No Average Mom

Last night we drove through our old neighborhood on the way to visit family. As soon as we turned the corner my eye started to twitch. This twitching is something it did the entire final two years that we lived there. I believe it was related to stress. I can’t helped but wonder how the new people living there are doing. Question pop into my mind and I wonder if they too have had to install security cameras? I truly hope that the neighborhood is being kinder to them than it was to us. It would be nice to know we battled living next door to such evil people for a reason.

About two months ago we moved into our new house. We love our new house and can’t say enough good things about our neighborhood. There are so many things that make this house just feel like we were always meant to be here. These feelings are in stark contrast to how we felt while living in our old house and neighborhood.

When we purchased our previous home we new from the start that we would not be living there for more than 5-10 years. This very much impacted what and how we chose to decorate our house. Everything we bought was neutral in color. Over the years I got so tired of living in a sea of beige. Over the years it felt more like we were renters instead of home owners because of every choice was impacted with the prospect of selling the house in the future.

Today, we are fearless in our selection of decor throughout our home. We decided when beginning to decorate our new home that we wanted a home that felt vibrant and alive instead of one that seemed to be waiting for someone else. Our decorating choices today center around reflecting who we are and our passions in life. As most of you know I love shopping online and have really enjoyed hunting decorating ideas and products to complete each room in our new house.

One thing I have learned in the process of decorating is that it is often the little touches that make the biggest impact. For example no matter how perfectly you paint a room the color can see dull and bland without crown molding. To me these little architectural touches are the difference between a nice room and a truly spectacular room. When we added crown molding to our dining room it looked like a truly finished room.

The region where we live is so rural we have found ourselves turning to online merchants like Inviting Home for truly special home decorating products. The Inviting Home website offers a wealth of inspiration for decorators in addition to the array of products available. I really love being able to browse the galleries of Inviting Home to see how a room in my house might look with various decorating choices and themes. This is also a really handy tool for giving my husband a visual idea of the plans I envision in my head for our house. We often butt heads when it comes to decorating because he can envision what I describe as an ideal look for a room in our house. By showing him a similar look in the gallery it simplifies things by giving him a more tangible idea of what our house could look like.

Inviting Home is a great resource for everyone from decorating novices like myself to seasoned professionals. It is so nice to shop from the comfort of home for everything to make a house a home from the vast selection of products that include everything from wood carvings to home lighting. No matter what room or what detail I am hoping to highlight I have been able to find products I love and inspiration for what our home can become at Inviting Home!

One thing I am passionate about is trying to save on my energy bills. I hate the idea of throwing money away needlessly on this expenses. These are a few tips for saving on your energy bills.

1. Do a home energy audit. This survey analyzes your home’s structure, appliances and insulation, as well as your family’s lifestyle. Alliant Energy offers customers a free energy audit called My Home Comfort Check Up that provides a personalized report detailing specific ways to save energy throughout your home.

Heating your home
2. Change or clean your furnace filter once a month. Dust and dirt can quickly clog vital parts, making your furnace run harder and eventually break down.

3. Have your heating system inspected regularly – especially if it’s natural gas. A $50-100 annual tune-up can help reduce your heating costs by up to five percent.

4. If you have a forced-air furnace, do NOT close heat registers in unused rooms. Your furnace is designed to heat a specific square footage of space and can’t sense a register is closed – it will continue working at the same pace. In addition, the cold air from unheated rooms can escape into the rest of the house, reducing the effectiveness of all your insulating and weatherizing.

5. Install a programmable thermostat. If you use it to set back the temperature by 10 degrees for eight hours every night, you’ll lower your heating bills by 10 percent. A $50 digital thermostat can pay for itself in energy savings in less than a year.

6. Don’t set the thermostat higher than you actually want it. It won’t heat your home any faster, and it will keep your furnace running longer than necessary.

7. Vacuum registers and vents regularly, and don’t let furniture and draperies block the air flow. Inexpensive plastic deflectors can direct air under tables and chairs.

8. If your home has a boiler system, avoid covering radiators with screens or blocking them with furniture. It’s also a good idea to add a reflecting panel behind radiators – you can purchase one at a home center or make one yourself with a plywood panel and aluminum foil.

9. If your home has electric baseboard heating, be sure to keep furniture and draperies away from the heaters, and leave at least a three-inch clearance under the heating unit.

10. Keep curtains and blinds closed at night to keep cold air out, but open them during the day to let the sun warm the room.

Right now I am watching my husband try to introduce the new puppy to our two cats. So far we have kept them apart because our cats are very big and like to play quite rough. This little puppy doesn’t seem to recognize their size which is more than twice her size. She thinks nothing of just taking off after these huge cats and trying to instigate a little fun. I will have to post some pictures of this little lady and the two big boy’s she keeps teasing so you can see just how silly she is.

Selling a house is a kind of weird experience when you are still living in the house. What is even funnier is when your neighbors are trying to sell their house also. To make the situation more interesting we are using the same agent. The advice we have each been given is entirely different. We took steps prior to placing our house on the market to make it as welcoming as possible. This included taking down all of our picture frames and decorative items and painting each room in warm but neutral colors. Our agent said that these were really great moves to make. On the other hand she told our neighbors that this was not necessary because they still had to live in the house while it was on the market. Maybe this is because they haven’t really taken steps to depersonalize their home. I just find it odd. She does say our house shows very well and is warm and welcoming.

We have placed all of our office furniture in storage. This was done in an attempt to make our home feel more spacious when people come to look at it. It has left me with a bit of a dilemma as to what to do with our computer. We don’t really have an office space or room making it a bit difficult to determine what to do with all of the office equipment we have. I suppose I could buy another desk to put in the dining room but this kind of defeats the purpose of moving the desk we had into storage. For now it is sitting on our breakfast bar which is not very appealing to look at but serves the purpose.

We have a new mailman. For the most part he does a very good job of making sure our mail makes it to our house. Every so often we do seem to get someone else’s mail. It makes me giggle to think that our mailman possibly thinks that I am shopping for renaissance costumes in addition to getting a monthly subscription to Big Rig Trucker. Obviously, as a stay at home mom I try to keep informed of the latest developments in a number of areas but trucking and costumes are not on my list right now. Ask me when things have settled down and I might feel differently but for now all I can focus on is raising my kids and planning for the future.

This spring really isn’t as pretty as it usually is around here. Things have just been cold and damp for so long it doesn’t seem like spring is really here. In my mind I envision myself staying at one of those North Padre Island rentals. The problem is when I open my eyes all I see is gray skies and gloominess. Hopefully, this all goes away soon and we can finally start to enjoy warm breezes and sunny days. If it doesn’t we may just need to plan a getaway because I am not sure how much longer I can stand this gloom. It feel like I have up and moved to Seattle or something. At least the people in Seattle have chosen to live in that kind of climate. We are suppose to get hit with bitter winters and then be rewarded with glorious spring and summer weather. Someone forget to send the glorious weather this year.