Tall House: Do We Need to Replace the Front Door?
I need to discuss the front entrance with you a bit more. The two doors are big. They are essentially garage doors and both of them open wide, which is nice when we need to bring in building materials, or trailers for hauling debris.
What you wouldn’t know unless you’ve been to the house is that these doors don’t open into the interior of the house. Instead, they open into the “garage”, and then, there is another door (that also feels like a formal front door), that opens to the interior.
…Tall House: Do We Need to Replace the Front Door?Read More »
Living With Kids: Riche Holmes Grant
Welcome to Grant Central! That’s the name that Riche and her family have chosen for their home. With all they’ve got going on, it’s a fitting name. Riche is one of those people who is a serial entrepreneur — she’s been a clothing designer, a blogger, a YouTuber and so much more. And looking at these photos you can get a sense of the creative energy that abounds in her home. Plus, she was kind enough to give us a realistic peek at what quarantine has looked like for her and her family. Welcome, Riche.
…A Few Things
Hello, Friends. How are you? Does it seem like Friday to you? Are you feeling the relief of making it through another week? Any updates on school closings where you live? President Macron spoke earlier this week and said May 11th is the earliest schools will reopen in France. (School here ends the first week of July, so that would still give a couple of months of learning.)
Something new for us: We tried a bit of gardening at the new house this week. Nothing major — we just dead-headed the hydrangea bushes. But it felt good to work outside. And we found the little nest above! Those eggs look absolutely pretend, right?
Now I need to figure out: 1) where I can buy stuff like a rake and some garden gloves while most stores are closed, 2) if there’s a community composting spot where I can drop off clippings and leaves and other yard waste, and 3) what we can reasonably do to improve the garden this summer, even though we’re not living in the house yet.
Maybe we can plant something? Figure out a path and some ground cover? The interior of the house is definitely the priority as far as work projects go, but if there’s something small we can do outside, I would be open to it.
Ready for some weekend reading? Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you:
…Tall House: Exterior Paint Color
Back before we were sheltering-in-place, we hired a window tradesman. He met us at the house, looked at each window, and we discussed the project. We want to keep all the current windows, but they need some attention. Some open and close easily, but many do not. And all of them need to be painted inside and out (after the loose old paint is taken off).
There are 9 windows at the front of the house, and 7 windows at the back of the house, and we hired him to get all 16 in good working order. We especially love the windows at the front of the house — the wood at the top has a gentle arch to custom-fit the arched stonework, and they are quite lovely.
…Living With Kids: Kalli Verbecky
I love that you all get to meet Kalli today and see her pretty home in Lehi, Utah. Kalli and I are friends in real life and I always love her sense of humor when she posts about raising her three boys. I think her perspective is just what we need during this weird shelter-at-home time we’re all experiencing — her house is bright and sunny and her thoughts on social distancing are honest and funny and smart. Welcome, Kalli!
…A Few Things
Hello, Friends. How are you? How was your week? On the calendar is it Spring Break for you? Our two-week school vacation officially begins after [home] school today. If travel was possible, we would likely be on a road trip to Spain or Portugal. So strange to think of it now! It’s like a faraway dream. Instead, this school break will be hardly noticeable — though I do think the kids will be relieved not to have home school responsibilities for a couple of weeks.
Sunday is Easter and I think this will be the most low-key holiday we’ve ever had. You’ll laugh, but we asked the kids how they wanted to celebrate and the only request was funeral potatoes (a comfort food popular among Mormons). I can’t remember the last time I made them, so it sounds like a good plan to me. Speaking of Mormons, today our church is holding a fast for worldwide COVID-19 relief. It’s a small thing but it feels good to be participating in something mindful and positive with millions of people around the world.
How about you? How are you feeling about your spring holidays? Any plans? Will you be dying eggs and having a hunt in your garden? Having a traditional meal? Face-timing with your extended family? I’d love to hear.
Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you:
…Tall House: Bathroom Floorplans
We’re finalizing the floorplans for two bathrooms — the kids’ bathroom and the owner’s-suite bathroom — so we can communicate the plans to the plumber. I thought we were pretty settled on both, but I spent some time over at the new house and ended up making some changes to one of the floorplans.
