New Side Table

Found this table at a used furniture store called City Chic at 50th and Xerxes in Minneapolis. It's mission-like and looks great between the brown leather chair and couch.

Rake the Roof

A dream home simply must be maintained. We've had lots of snow this winter and the ice dams have been pretty bad. Our old roof rake cracked so Dale went out and bought a new one. It has a special 'slide' on it to help the snow fall off.

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Paint Job 2010 Part 3

This photo was taken in July 2010. The paint job was done in September. From this distance you really can't see the peeling and chipped paint. The house actually looks pretty good although the front and the back of the house had held up the best. The sides were a mess but I don't think I have any pictures of those.

Paint Job 2010 Part 2

More photos of the paint job from 2010. Kurt pointed out to us that many of the wooden slats really should be replaced. We used cedar.

Paint Job 2010

In May of 1998 we experienced a severe hail storm that damaged our aluminum siding and the shingles on our roof. The type of wide slat aluminum siding we had was not available anymore and were told that we'd have to go with narrow slat vinyl siding. We weren't keen on the idea. The only other option was to paint. For various reasons we didn't have the house painted until 2001. The wood that had been under the siding was in pretty good shape according to a painter Dale knew through his then-boss, John. We decided to go with the color green as the main color and have red and yellow as accents. Sadly the paint started to show signs of peeling by 2006. By 2009 it was in such bad shape we knew we needed to take action because it was looking really bad. The company that had originally painted it was out of business so we went with another painter, Kurt, Dale knew through his current boss, Tom. Kurt had a really good Angie's List rating which was something we never ever thought to check with Doug, our previous painter. We went at looked at some other work of Kurt's around town and it all looked great. He wasn't able to get us on his schedule until the next year and we were willing to wait.

Home Decor

I believe the decor of a home should stay somewhat true to it's era. When I say "somewhat true to it's era" I mean that many of the furnishings should at least look like they date (give or take) 10 years from when the house was built. In the case of our house the year is 1924. Of course there should be flexibility worked into all of this. Sometimes furnishings from different eras can compliment each other.

Me, Retro? Yeah, I like to think...

Dale and I live in what I like to call a "bungalow-esque" style house built in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1924. I don't know that it is officially a bungalow but it has some elements of that style. We're guessing it was purchased as a kit from a Sears-type catalog.

In the beginning...

We moved to our current location in November of 1997. We originally planned to stay about 3-5 years. Well, it's 2011 and we're still here. I liked the house when we bought it but didn't see it as my dream house. I've grown to really love it here and have accepted that if I'm going to have a dream home anytime in the near future this, realistically, is going to have to be it. How do we turn this place into what we've always wanted if that's even possible? I'm willing to try.