Music Room

Sometimes a music room is that corner where the piano just fits, so you tuck the guitar stand next to it and your clarinetist uses the piano as a music stand.

Home can be small with multi-purpose spaces. Keeping it real.

Contemplating Space

Although I live in a detached, single family home, one of my favorite books about home is "Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure" by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, a New York City-based stylist.

From this book, here is a thought for the day, a suggestion rather than a quote per se.

Sit for ten minutes in a part of your home that you never sit in.

Meditate if you will. Contemplate your home with a new perspective. Consider unused corners. Minor tweaks can freshen up your day or week.

Here is one of my bookmarks, some fun simple ideas for "5 Ways to Freshen Up Your Daily Life". If you would like an actual paper copy, drop me an email.

Enjoy this wonderful day.

Perfect

People seek the perfect home. There are so many variables, needs versus wants, deal breakers on the can't-have and can't-live-without sides of the scale. Buying a house is a difficult decision. One searches for the ideal match, often torn, angst-ridden.

And the first thing they do after they move in is change it. Paint a room, swap out a light fixture, renovate the hall bath. They make it their own. And it is natural and comforting and affirming.

So don't fret over the little things when you immersed in your home search. Your new home will be perfect, and then you will make it perfect-er, and it will be yours.

Backyards

There are grassy flat backyards, postage stamp sized neat tidy urban garden backyards, narrow corner lot backyards, picket fence with a gate to your neighbors' backyards, private fenced oasis backyards, and expansive impressive backyards. Any that accommodates a hammock between two old trees is ideal to me. What is the best feature of your backyard or other outdoor space?

Sunny Outlook

A sunny front door leads to a sunny outlook after a long, cold, snowy winter.

Something as simple as painting your front door can make all the difference in curb appeal, not to mention how you feel when you walk into your home every day.

The Much Anticipated Living Room Sconces

I have been on a quest for living room sconces for over a year and a half.  I share my story to "Keep It Real" about improvements to your home. Not all projects are a weekend success or an instant fix. I struggle with decisions just like you. And taking the time to make the right choice for your home and your family can be so rewarding that it is worth the time and effort. Well, mostly.  Effort yes; time... not so much.

It all began when we bought our Bethesda home almost two years ago. We loved everything about it, except the wood thing over our massive living room fireplace. I am sure it was treasured over the years by previous owners and I respected its unique nature. It just was not for my family. So yes, we removed it. To be more accurate, at the end of September 2011, I paid my friend Pieter to take it all down including the mantel. Much to our surprise, behind that wooden facade was an archeological find of fireplace embellishments over the decades. We found a slip of paper dated 1951 back there, plus dubious wiring faintly visible on the photo on the right. And yes, those little metal electrical covers that promised of lighting to come.

Jump ahead to late January 2012 to discover minor progress on the lighting front. We hired an electrician to confirm and modernize the connection between the wires behind those plates and a switch on the wall by the front door.  As a temporary solution, they crudely though safely attached two mismatched light bulbs to the wires, to validate electrical success. Running in parallel to our sconce quest was the restoration of the plaster. We'll call this phase the retro industrial look. Visitors politely tried to ignore it.  But by mid-spring 2012, our plaster guy had applied 13 layers over 6 or 7 visits to reach the point where we were ready for sconce selection and painting.

I created a Pinterest board for living room sconce ideas. Friends weighed in. I vacillated between much bling, subtle oil rubbed bronze, antiqued but new fixtures, custom-made from New York City, and many in between. I narrowed in on a vintage look, to keep with the style of our 1938 Tudor. A random postcard from Artisan Lamp Company in Cleveland Park, Washington, DC, led me to dropping by their shop one evening in February 2013; yes that much time had passed. I found some I liked. I mentioned them to my loving spouse. He wondered why I had not bought them. Next time I could get there was April 4, 2013. I found an American vintage pair from the 1920s or 1930s with crystal and brass. And it only took me 8 days to get an electrician here to install them on a dimmer switch. Tah dah!  I present to you the final product. Now we just need a mantel.

On the Ground: 12th Place NW DC

I have a new favorite street in Washington, DC: Twelfth Place Northwest. Quiet with one-way traffic, yet walkable to the hub of hip that is the U Street Corridor.  An adorable assortment of cozy rowhouses built around the 1890s, it reminds me of Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina, on a smaller scale.  Charm and convenience, loaded with personality. Walking down this street reminds me of one of Lucy's old storybooks, The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater. "Our street is us and we are it. Our street is where we like to be, and it looks like all our dreams." Where is your dream street?

The Royal Wedding and Our New House

Today is the one-and-a-half-year anniversary for William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and for my family's move into our home in Bethesda. To commemorate both occasions, I bought a handmade Emma Bridgewater Royal Wedding mug last year. Because we had sold our house one day before buying our new home, we were homeless for a day. Our generous friends Nick and Carrie let all four of us plus our two cats stay with them for that night. The Royal Wedding coverage started in the US at 5:30am ET on Friday, April 29, 2011, so Carrrie and I awoke before dawn to watch the ceremony. It is no coincidence that Carrie is the one who started my Emma Bridgewater collection and that we were watching the festivities together.

This is the mug I use every Friday for my morning coffee. I derive simple pleasures from the feel of the mug in my hand, that continued joy of home ownership, and the few moments of peace before the busy-ness of life.

I feel lucky every day that I wake up in my beautiful home, with its Tudor charm, gourmet kitchen, and cozy sunroom. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to help other buyers find their dream home, too.

And Teddy Wins!