Here’s the floorplan for the kids’ bathroom:
…Living With Kids: Ana Bianchi
Once upon a time Ana Bianchi shared her home tour when she lived in New York. Since then, she and her family (her husband, her daughter, and her pug) have moved to Walnut Creek, California and live in a beautiful house with an even more beautiful garden. It seems like the perfect place to spend quarantine, and Ana is grateful for all the work she and her family have put into the space to make it what it is now. You’ll love poking around and seeing all the lovely art on the walls, and the way Ana makes you feel totally at home. Welcome, Ana!
…A Few Things
Hello Friends. How are you? Have you settled into quarantine life yet? Found a schedule or some consistency that’s working for you?
I’m sure worried about you. I know some of you live in tiny spaces and are feeling trapped. I know some of you have very young kids and nowhere for them to get out their excess energy (and no break for you from childcare!). I know some of you are lonely. I know some of you are worried about paying for food and bills and not sure where to get help. I know some of you have essential jobs and are still heading into work everyday so that the rest of us can remain safely home. I know pretty much everyone is living with an unusual level of stress. I know this is hard.
One of the hardest parts is not being able to see the end. We don’t know how long it will be until our kids can go to school, until we can return to our work places, until we can resume errands and meetings. It makes it really difficult to manage expectations. We got an email yesterday from our school saying that the earliest we would go back is May 4th (but that’s not guaranteed at all).
How about you? How are you holding up? Have you been able to find any silver-linings? Are you remembering to take your meds? Finding new ways to cope? This week I started randomly facetiming long-time friends that I don’t get a chance to talk to very often. Not everyone picks up (and I know not everyone recognizes my +33 French number), but when they do it’s delightful. : )
Ready for some weekend links? Here are a few things I’ve been wanting to share:
…Tall House: Choosing a Bathroom Style
Here’s something design-y to distract us from the news. One of the projects I’ve been tackling during our self-quarantine is designing the bathrooms for the St. Martin House. If you saw the original home tour on Instagram, you may remember there are are four floors, but only one bathroom.
It’s a traditional French bathroom, where the toilet is in its own little closet, and the neighboring room has a bathtub, sink, and bidet (pictured above). It’s on the second floor. During the renovation, we are planning to add more bathrooms.
…Living With Kids: Chris Cammock
How’s everyone holding up? I’m happy to introduce you to Chris today. Chris is a Creative Director who runs the in-house communications team for a hospital, so her family is right in the thick of all-things-coronavirus. And yes Chris’s house is amazing — full of color and joy — but you’ll also love her frankness about how her family is adjusting to life during social distancing. (I cried when I read Chris‘s daily schedule.) Welcome, Chris!
…A Few Things
Hello Friends. How are you? No but really. How are you holding up? This week feels like it’s been a full month at least, but also flew by in like five minutes? I could swear I was writing last week’s link list earlier today. My sense of time is totally out of whack.
Nothing major to report here. More baking, more wallpaper-peeling, more schoolwork, more time on Pinterest thinking about bathroom designs — and a surprising amount of work deadlines too. Maude has been practicing painting while she stays-at-home in Berkeley, and she sent me the image above. It made me happy. How about you? Anything you’re in the mood to report?
I’m going to jump right in to the link list. Here are a few things I’ve been wanting to share with you:
…Feeling Anxious? Let’s Take 5 Steps to Get Our Affairs in Order
This is a post that confronts some of the realities of death. Skip this, or save it for later, if your brain isn’t able to deal with it at the moment.
Deaths from Covid-19 have topped 1000 in the U.S.. We continue to hope for the best, but the virus is not under control, and we don’t know how many people will be impacted until it is. We need to be aware that some current projections show the number of covid-related deaths could grow to well past a million.
Perhaps you will not be personally unaffected; you and your family may remain healthy. I certainly wish that for you. But the virus affects different people in different ways, and we can’t know who it will hit the hardest. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with worry, taking some concrete steps to protect your family in your possible absence may help.
In the five suggestions below I’m going to refer to “your person”. Your person might be your spouse, your adult child (or adult children), your sibling, your best friend, your lawyer — your person is whoever you plan to assign dealing with your will, and your belongings, if you were to die.
…Feeling Anxious? Let’s Take 5 Steps to Get Our Affairs in OrderRead More »
Living With Kids: Annie Preece
Today you get to meet Annie, an artist and a painter who lives with her children and her husband in a beautiful home outside Salt Lake City. When the bought the property it was an older, smaller place in need of repair. So they did some basic fix-ups to make it livable.
