Let’s talk about the house

This is not the house at the Wabi-Sabi Ranch. It’s one I passed on a recent bike ride.

Home is oneness, home is my original nature.  It is right here, simply in what is.  There is nowhere else I have to go, and nothing else I have to become.

~ Tony Parsons

Window high up in the Great Room

I haven’t written about, or shown you much of, the house here at the Wabi-Sabi Ranch.  There are many reasons for that.  Regular readers are already familiar with one of those reasons:  It is the beauty of the outdoors that sold us this house.  The house itself, well, we have a long way to go where that’s concerned.

The front of the house at the Wabi-Sabi Ranch on a beautiful June day.  The garage is behind the house.  The greenhouse, the pavilion, the garden, and the chicken coop are off to the left.  The Weathervane Building is in the back left, behind the garden.

The many adjustments we’ve had to make are also a factor.  Downsizing has meant an almost daily struggle in terms of what to keep and what to release.  It’s getting easier.  There are pieces of furniture I have no trouble releasing, and hope they will serve others as well as they served me.  There are other pieces that I have to take my time with before I arrive at a place where I find myself willing to let go.  And, sometimes, there has to be a compromise because I’m not in this alone.

Looking out the front door. Be careful if you open the door and stop out onto the porch. It’s mostly safe, but it needs to be replaced.  There are mushy spots.

I often think how much easier this all would have been if we’d won the lottery and could afford to have stuffed everything but the bare necessities into storage while we worked on the sorely needed house renovations.  We could have worked one room at a time, sprucing it up and then fitting in the furniture that suits the room, and when all was said and done, shed anything left over.

My new clothesline, one of the coolest I’ve ever had. It’s similar to an Amish clothesline only we attached it to the garage because we don’t have a barn. I love the pulley system.  The Mennonite dress is a clothespin bag that I’ve had and used for a couple of years.

Day by day, we’re getting there.  A year from now I’ll wonder what all the fuss was about, why I struggled so much with the house.  I don’t feel unwelcome in this house.  We wouldn’t have bought it if I’d felt that way.  It just isn’t home yet, and as you might remember, I was having trouble visualizing it as it will be when we finish working on it.  I’m finally beginning to visualize it as my home, but it’s not quite there yet.  Colors, for instance, are beginning to show themselves.  The idea of rustic as a theme has expanded into different types of rustic throughout the house.  Beach rustic will invade two of the bedrooms, but not the beach rustic I’ve seen on the interior design and decorating sites and magazines.  It will be my idea of beach rustic.

Door details

I should tell you a little about the house itself.  It was built in 1991 by Mr. B, and we are the second owners of the house.  Mrs. B told me that Mr. B knows every nail in the house because he put every one of them in place.  The house is, as you can see from the photo above, a ranch-style home.  There is a front porch (that needs work), and a back deck (that needs work).

Closer look at the front porch

There are three bedrooms, one of which is now an office, and two bathrooms (a master bath, and one we call the Duck Dynasty bathroom because it is decorated with ducks).

Here we go. The back of the house. This was taken before M installed the new clothesline.  There are all kinds of antennas and satellite dishes scattered about, all but one (the satellite internet) not in use.

I’d like to show you the inside of the house.  I’m thinking I will do it room by room as we work on each one, but there’s nothing wrong with a sneak peek.

Bedroom 3, taken 24 May.

The first room we’ll be be tackling will be Bedroom 3.  It will become the Beach Bedroom, a room that I hope my granddaughters will enjoy sometime in the future.  Cabinets that are slated for this room are currently being used in the kitchen.  M and I decided that it would be easiest to start in the Beach Bedroom so we can move the cabinets before we have the kitchen work done sometime in the fall.

Here’s a brighter view of Bedroom 3, the future Beach Bedroom, taken on 21 May. A little messier than that first shot which was taken three days after this.

One of the challenges will be wallpaper and wallpaper borders.  Mrs. B, it seems, loved both.  Fortunately, we don’t have to start out with a wallpaper challenge because the future Beach Bedroom has neither.

New neighbor

There are no plans to buy new furniture or decorative items or anything of the sort.  With the exception of the kitchen (which needs new cabinets and counter tops), we will be repurposing things we’ve found around the property or things we’ve picked up at flea markets or yard sales.  I even have some exciting (to me) plans for one of the windows we found outside, the painted frame wonderfully weathered and distressed.

Padding the nest

Well, that’s about it from the Wabi-Sabi Ranch for today.  Thank you so much for stopping by.  I was supposed to be spending the weekend with family, but the best laid plans have gone awry (in the form of a cold which I do not want to pass on to the older members of the family).  I’ll be staying home, taking care of myself.  Now that the storms have passed, the air and heat have cleared and the weather is delightful.  I might be able to spend some time sitting on the dock, watching the tide come in or go out.  What are your plans for the weekend?  Rest?  Play?  Work?  All three?

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

The Couple