Until then we’ll keep dreaming, keep putting back ideas for the future and when the time comes – pounce on it

The first step toward an eventual backyard renovation began today, getting rid of the random mound of rocks and dirt sitting at the foundation of our house that just holds water there…

As you can tell the lil lady was extremely interested. The landscaper soon found he had a “helper”.

It has begun, it will take time, a lot of time. But we’re taking baby steps, necessary baby steps.

“Dude! LOVE the new roof and gutters man, it really shows off the house. Makes it like home ya know?”

What? You’ve never really walked into someone’s house and uttered those two things? Yeah, me neither. But see, that’s the balance of patience and renovations. We’re spending money on the big things right now, the foundational things, the absolute must have done things. And? While necessary, kinda sucks. It’s not the fun stuff. Being a grown up is hard to do.

We knew we’d need the french drain. Thought it was one of those “eventually we’ll get to that” things and not a “Oh wow! Look at that water coming down the basement walls!” kind of thing.

Patience, patience, patience. We have to remind ourselves of that as we look at our white walls and sparse original furniture (while I’m not knocking the $150 craigslist couch as its good with small kids definitely – not exactly our style).

It would be fun to spend that money turning this:

Into something like this from Falling Waters Landscape:

Or perhaps turn a room into something like such:

And so I’ll keep telling myself (and R), “Patience, patience, patience. Someday, someday, someday.”

“Patience is a virtue.”

“A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.” – George Savile

“Endurance is patience concentrated.” – Thomas Carlyle

There’s a million quotes on patience. All true. All things I need to hear, because in this renovation PATIENCE is a key theme. One we must continue to remind ourselves of.

Patience can work out well in some areas. For example, getting a new roof was originally part the Plan A. Looking at our roof it was easy to see that it desperately needed to be done. Even the ex-owners told us so. In fact, they were getting ready to redo it by themselves. It was seeing the old dumpsters pulled into the driveway that made Raymonn call me and say, “They are getting ready to do some renovations and I know I’m not going to like them. We have to make a move on this house if we really think this is the house we want!” Have I told you we looked at this house for 10 months before we made an offer? Oh yes we did. So we even started out this journey with patience.

But basically the roof was on year 30 of a 25 year roof. It was bad. Moss everywhere, shingles gone from every spot on the roof. After every wind/rain storm we’d see more moss and be picking up more shingles from the yard. To me, why spend all the money we were spending on new un-popcorned (is this a word?) ceilings if they were just going to get ruined by a leaky roof? No matter that the roof wasn’t leaking, it COULD.

Lovely front view, minus the curling shingles.

Can you really enjoy and relax when you glance up and see this?

A close up of the yummy moss.

But the ridiculous electrical “work” done when the house was built and the redo of all of that took a couple thousand dollar chunk out of the roof budget. Kind of a big deal. So, we waited. And boy did our patience pay off. Because of a neighbor who was going into the roofing business himself and my hubby’s awesome, amazing, talented web design skills - we got ourselves a new roof for a very pleasing price.

Our patience pays off.

There’s another side to this whole patience thing though, when you’re right in the middle of gaining this so called “virtue” – heh. Stay tuned for part 2.

I want to share with you my most sought after piece of furniture. It’s a mid century modern chaise that brings a smile to my face every time I lay eyes on it. Just look at the curves on this fine piece of art.

I found this nice arm charm in an antique shop I frequently almost weekly. It’s sturdy and strong. It doesn’t appear to have any function defects. It’s a bit scratched, but that comes with the antique territory.

Not sure what I’m going to do in the long run with this butcher block table. But I’m currently using it for my home office. I will have to show you the final results of the office when I’m finished. But for now…take a look at this hunk of a piece.

Accessories always matter when trying to mingle new modern in with the older mid century modern furniture. Keeping my eyes peeled back seems to help me find great glassware of the MCM era.

And the tea cups! Small, petite, bold, and powerful. All in one. Need I say more?

