This post is part of series called “31 Days to Rebuild Your House and Heart” and I’m writing it to chronicle our rebuilding process after we lost everything in a house fire last December. You can start here and read the whole series. Thanks for visiting!

I’ll show you some of the high*lights* of this building project and then you can see the rest when I do the room tours next week. My favorite chandelier is this one that I saw first on Sara’s blog.   It’s unbelievably beautiful and decently priced for a large crystal chandelier. This does not make electricians happy but lucky for him, my girls, my sister and I were at the lake house when it was installed so we put the crystal puzzle together. I used these library sconces in my kitchen in stainless and in the girls’ room in dark brown. They are perfect in every way.   I ordered them from Bellacor and they shipped quickly. My second favorite lighting purchase were these pendants from Circa Lighting.   I also ordered these myself online and they shipped within 2 weeks. I ordered antique brass and hung them (2) over my island.  They are show stoppers! You may think it’s overkill and indeed it may be but I also chose crystal for my master bath. Here’s the fixture that hangs over the claw foot tub. And these little cuties flank each side of my dressing vanity along with this beauty that hangs down in the center of the vanity It occurs to me that my master bathroom is like the old lady that wears way too much jewelry and a hefty dose of perfume and colors her lipstick outside the lines.  That will indeed be me in 30 or 40 years.  You’ll want to room with me in the nursing home though because I’ll be the only one with 14 shades of red lipstick, Loretta Lynn playing full blast on a continuous loop,  and stylish house dresses which I will of course wear with cowgirl boots.

But I digress.

One last fixture to prove my diversity.

It’s a completely different shape.

And shouldn’t all master bedrooms have crystal?

Love,

Your friend, The old lady with red lipstick who had too many crystal chandeliers.

I crack myself up.   Goodnight:)

This post is part of series called “31 Days to Rebuild Your House and Heart” and I’m writing it to chronicle our rebuilding process after we lost everything in a house fire last December. You can start here and read the whole series. Thanks for visiting!

One thing I’ve learned as lover of creating cozy spaces is that lighting is everything.
Perhaps I overstate the case but lighting can transform a good solid space into a dreamland.
Lighting is like jewelry for your house.
(Which may explain my proclivity for crystal chandeliers.)
This is the *necklace* my dining table wears.

Lucky her:)

And lighting decisions must be made early, while the electrical circuits are being created.
Most of the spaces in this house were defined by the lighting.
Like buying shoes and then trying to find an outfit to coordinate.
I think it’s a mistake to let the lighting be an afterthought. BIG mistake.

If you’re involved from the beginning, the lighting can transform your spaces.

Most builders will work with a local lighting company to help you make your lighting choices.
Because I’m slightly insane, I thought I could handle it myself.
I started out organized with my lighting orders and watched the rental house garage fill up with boxes.
I ordered from online sites such as Bellacor and Lamps Plus and even Restoration Hardware.
But then I realized that unless I was gonna make ordering and tracking orders and lighting spreadsheets my full time job, I needed to get help.
I worked with Angie at Hardwood Specialties (also the place I bought my hardwood) and she came to the house and helped me finish the work.

I’m glad I was very intimately involved in the ordering and placing of the lights but I’m also thankful for the help. I think it makes all the difference in this house.
Tomorrow, I’ll show you some specific lights and sources.
So, what do ya think? Am I just partial to light?

xo,
edie

p.s. Stevie just informed me that all my *heat lamps* are keeping the house warm. That, and Larry’s stellar insulation.
I do have a whole lot of lights in this house—that ain’t no lie.

I love this floor–partly because I hauled it  from Knoxville in my own car and helped the framers unload it.  I may or may not have a hernia. There’s something to be said when you add your own sweat to something. {It’s 18×18 porcelain tile that I bought at Stover’s in Knoxville for $4.99 per sf?!??!?!?!?!  I know, I know.  I should have put it in every room, which would have made this post VERY easy.} And the fact that this is my *workroom* tells you that I need lots of visual inspiration to do work.   I do.   It’s no lie. And that zebra bench?  It was sitting at the end of my bed until yesterday when I came to my senses and moved it to its’ rightful place in the world. Come back in an hour for more floors.    Right now?  I’m being summoned to read Anne of Windy Poplars.    And I fear that all too soon a certain two girls will think it’s no fun to be read to by mom.   For now, they beg and plead and I come running. Just sit and enjoy the workroom til I get back. Okay, I’m back….. I took this picture today number 1) to show you my hardwood—which is Somerset random width unstained white oak.   (Steve and I had the light and dark wood fight. He won.  They’re light.  I love them.  They don’t show dirt.  We all win.  Amen.) And number 2, because of all the old pictures I’ve lost,  my precious husband had this one on his phone…. Emme at 18 mos with our beloved Jake-y.   Oh how I loved that dog.   And that little curly haired sweetie pie makes me scream  WHY DO THEY GROW UP SO FAST? Here’s a large span of hardwood for your perusal. I chose octagon and dot tile for the master bathroom.   After pricing it at several online sites and through a reputable tile company in Knoxville,  I ended up buying it at Lowes. My very meticulous and perfectionist tile artisan (he’s truly an artisan) advised against that because the dye lots are often different and even the sizes can be different.   For a difference of $10 per sf, I was willing to take my chances and it turned out perfect.   They’re were several different dye lots represented but they were, thankfully, all exactly the same size. This tile runs around $4-5 per sf at Lowe’s and Home Depot.   And the splurge——you may want to sit down for this—–

I’ll wait.

