 |
| our first housewarming gift, still in mint condition |
I've always dreamed of owning a house at the beach. And late last year that dream finally came true. Sort of. It's just that the house we bought is not one we want to live in.....yet. It sits about 100 yards from the ocean (at high tide), which is great, but is filled with hazardous materials (possible traces of asbestos in some floor tiles) and doesn't smell that good. Also, the foundation isn't sound and the layout is odd. No problem we thought; we'll just start from scratch and build a new one right on the very spot. If we could ever get it started. What's holding things up is the process known as getting a variance. This is probably common lingo for many people, but it's been a rude awakening for me, especially dealing in beach time, which moves more slowly even than suburban time. So, we're still waiting for the go-ahead to build the house the way we would like to, on our very narrow lot. And we'll probably have to wait for a good part of the summer.
 |
| had to have these for my kitchen www.wisteria.com |
 |
| how cute are these? www.wisteria.com |
In the meantime, just to keep my mind off the waiting process but still on the goal, I've been buying home decor magazines to inspire me. My plan is to copy their looks for a fraction of the cost. I am probably the first person to buy the latest issue of various design magazines the minute they hit the shelves: Elle Decor, Coastal Living, Architectural Digest (just for kicks- there's really nothing in there that is realistic for us), House Beautiful, Veranda, Dwell (to help me stay modern and green). And then there are the blogs: Chic Coastal Living, Classic-Casual-Home, Remodelista, Inspiring Interiors, Cape Cod Designs, Things That Inspire, Beach Cottage Love, and my favorite, GardenWeb, which is actually an online forum and deserves an entire blog post to itself someday. I've gone through way too many ink cartridges printing out pictures from these blogs and torn out countless pages from these magazines that I'm probably more confused now than when I had no vision at all.
 |
| I put these in my husband's Christmas stocking www.seasonsofmadison.com |
 |
| one of three seagrass baskets. what was i thinking? www.wisteria.com One would have been enough. But my overzealous online shopping led me to buy three, since the price was great and I could store towels in them! Except I forgot about the fact that our lab makes sport out of stealing towels and holding (stuffing) them in his mouth, retriever that he is, so owning more than one of these baskets would drive me crazy when I was supposed to be relaxing at the beach. And to make matters worse, I learned today that the return shipping on the extra two baskets would cost more than the baskets themselves. No point in returning them now. As I drove away from the UPS store with two huge boxes spilling out of my small car, I felt like I had finally gone a little overboard and it was time to just keep dreaming, and saving money, a little longer.  |
No comments:
Post a Comment