Then as their family grew, they needed more space but didn’t want to leave their neighborhood, so they tore down the old house and built a custom home on the lot. Their goal was to build a home they can stay in forever, and I think they succeeded. It’s livable and lovely — and it even has a climbing wall. Welcome, Annie!
…A Few Things
Hello, Friends. How are you? What a hard and weird week it’s been. So many people trying to grasp that our world is fundamentally changed, that we really have no idea when calls for self-isolation will end, that we don’t know when our kids will return to school (and many experts say it likely won’t happen this school year), that we can’t quite comprehend what’s coming.
I am mostly okay. I have kids to whom I can direct my attention, and who are an essential reason to remain calm and collected. I have work to occupy my mind. It’s easy for me to find things to be grateful for — like consistent electricity and internet even in the midst of a global pandemic. But still, I find myself sometimes overcome with sadness and discouragement and have to just sit for a minute and breath through it. I’m aware I’m not alone in this.
Sometimes we go to sleep here in France and wake up to major news in the U.S. that we missed while we slept. Today was one of those days. The first headlines I read were about Senators Burr and Loeffler selling off millions of dollars of stocks just before the market crashed, while publicly assuring Americans that everything was fine. I am so angry I can hardly form words about it. (And weirdly I’m grateful for the anger because it’s a great distraction from fear?)
I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it feel like a weekend at our house, but I hope we can. Because for a week where it feels like we didn’t do much, the whole family seems exhausted. I need to figure out a way to make the next couple days restful and restorative so that we can make it through another week of this.
Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you. I tried hard to find a good mix of stuff so I won’t depress you. : )
…What Would You Pick For A New Last Name?
I’m needing something lighter to discuss today. Will you join me? I read this tweet last week and it made me chuckle.
At the same time I was laughing, I was also thinking: YES. This is so smart!!
I’ve said this for many, many years about married names: If the goal is equality and fairness, then choosing a new last name for the new family you are creating when you get married, is the option that makes the most sense.
…Living With Kids: Jessie Pierce
Today’s home tour feels like just what we need — a bright a beautiful home, and a mother who has a personality that feels just as bright and beautiful. Meet Jessie. She and her family live outside Washington D.C. in a petite 1000 square ft home. With two toddlers it would be easy for that space to feel crowded and messy but Jessie does a great job of keeping things minimal, open and inviting. She might just inspire you to spend some time cleaning out your closets and getting rid of things you don’t love anymore. Welcome, Jessie!
…A Few Things
Hello, Friends. How are you? Was it a strange week for you? I assume so because it’s been a strange week everywhere. This is unlike anything that has happened in our life times and it’s hard to know what to expect and how to properly react.
I’m going to jump right into links. Here are a few things I’ve been wanting to share with you. And I should tell you now, the vast majority are coronavirus related — some serious, some light-hearted, some calming, some infuriating, some very funny:
…Random Thoughts
I hope you’re in the mood for a Random Thoughts post. Here are some of the things on my mind (lots of it related to Covid-19):
– The Coronavirus-related news can be so overwhelming — I’ve found I cope better if I take it in smaller doses. I try to keep it to a few minutes of Twitter and then a couple of articles from reputable sources, like the New York Times or the BBC. It’s remarkable how fast things are changing, with new cancellations being announced every day.
Ben Blair was supposed to travel to Utah later this month for the Mormon Transhumanism conference, but they just announced it would be virtual instead. (Which of course totally makes sense.) This trip was also going to be an opportunity to spend time with his mother, and take some work-related meetings. So now he’s looking at his options and talking to the airline to find out if postponing/rescheduling makes more sense, or if an outright cancellation would be better.
…Living With Kids: A Revisit to Kimberly Garner
A while back we introduced you to Kimberly Garner who lived in a beautiful home in the San Juan Islands. In her essay, Kimberly talked a bit about how she was recently divorced. It turns out that Kimberly sold that gorgeous home and is off on a new adventure. I wanted to reach out to hear and see her new place (Kimberly’s style is effortlessly chic and inviting) and to hear how life was going, post divorce. Kimberly once again is smart and wise and really pours her heart out. Welcome back, Kimberly.
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