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On the Front Porch

~ Teresa ~ 2 Comments

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Yesterday I updated you on what I had been doing while not writing.  Today I had a break in the weather so I did some rearranging and staging on my new old front porch.    You can read yesterday’s post to see a lot of the in progress pictures and the before.

I’m linking up over at Imparting Grace so please click on over and check out the other links for more home inspiration. It’s all about “making our homes a place of grace”.  And while you are there browse around Richella’s blog – she will inspire you with her wisdom as well as her decor.

If you found your way here from the link-up party at Imparting Grace, Welcome!  I’m so glad you stopped by.  Please leave a comment and let me know you were here.  I love to meet new people.  That is one of the ways I find blogs that become my favorites.

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Just a quick (ish) update for those who haven’t been keeping up with our porch reno – We live in an older home that was our weekend home, but due to some changes last year, has become our full-time home (and here) while we wait on God’s direction for what comes next.  We lovingly refer to it as the Little House (aka StoneLeaf Cottage).

This blog was originally started to chronicle the Little House, but I haven’t’ done much of that as I have found other things to write about.  I think over the summer I am going to add more posts about the house. Stay tuned.

Our most recent project has been our front porch.  The porch ceiling was vinyl.  I don’t really care for vinyl porch ceilings, especially on old houses.  And, I desperately wanted a blue porch ceiling.  A southern porch at it’s best.  You can’t paint vinyl – yuk! And our vinyl had seen better days; it was sagging, which meant probably a leak was lurking. The floor boards were in good shape but had grayed over the years; the shutters were pitiful and the porch just was not overly inviting. I wrote a poem about it here. I’d had a swing for the better part of two years and had not hung it because one of the hooks was missing and the sag was where the hook should have been.  So, not knowing what I’d find or whether or not I’d have to replace all the old boards, we decided to do what any sane person would do.  We took the vinyl by the claw hammer and let her rip.  No going back.

That was the best decision ever.  Yes, we had to replace the old boards.  Yes, we replaced them with tongue and groove pine boards and yes, we painted them blue.  Summer Sky blue from Lowe’s.  Valspar I think.  Does Lowe’s sell any other brand of paint ;).  And yes, I have pictures to show you in a minute or two.  To make a long story as short as possible, we also freshened up the porch wall paint ( an Olympic color called Puppy Paws – not my choice, but we’re not painting the whole house, so we went with what was already established.)  And we painted the floor and today I did some “staging” and took pictures.  Lots of pictures.  I’ll try to refrain from sharing all 57 of them.  (all pictures were taken by me.  Please link back should you share any of them.)

Enjoy how our transformed front porch has helped “make our home a place of Grace”:

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100_1876I hope you enjoyed the pictures of our new old front porch.  You probably noticed how the accessories jumped around a bit. I had  fun trying out different combos.  The porch floor paint is a Glidden color, Handcast Pewter, in Valspar porch and paint from Lowe’s.  The cushions and furniture are from Oxford Garden.  You can go online to check out the where to buy link.  The rug is a lucky find at Wal-Mart.  The only one of this style left in their outdoor rug bin.  The colors could not have been more perfect for all the different blues and greens in my cushions.  It even has a beigy neutral color that picks up on the pinkish tan tones of the house color.  And, of course it compliments my summer sky ceiling paint perfectly. For now I’m ignoring the black retro railing because I can’t afford to change it to a wooden white railing and columns.  We will probably need to freshen the paint on it soon.

All the pops of color excite me and make me happy.  My swing makes me happy!

My front porch makes me happy!

click the quote for a song:

All I wanna do when the day is through, is linger here on the front porch with you

Swinging on the front porch in Grace,

Sadie

PS – The house you see behind the swing is the home we moved to when I was a teenager; my parents still live there. We’re so blessed to have them close by.

PPS – I still have a few things I want to add, like string lights and some kind of art on the wall, and maybe a hanging plant or two.  But I’m so excited for the progress.  I’ll keep you posted on any updates.

Home

~ Teresa ~ 1 Comment

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This little house sits next door to the house that has been our family home since the summer I was 16.  My parents still live there.  Over the years there were many neighbors in the little house.  For a few years a wonderful couple lived there after they retired from the military. When they passed away, the house went on the market and eventually a young teacher ended up with the house.  She painted it Puppy Paws, which I believe is an Olympic paint from Lowe’s.  It has a rather pinkish cast.  Anyway, she lived here for a year or so and then got married and they lived here another year, then they accepted teaching jobs elsewhere and put the house on the market.  We almost bought it then, in 2007.  But we didn’t.

Three years and three renters later, my Dad was tired of not knowing who his neighbors would be, he was tired of his steep driveway and wanted back access to his property and I was hankering for a little house to call my own even if it was only on weekends.  So, we made a deal.  He’d buy the property, We (meaning my brother, his assistant and my dad) would fix up the house and then when Mr. Piano graduates we’d purchase the house from him.  In the meantime we’d have a little weekend get away and a little cottage to come home to on school breaks etc.  I’d always thought it would be fun to have a second home like those people you read about who can actually afford a vacation home.

