We moved a couple of months ago and I had to let the yard (I can't be called a garden at this point yet) just be... no matter how painful it was. My focus was house house house... it was ours but we had rented it and they turned it into a crack house. Well, we kicked them out and after a month of making it livable we moved. However, the work had only just begun... we removed popcorn from ceilings, replaced fixtures and doors... and we still aren't finished. But my focus has shifted.... causing much distress for my poor DH. (He works a lot right now so the house is all on me) I have been digging out the years of neglect (When he and I began dating he was in a different house, which we lived in prior to this move... a master gardener had lived there prior and all I had to do was maintain it all). The house we are in now was his, but he doesn't bother with anything but mowing the weeds and it has been at least 3 or 4 years since anyone has done anything here other than that. All the beds had been filled with rock, the yard is weeds and sand, it is bad. The good news... we have gorgeous trees and a great spot on a lake... so the potential is there :) Back to the topic of the post, since I started focusing on the yard and my garden in the making the house has gone to hell. There are clothes everywhere, still boxes that didn't get unpacked, spare bed is covered in christmas stuff that needs to go in the attic, no clean dishes to be found, dirt and dust galore... Ugh! My kitchen is covered in potting soil and plant seedlings, cuttings, pots and trays. I don't have a potting bench or anything even close yet, so the kitchen has been converted. My ottoman has become my sort and send for my seed trading, there are baggies of seeds everywhere.. Everywhere! My living room is littered with bubble evies... it is terrible. Best part is, a friend of ours is in need of a place to stay for a little while so he;s moving in this weekend. I am going to go into cleaning shock... and yet I'm still determined to get in some yard work this weekend. We'll see how things turn out... this is my first real garden (of my own) and the first time I've been completely responsible for so much (I'm kinda young still... just finished college and am starting out fresh... but with the love of my life so its all good!). I'm just looking forward to next spring, when I will have been properly prepared and things can really look nice :) Kim (cottage style junkie and newbie)

kellienoelle - EVERY house is a series of compromises!!! If the worst thing you have to face are a few updates the previous owners did that are not really in sync with the vintage of the house or your personal dream house, you're doing just fine!!! And really and truly - it's a great house. You know that or you wouldn't have jumped on it the way you did. Yes we have plans to move - major move from Chicago suburb to the Asheville, NC area.- not retirement but lifestyle change. We keep adjusting the timeline for various reasons mostly family related, but it's in my head all the time and I'm picking away at things we will need to do prior to listing. My DH wants to build - he does remodeling/additions/repair. I want no part of building and far prefer altering an existing house. We'll see ;-) I took pictures and made an album at Photobucket figuring that's the easiest for you and won't clog up this thread with a million pics. But they are updating that website and I couldn't get things organized and explained for you the way I wanted so it's kind of a mash-up. Hopefully it will make some sense. Our house is a little newer than yours but very similar. We put a large addition on 2 years after moving and recreated the same trim and detail so it wouldn't feel like an addition. When you start looking at doors you'll notice that old doors have much wider stiles and rails - the look and feel more substantial than the doors you pull off the rack at Home Depot. It's details of that nature that makes the difference in how you feel in the house - subtle, but the overall effect is huge. I hunted for a long time for our light fixtures - one here, one there - and we had bare bulbs hanging for a LONG time!! I'd stumble on them in odd little shops, yard sales, farm sales and if they spoke to me I'd buy them and figure out where to use them later. Same with glass door knobs - we have several different kinds as you'll see. A few were original to the house but most had been changed and since we added on we had a lot more doors too deal with anyway. They will be hard to leave behind, trust me, but I'll hunt them out again if we get an old house. Let me know if there's something specific you'd like to see or have a question. Here is a link that might be useful: House Detail pics

l recipe for an 8x8 baking dish Hersheys best Brownies 8x8 pan recipe ½ cup butter, margarine or butter crisco 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 eggs ½ cup flour ⅓ cup cocoa powder ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup walnuts (optional) Heat oven to 350. Grease 8x8 baking dish Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs, beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in nute if desired. Spread batter evenly into prepared dish. Bake 20-25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of dish. Cool completely in dish on wire rack. Prepare creamy Brownie Frosting, spread over brownies. Cut into squares. About 18 brownies. Creamy Brownie Frosting 3 tablespoons butter, margarine or butter crisco 3 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 tablespoon corn syrup or honey ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup powdered sugar 1 to 2 tablespoons milk Beat butter, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla in a small bowl until blended. Add powdered sugar and milk, beat to spreading consistency. About 1 cup frosting.

Thank you for your thoughtful replies. And I'm sorry to have abandoned this thread. Life just picked up in a crazy sort of way. We decided not to paint the room behind the fireplace at this point because of the cost. So we are focusing on the front girls bedroom with the desk/suspended book case. We demo'd the desk but kept the bookcase because those curly-Qs are just so darn sweet. We purchased a new queen hybrid bed at Sam's (Sealy-$500 ten year warranty/return, so we'll see). Donated the 20 year old white painted maple girls furniture: headboards, dressers, night stands, pair of twin beds. Purchased two of these campaign dressers at West Elm on sale for about $522 each. Delivery is $100 each : ( cannot pick up in store. Once I saw these during my online search for a low white dresser, I could look no further. I love them: They will be positioned as night stands, on either side of the bed, one for each daughter. And I lost the comforter battle, so the blue Ralph Lauren Home comforter set pictured above and the Chinese porcelain lamps I was dreaming of has given way to a faux-boho Anthropoly comforter set called "Happy Indigo" we found at BBB on clearance, but as long as I have a happy daughter, it's all good. We switched comforter sets about five times, and I for one am tired of shopping and so is she. The walls will be SW Olympus White, with Rhinestone on the ceiling and basic white trimwork. I'll post pictures when we are finished. It is a very bright room thanks to two large windows, hoping the pale gray walls don't look gloomy. Can anyone recommend a good accent chair or an online store that sells well-made ones? At this point, we cannot afford a Pottery Barn chair, and we have checked the chairs at Pier 1. They are smallish, which is good, since that desk alcove is only 42" wide, but not terribly comfortable. Thanks for your ideas!