 2 photos below were taken the day we first looked at the house in September 2009. 

Believe it or not, this is considered the MASTER bathroom!  Sad and pathetic, isn’t it?

Bet you’re wondering how I’m going to improve this.

Yeah, me too. 

I do have a few ideas I’m tossing around in my head but it is going to be a challenge, to say the least.  That’s why I’ve saved it for last.

Nesting Herb Crates

Just want to send a shout out to all the new visitors and followers I received after Kim @ Savvy Southern Style so kindly featured  the vanity  from my  bathroom renovation after her “Boring to Better” Party #12 last week. 

If there are any of my readers who don’t know Kim (is there anyone who doesn’t know her?), I urge you to go over and check out her blog.  She’s an amazing decorator and furniture refinisher!   I’m sure you will also enjoy her  “Boring to Better” linky party  every Wednesday because don’t we all love seeing before/after photos?!

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Today I wanted to tell you about a little present I recently treated myself to.

Well…it’s actually something for the house in Hooterville.    The house seems to be the recipient of all the “presents” these days.

I first saw these here…      

 photo credit

 I bet you did too!

Then, some time later, I saw them in HomeGoods but foolishly passed them up. 

WHY do I DO that?!

But I couldn’t stop thinking about how cute they were so now I have a set to call my own.  I’m not sure yet where I’m going to hang them, or what I’m going to fill them with, but that’s half the fun!

 

If you are interested in a set for yourself, 

ummmm…I mean a present for your house,

I found them here.

By the way…are you old enough for these herb crates to remind you of  THAT song?  My high school chorus teacher made us practice it so many times I actually came to hate it back then.  Funny I should end up with something that will remind me of it every.single.day.