Framing A Custom House Portrait: a house log

How do you like that sensationalized title? Haha. It is like Star Magazine up in this joint. This is in short a post idea that John and I came up with when we realized that there were a surprising amount of nooks and crannies in the house that we have never shared. And some things that are a lot bigger than a nook or a cranny. Which is weird for two over-sharers like us. So consider that remedied now that we are over-spilling the beans in true Petersik fashion. Without further ado, here is the first we-cannot-believe-we-have not-shared-it-yet thing. Our pantry:

We have mentioned that we have a pantry-ish cabinet next to the wall oven in our kitchen…

… but realized that we never opened wide and snapped a shot. All the cabinetry in the kitchen was replaced around 25 years ago, so the swing out doors and the little middle compartment that also swings out (so there is storage on the back and on the wall behind it) must have been quite the state of the art stuff back in the day. Heck, we are still kind of charmed by all of those little shelves to stash stuff – although we do occasionally forget where we put something which leads to a ten minute cabinet swinging search party.

Ok moving on, betcha did not know we had an in-ground irrigation system. Fancy, right? Since I am not fancy I simply use the term sprinklers. It is not for our whole nearly-acre lot, simply for the front yard and a small portion of the backyard that is grass. Of course we are “frugal” with our water usage, so we only turn it on after a while without rain (when we are not on water restriction of course), but they are in fact fairly handy (it certainly beats wrestling the hose). And Burger jumps off the couch/out of the bed and runs to the window if they turn on. Which is consistently hilarious. The guy loves watching them do their thing.

Up next is simply an update that we have been meaning to share. Remember I mentioned that I got a rendering of our first house for John this Father’s Day? Well, I at last got around to framing it. First here is a shot of the fairly little pen & ink + Prisma marker portrait:

The artist (Jennifer Ahnquist from Kentucky) also included this first-draft sketch in the envelope as well, which was truly lively to see:

So here is the portrait hanging up in our consistently-changing hallway frame gallery. We hung it pleasant and low (using the same affixed-to-the-wall-so-it is-baby-safe method that we outlined here) since Clara loves saying “ohh hou” which is “bean-talk” for old house. So cute.

Oh and see the frame above it? That is this page from a hand-me-down Boden catalog that my BFF left at my house. I enjoyed the playful riff on “seize the day” so I simply cut it out (following the imperfect background rectangle) and popped it into that frame. Cannot wait until Clara starts learning to read, since it is down towards her level.

This never before seen tidbit might scare you in an is-that-the-vine-from-little-shop-of-horrors-and-will-it-try-to-eat-my-face kind of way. Yup, that is right, the green leafy mass on the tree trunk next to our upper patio is a vine. It is in fact “hugging” a tall healthy oak tree (we had someone check things out, simply to make sure), and apparently the vine down towards the base should not be invasive sufficient to do too much damage, but if it continues to grow and starts looking too heavy or the tree starts not-thriving we will be on it like white on rice.

And now for the that is-a-shame thing that we have never truly pointed out specifically. We enjoy the extra wide reclaimed pine floors in our bedroom, but they desperately need some enjoy. Check out the faded square in front of our dresser (our best guess is that some piece of furniture sat there for so long that the floor somehow faded around it).

It has also fully lost its seal, so the previous owners must have placed something brown here on the floor that was sucked right into the wood and stained it (floors with poly or some other sealer typically prevent this from happening). So refinishing it (along with a lot of other damaged areas of hardwood in our house) is certainly on the someday agenda.

We also ironically learned in the quite last post about our first house how frequently we re-share the same angles of a room over and over again – but somehow miss taking shots from other vantage points. For example, we never shared a shot like this of the den (looking into the kitchen/laundry nook) until moving day when everything was packed up in the truck. So it makes us want to include mundane photos like this one of the hallway that connects Clara’s room, the playroom, the guest room, and the hall bathroom to the heart of the house (the hallway frame gallery/kitchen/dining room/living room, etc).

See that giant intake vent near the floor? I am dying to add some sort of wainscoting to the hall, but I am not sure how I can do it with this beast going on. Perhaps simply work it in around it and paint it glossy white and hope that it looks semi-seamless?

Ok, and here is the thing that will likely surprise everyone the most. This is the south-west corner of our house:

Yup, it is pointy. The whole sunroom in fact slants up. Which certainly threw us off during our walk-through since the rest of the house is so mid-century and ranch-ish. This room was brought in in the 90’s, so that might explain the distinct look. But it is in fact a truly airy and light-filled room from the inside – thanks to that lofted ceiling:

So it has plenty of potential and we are glad to have it – strange slanting-up roof and all. We in fact have a few ideas for trying to integrate it down the road when it comes to the exterior, but who knows where we will end up. One thing is for sure: we will keep you posted. Likely in that typical over-sharing fashion that we know so well.

Is anyone on the floor? Come on, somebody tell me that something shocked them. Likely not. I wish we had crazier house secrets (although I do have a recurring dream about discovering a hidden room). Would not that rock?

Psst- Speaking of dreams, I in fact had one about Beyonce last night. But the real one (as opposed to the chicken one that we mentioned yesterday). We picked up a compact horseshoe shaped necklace together (it was $100 so I put in $40 and said “you are the rich one, so do you mind doing $60?). Ugh, I am even embarrassingly low-cost in my dreams. But Beyonce was cool with it. The oddest thing is the concept (how on earth were Beyonce and I going to share a necklace? Are we together so much that swapping it back and forth is straightforward?). So strange.