The only hitch in having my second home?  I didn’t really have my first home since I was living in a campus apartment and had sold my dream home in Tennessee when we moved to Louisville for my husband to attend school.  See picture below:

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I’ve always done things backwards and there is a rather satisfying sense of irony in having my second home before I have my first home.  So to speak.  And just so we are clear, I do not have the means to own two homes in any real sense of the phrase ‘two homes’.  It’s not all that.  We got a really good deal on the little house because….brace yourself….this is a sampling of the condition it was in when we found it:

100_0554The kitchen looks totally different now, thanks to my brother.  We were fortunate that the fall of 2010 his business slowed down enough for him to spend the fall and winter doing updates and he was reasonably priced.  And he is talented.  And we did the bare minimum to make it work as a little get away house.  Nothing fancy, just clean and simple.  I will do some before and after posts soon.

To be fair to previous owners, the young teacher had the house very clean and did some painting and updates, but unfortunately the renters after she moved out weren’t so kind to the house.  We gathered several, like at least 13, large, yard, garbage bags full of junk that the last renter had left behind.  It looked like she had left in a hurry as there was something in a pan on the stove that looked like chili and my Dad found out the hard way that we shouldn’t open the refrigerator door.  It had to be thrown away which is a shame as it looked fairly new.  We let our appliance guy recycle the stove when we purchased a new one as I wasn’t too thrilled with keeping it either after seeing the “leftovers” in the pan (we’re talking several weeks).  I have a picture of the garbage we threw out, when I find it I’ll scan it and let you see that I’m not making this up!

So, here we are two and a half years later and our “second” home has become our only home.  For awhile at least.  Mr. Piano, is getting ready to defend his dissertation on January 15th.  After that he will do some final editing and then it will be off to be bound and printed, then we wait for graduation in May.  He was supposed to graduate in December, but, well, that is a long story, and a stressful one, and really couldn’t be helped. He is essentially done and after next week, he will be done, but since graduation only happens twice a year, it won’t be official until May.  Then, God willing, he will have a teaching job in the fall.  He has been applying like crazy to colleges.  Frankly, we don’t know where we’ll end up, or when we’ll be there.

In the meantime we remain here in the Little House, in a small Kentucky ‘burg, living in our second home, waiting on a job that will presumably take us to our first home, unless, something would pop up close by and then our second home could be our first home.  We are open to God’s plans.  We wait on him because we know he is faithful.  We are learning to rest, trust, and listen.  In Him we Remain, because he is our true home.

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Remaining in Grace,

Sadie

Dwelling Places

~ Teresa ~ Leave a comment

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Psalm 84 begins with “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord God Almighty”.  For someone like me who loves beautiful homes and decorating, that phrase conjures up a myriad of images – it inspires dreams.  Just saying “dwelling places” resonates deep within me.  I can get excited about almost any home, no matter how humble or how palatial, simply because I have never seen a house that I couldn’t imagine beautiful.

When the Psalmist is talking about God’s dwelling place he is not talking about dwelling places in the sense of brick and mortar mansions or cottages, rather he is talking about being with God and looking ahead to eternity which is our permanent home.   In verse two he says “My Soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord;”  One version says that his soul languishes for the courts of the Lord.  In Victorian times, to languish usually meant to be almost consumed by your desire for someone or something.  In Illness, to languish puts you near death.

The psalmist so languishes after the Lord and dwelling with him that he is ready to turn his back on any hint of earthly roots.   He has realized that he is just a pilgrim traveling through life to get to his real destination.  To be on a pilgrimage is more than just traveling.  Pilgrimage has a purpose; you are traveling to a holy place.  Warren Wiersbe in his BE Worshipful commentary, says that “a pilgrim is heading home.”

Too many times we think the pilgrimage is finding the perfect dwelling place be it actual dwelling, or possibly the right location.  We then proceed to put down roots as if we are going to be established forever.  Instead, as Christians, we should be holding the things of this world loosely and looking to the final destination as our root source.  Corrie ten Boom says, “I’ve learned that we must hold everything loosely, because when I grip it tightly, it hurts when the Father pries my fingers loose and takes it from me.”

Giving up our earthly dreams does indeed hurt sometimes, but the hurt can be for our good if we allow God to teach us the greater truths about what it really means to dwell with him.  My “Tennessee Home” as I called it, was a dream I had to give up and I grieved over the loss.  For me, it was my dream home and it was the most peaceful place I had ever lived on this earth.  I called it my God house. It was our Grace House.  I truly do believe it was a gift from God and I believe it was ok to love my home.  When the time came to move on I was willing, or so I thought, to give up my house.  The delayed reaction, once the dust had settled on our new adventure, was that I went through actual grief at giving up my dream home.  God used this grief to teach me lessons and give me perspective.

What I have come to realize is that home is a place in the heart that you take with you wherever you go; home on earth is not a permanent destination, it is just part of the pilgrimage to where we’re going to dwell eternally. If we are willing to give up our dreams and plans, that leaves room for God to plant his desires in our heart.

I want the “cry of my heart” to be as the Psalmist says in verse 10 of this same chapter: “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

So where are you on this pilgrimage? Are you languishing to dwell with God or are you busy holding on tightly to things that will have to be pried from your grip?

Prayer:  ” …O Lord Almighty, my king and my God.  Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.  Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.”  Psalm 84:3b-5 (NIV)

Go in Grace,

Teresa