It’s The Little Things: How To Make Your House A Home, with a Dash of Creativity, a Little Bit of Glue, and a Lot of Patience!
If you’re not living it, I’m fairly certain you’ve at least heard about it. Our “weather event” in the Pacific Northwest (as the forecasters were initially calling it) has received National media attention, and is now being referred to as “Snowmageddon”, and the “Snowpocalypse”. I haven’t decided which name I prefer, but I have decided that this just might be our best Winter yet! And by “best”, I mean, this Winter has given us the perfect snow day. It is a rare occasion when our Puget Sound kids get to dress in snow gear from head to toe, step out their own front door and play in a snow storm! My kids are in their own personal heaven right now – no school, mom and dad are both home, and they get to build snowmen, have snowball fights, and sled down our neighborhood hills to their hearts content.
(Or at least until it’s time to come in and warm up their fingers and toes!)
Perfect snow day, I tell you!
We started our day making fresh baked, homemade Scones. Plain, Cinnamon, and Blueberry.
And we delivered some to our neighbors…
*You can find the Scone recipe here*
And later we will be making our family’s favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, and delivering those to our neighbors as well!
*You can find the cookie recipe here*
And after a good, long play in the snow, I’m sure we will end up cuddled on the couch watching a movie.
But baking, snow play, and cuddle time aside, normal daily life for me goes on. And these days, it’s moving at a rapid pace.
You see, for the past three weeks I’ve been packing, and patching, and touch-up painting because…
in eight very short days, we are moving!
Buying a new (to us) house means tons of future projects, big and small, and Will and I are chomping at the bit to start tackling them! Our “new” house was built in 1990 and transports you back 20-plus years as you walk through the front door – complete with big, wallpaper borders at the ceiling, skinny wood trim along the floors and around the doors, and shiny brass chandeliers in the Dining Room and Kitchen. It is a whopping 1875 square feet. Yep, you read that right. Our family of five (six if you count the Corgi) is not upgrading to a bigger house, but upgrading to a smaller house. Every square foot will need to be thoughtfully planned out so that form and function are maximized. I’m taking it as my personal challenge to prove that we can go against the “norm” and live in what is, by today’s standards, a decidedly small house.
Before it became a huge mess of graph paper drawings of the rooms, pages torn from magazines for inspiration, and notes written on random pieces of paper, I figured it was time to get organized and start a “Home” binder. I’ve done this before, and I always have a compilation of photos and notes gathered together, but not like this. Not this well organized…
I owe the thanks to Pinterest. Because Pinterest led me to Icovia. And the clean, crisp pages that I printed out from the Icovia website are what forced the need for the binder.
If you are planning on moving, or just have a need for change in your own home and rearranging furniture is your thing, then I highly recommend trying out the Icovia Room Planner. It was simple to understand, easy to use, and registration was FREE! It allowed me to take my quick, scribbled measurements on graph paper, like this…
…and turn them into clearly defined measurements for every room. It allowed me to type in the measurements for all of the structural elements in the room, like windows, doors, fireplaces, as well as all of our furniture so that I could then arrange it within the room, like this…
When I finished each room, I was able to “save” it, and print out each layout along with a list that includes the measurements of everything within that room. So, if three days from now I change my mind about how I want a room laid out, all I have to do is go back in and change it up. No need to retake measurements because they are all saved there for me. How convenient!
I gotta’ say, I’m head over heels for Icovia and their Room Planner. They made moving day that much easier for me! No need to stand in a room moving furniture around trying to find the best placement. Thanks to them, I already know exactly where it’s all going.
Not to mention that they’ve made me look like the most organized girl around, with my well-organized room layouts in my well-organized Home binder! 
Now, if only I could find a way to fit Pinterest in my binder…
~Karla
(I have not been paid or contacted in any way by Pinterest or Icovia to blog about their products or services. I am simply passing along information that I believe to be useful and helpful in regards to home design and inspiration.)
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We have big plans for the new house! We’re going to take on projects that we’ve never done before like painting all of our kitchen cabinets and counter tops (yep – we’re going to try it!), tearing the carpet off the stairs and creating a prettier stairwell, built-in’s galore, and some familiar projects that we can’t wait to do again, like another fireplace makeover (remember #1 & #2)! So stay tuned for blog posts chronicling all of the progress.
Our goal:
Take our small, quaint and cozy, little house…
do all of the work ourselves, within a small budget…
and make her shine!
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Karla Swoveland
A DIY and home décor enthusiast, Karla Swoveland is the blogger behind “It’s The Little Things…”, a blog about Home and all that comes with it! As a wife, and mother of three young children, she maintains the balance between family, work and home. On her immediate horizon: purchasing an old, fixer-upper with her husband, that promises years worth of projects for her design savvy and his handyman carpentry. Read more on my blog: ItsTheLittleThingsThatMakeAHouseAHome.blogspot.com Find me on Twitter: @Karla_ITLT
* This post is from a Girl Power Hour featured blogger. It is not written, edited or endorsed by Girl Power Hour. The authors are solely responsible for content.
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Ed Swoveland
01.20.2013
Mrs. Swoveland,
I enjoyed your post about the perfect snow day and your excitement for your new remodeling plans. I help people every day realize their remodeling dreams. I hope to read more of your posts.
Regards,
Ed Swoveland