Teddy wins!  This only means something to you if you, A) live in the DC area; or B) follow the Washington Nationals, which for the most part you'd only do if A) also applies.  The Nats have been bad, really really bad, from their first season in DC in 2005 until 2011.  This 2012 season is another story of course.  Today is the last day of the regular season and the Nats recently clinched their NL East division title and are playing today for the top seed in the entire National League.

So why am I writing about a baseball team in a blog about real estate?  Well, following a sports team, and I think in particular a baseball team given the lengthy MLB season and all the little details in this game that only a local newspaper bothers to cover, is a uniquely local occurrence.  This is not to say that someone can't live in Maryland and be a dedicated fan of the Green Bay Packers, for example, but many people follow sports teams that they either grew up with or adopted in their adult homeland.

Characteristics of a place, such as sports teams (whether long-suffering or dominant for a decade), local cuisine, weather patterns, and hobbies and other interests based on proximity to attractions and outdoor features, factor into decisions about where people choose to live.  They also draw us together to create a broader sense of community and home.  Home is your residence and it is your home town.  Let me know how I can help you find your next home.

And go Nats!

Home, as Defined by You

Everyone's vision of home is unique. What works for you might not work for your best friend or your sister or your neighbor, or even for that person you see walking through the same open house as you are. And home is something that really does conjure up an image in one's mind. Buying a home is often the most expensive purchase people make in their lives and although it is an investment, it is filled with emotion. Because of this concept of home.

As a real estate agent, I help buyer clients find a home. And I help provide guidance, data, and even some reasons they might not want to buy, to help confirm if they do want to actually put pen to paper and write an offer on a house.

I recently re-read "The Hobbit".  Immediately on the first page, I was struck by images of home. Home for a hobbit, of course, may be different than home for you. But I wanted to share a long quote to help expand your idea of home and help illustrate this concept that home creates a vision, an image, a picture. As a buyer's agent, it is helpful if my buyer clients can help paint their picture of home for me. It helps us work together as a team to find the house that will become their home.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, ... it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit was fond of visitors. ... The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were teh only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

The emotion of home comes back to Bilbo Baggins frequently during his adventures. Give me a call or email if I can help you articulate, then find, your next home.

Manageable Laundry Room Reno, Adding Value and Personal Style

Without much introduction to my new blog, I want to share a small renovation project I recently completed in my home.  With a manageable scope and timeline, and about $4,500, I added my personal style as well as value to my home by transforming my basement laundry room into a pleasant place. Of course I had help from my contractor, Mike, and his team.  I did select and purchase all finish materials myself, though Mike supplied the behind the scenes items like the drywall, rough in plumbing and electrical, 2x4s, and so forth.  My supportive husband Brian gave me the nod and the planning began.

Let me step back.  We bought our now 74 year old Tudor house in the Woodhaven neighborhood of Bethesda, Maryland 20817 on April 29, 2011, so we just celebrated our one year anniversary.  Though the house had undergone considerable and gorgeous renovations by the previous owners, the laundry room had been improved only by the addition of new front-load washer and dryer in 2008 and maybe the toilet was relatively new too.  Oh yes, there is a toilet in our basement laundry room.  But I strongly disliked the color and being in the basement without any windows, it was not the most cheerful place to make my laundry clean.

The washer and dryer were on pedestals, all the rage in laundry appliances, but being only 5'3" tall, rounding up, the tops aligned just below my shoulder and even if there had been a nice surface, folding would have been at eye level.  The old wash tub with drain pipe from the washer and the leaky old faucet, exposed pipes and wires and all, contributed to the overall mood.  I dreamed about shiny, happy laundry rooms.  I created a Laundress Pinterest board.  I coveted a new laundry room.  I set a budget, scheduled the work once I got an estimate from my contractor Mike, and went shopping.

A few more notes on my blog before the debrief and the reveal.  Although I am reasonably handy, this is not a Do-It-Yourself blog.  Certainly not an interior designer, I care about and plan to discuss room and house layout and design.  This is not an "on-a-dime" super budget conscious blog, though I find bargains where I can.  Tying it all together is my interest in real estate, homes and projects.  More on real estate in future posts.

Welcome to our perfect new laundry room!  Pretty pale yellow walls (Duron SW7123 "Yellow Beam") in eggshell finish, gorgeous "White Ice" granite counter (a remnant from Granite Works in Rockville) at comfortable folding height, bronze cabinet knobs, plenty of extra, always-appreciated storage, crisp white porcelain farm sink with stainless gooseneck pull-out faucet, all with a fresh and clean perspective!

Other details....

- New wall behind the washer, dryer, sink and toilet, hiding all electrical, outlets for w&d, pipes, etc., plus a backdrop for cabinets 

- New flush mount electronic ballast fluorescent ceiling light fixture from Home Depot, no flicker or delay so voila, instant light!
- Under-cabinet LED light strip with switch on wall above counter plus extra outlet, say for ironing (ha)
- White painted wood cabinets from Ikea, some with glass panels and others above and below the sink with solid doors

- Crown molding to tidily conceal the wires and some pipes
- Direct drainage for washer into behind-the-wall sewer stack
- Repair the broken dryer handle, switch order of washer and dryer and side of dryer hinge for easier transfer of wet clean clothes to dryer.

For the finishing touches, I need a towel bar and a toilet paper holder, to reinforce the combo powder room and laundry room functionality.  We kept the existing tile floor and just rerouted existing plumbing and electrical.  I spent a little more than I probably needed to on the cabinets because I wanted the nicer wood finish with glass and the bronze cabinet knobs from Union Hardware in Bethesda were an extravagance (I'd buy online for much less in the future).  

I did this project to make an everyday chore more pleasant for myself, to add some of my own personal style to my home, and to improve the value of my home, in that order.

But I am one cheerful laundress now.  I'll have a smile on my face for years to come.