It’s heated 🙂

So the money I saved on the tile went for the heated floor.  I must tell you that heaven will most assuredly have heated floors.   Amen. In the girls’ bathroom, I chose 1 inch hexagon tile.    After consulting the internets,  I found the best price on Overstock.com. I ordered it in 3 batches to qualify for the $2.50 shipping.  Brilliant, no? Again, they may or may not have been slightly different dye lots but they look fabulous. Three cheers to internet shopping!  I paid less than $5 per sf.   (The quote from the hoity toity tile place was $14 per sf.   It’s the thrill of the hunt, ya know.)

Last but not least—the stained concrete floors in the basement.

Please ignore the dog hair/dog slobber and general dogginess of this floor.

In real life, it has an perfectly imperfect patina.   I love it and although it’s not cheap, it’s cheaper than most flooring, about $4-9 per sf depending on where you live.  In the boondocks, it’s more reasonable.   Ours was done by a concrete company called Anderson Poured Walls and we love how they turned out.   In the downstairs kitchen, we had it scored and grouted to look like tile and we used the color  on the concrete sample sheet called ‘mocha’.

In the rest of the walk-out basement, we used ‘bronze’.

And THAT my friends, is the post that took me two days to finish.

Sadly, it’s now time to start the lighting post.  Y’all are killing me 🙂

xo,

edie

One of the first things you have to choose when you’re building a house  is exterior materials.

I knew I wanted hardie siding and was pretty sure I wanted white but we did a lot of drive-by’s in nearby areas to make sure we were set.

We chose white hardie siding and my friend Polly made it easy to pick the color.   I knew I loved her white farm house and she gladly shared that it was white dove by Benjamin Moore.

Steve and I had a few discussions on whether we wanted hardie board or hardie shingles.

Steve won that debate and I’m so glad he did.   The all white house needs a little visual interest and I think the shingles are perfect.

Our builder made the roof color easy for us.   We knew we wanted the economical 3D asphalt shingles and he recommended a color that he says looks good with any siding—

weathered wood.

It’s a grayish-greenish-brownish-gowitheverything color.   It looks different in every light and  we’re happy!

So far so good.

Now we needed a front door.   I begged for a double front door so I could hang double wreaths and have a grand sort of opening.

We picked a fairly typical cottage style door, made of fir wood and stained it the same as our porch ceilings—-early americana.

The problem is—it’s so pretty, who wants to hang anything from it?  And that cute little girl just happened to walk through just as I was snapping.

You’re lucky if your house comes with one of those 🙂

Our quaint little white cottage may look simple and calm on the outside but there’s a party of color behind those doors!   The paradox makes me happy.

RECAP:

roof—3D shingles in weathered wood

siding—-unpainted hardie shingles painted white dove by Benjamin Moore

door—8 ft double door in fir wood stained early americana

Theology matters when your world is crashing down.
What you believe about God and how He works in the world can bring you unspeakable peace or tormenting despair.
There seems to be a ‘movement’ in the modern church that wants to minimize doctrine—-“it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re being a force of good in the world” or something like that.
That seems all fine and good until tragedy strikes. And then what you believe about God is everything.
I grew up with a mixed bag of theology. On the one hand, there was grace. I was taught that Christ died for my sins and paid for my forgiveness on the cross.
On the other hand, I was taught to do my best to keep the law of God and was always despairing at my inability to do so. Christ’s blood on the cross was powerful enough for my salvation but everything else I was taught pointed me to myself…….my own spirituality, my own prayer life, my own measurable growth as a believer. I knew deep down that I wasn’t pulling it off. I was still sinning and failing to love my neighbor and failing to love God with all my heart.
Back in those days, I was a regular at altar call. I got saved at least one Sunday a month and rededicated my life the other three.  I’m not sure how many times I got baptized but I’m sure the congregation wondered what horrendous sin I was committing to be needing so much salvation.    I was burdened with myself.  I would take personal inventory.  “Okay, this week I missed ‘quiet time’ three times and lost my temper with my sister and failed to witness at school.

Back to the altar I went.   And I was one of those who gave in early—first verse of “I Surrender All” and I was  weepy confessing mess.

It’s the “Jesus has saved you.  Now you get busy” theology.

That kind of shallow, self-sufficient christianity will leave you either  broken or self-righteous and I’ve been my share of both.

I was nearly 35 years old before I began to *get* the grace of God.

It was Lutheran pastors who came to my rescue.   My very own pastor, who was so patient with my rapid fire questions and the wonderful pastors I’ve been privileged to learn from  at Issues Etc. have helped me see that the mercy and grace of our Lord is boundless.   No matter what life is throwing at you, you can be sure that He is up to something, and that something is love.

So, whether your house burns down or your spouse leaves or your children rebel or you have cancer—there is one thing you can count on.

For the sake of Christ, God has loved you with an everlasting love.  He is your Father and He knows your sorrow and counts your tears.

He chose you before the foundation of the world, to live this life, with these people, in this very specific circumstance.

Your hurt is not lost on Him.   He cares for you so much that He suffered every conceivable temptation to rescue you from your shackles.

He will use every heartache in your life to bring you joy in Him.

He will make every piece of the puzzle make sense.

He is not waiting for you to obey or be strong or be faithful.

He has obeyed and been strong and faithful in your place.

And He offers this all to you freely, for the sake of Christ, because that is the reason why He came.

He is the Rock on which your life is built and you need not worry when you see the walls all fall down around you.

In Christ, they will be built again, with the true and sure Cornerstone of His body and blood.

He will make life from death.

Hope from ruin.

Beauty from ashes.

*****************

I highly recommend the following podcast series that recently aired on Issues by Pastors Todd Wilken and Jeremy Rhode called “The Gospel for Former Evangelicals.”

By God’s mercy, there are still churches that are gospel centered but I think the gospel is far too rarely preached and taught and I’m thankful for these faithful and highly trained pastors wh0 are able to so beautifully share God’s grace for those of us who have been bruised by the church.