We would like to extend an invent to those of you who are always on the hunt for great furniture, cool accessories, and fabulous finds. You can send us links and or guest blog on Mid Century Modern Life.

Just recently I found so really great mid century modern glassware from my favorite shopping hub Nest Lincoln. You can say it was really a true “find” cause my intent was to see if there were a dining table for our kitchen area. We’ve decided on making the formal dining into another sitting area. We would get better use out of it. Plus, it would keep the new wood floors clean and confine the food mess that some how finds its way onto the floor.

This print caught my eye first. I love both the shapes and colors. I was pondering where it should/could go in the house. Those were the colors I thought would be great for X’s room, being a boy and all – but the hubs is going with more of a mid-century mod blue. So we’ll have to see. I clicked into the shop for a few more views.

Check this out! I’m usually not one for any of the “Home Sweet Home” things I see, usually crocheted But this might do as a small piece in the kitchen?

I did find this that is kind of “babyish” but I was thinking something a bit more retro for our little X-Ray.

Either way there are just a lot of really neat prints listed – like this great Retro Tea Print or a Mid Century Modern inspired coffee print.

So who’s the genius behind the prints? Handz. Check him out. “Welcome to my shop – here you find posters inspired by Scandinavian mid century modern design, Cathrineholm, Stig Lindberg, Marianne Westman etc. eychart & letterpress inspired prints, vintage objects and more…”

Turns out he also has a fairly fantastic blog! design attractor - chock full of inspiration.

Enjoy!

Today I found, as always, a worthy link that list 100 ways to screw up your mid century modern home. I found it to be so funny and true and in one. When starting out a new mid century modern makeover, you will need to know that there’s a difference between contemporary, modern, and mid century modern. As anyone, if you are new to the mcm era of design — you will have plenty of opportunities to screw it up. So please pay attention to this list over at Lorton Dale. It’s definitely a great list that I will keep handy through my renovation.

Here are my top 10 that had me laughing (shamelessly) while reading the list.

2) Ornate front door. (Etched glass windows) – Our door seriously is etched. There’s nothing I could do about it when we bought it in April.

6) Adding vinyl double hung replacement windows – So many are going to make this mistake. In fact, my contractor (bless his heart), suggested that I go with a more modern window to stick with my design ideas. Shame on him!

10) Covering your tongue & groove ceiling and wood beams with sheetrock – He was almost talking to me. We had to scrap all the pop corn ceilings down and refinish with a smoother finish.

25) Granite!!!!!!!! – Preach brother! Preach!

40) Whitewash the interior with white paint to make it feel larger – Hey! You’re on my toes. We had to actually do such a thing cause our walls were covered in wallpaper throughout the house. So we painted them white till we solidify the color schemes.

55) Installing the cable box right outside the front door – Hahaha! Now that just plain funny!

69) Buying a mid-century modern home and then normalizing it to make it look like any other home. – I’m sure this happen quite a bit. In Nebraska, I’m sure it happens.

79) Hire an architect who doesn’t understand Modernism – Now this is very dangerous. I can seriously speak on this.

90) Inappropriate furnishings?? (see flowery couch with detailed, routed wood) – I heard a guy once say something so funny in relation to this. I will have to remember and then post it. But so true. Big box stores can not achieve the desire MCM decor.

107) Turning your front yard into a playground full with play set – This just ain’t right. Please don’t do this people.
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As I’m sure you will check out 100 Ways to Screw up Your Mid Century Modern home, you will find there’s so many things you might have do or doing. And for the record, everyone has their opinion of what Mid Century Modern would be. But there are definitely some rules to abide by.

I can hear Al Green – “Love and Happiness” beating a smooth rhythm in my veins. I plan to put these in my office space that’s soon to be made over. But with the versatility in these beauties — I could use them in the living area. So many options.

Stay tuned for the office design. I might need your help on arrangement. I have some key pieces. But I’ll need an extra set of eyes to put in some good ideas.

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KEYNOTES:

Al Green’s origin (You will find that he’s from Arkansas). I bet you didn’t know that! We’re all not hillbillies.