How do you like that sensationalized title? Haha. It’s like Star Magazine up in this joint. This is basically 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’ve 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’re over-spilling the beans in true Petersik fashion. Without further ado, here’s the first we-can’t-believe-we-haven’t-shared-it-yet thing. Our pantry:
We’ve 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’s 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’re 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 didn’t know we had an in-ground irrigation system. Fancy, right? Since I’m not fancy I just use the term sprinklers. It’s not for our whole almost-acre lot, just for the front yard and a small portion of the backyard that’s grass. Of course we’re “frugal” with our water usage, so we only turn it on after a while without rain (when we’re not on water restriction of course), but they’re actually pretty handy (it definitely 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 always hilarious. The guy loves watching them do their thing.
Up next is just an update that we’ve been meaning to share. Remember I mentioned that I got a rendering of our first house for John this Father’s Day? Well, I finally got around to framing it. First here’s a shot of the pretty 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 really fun to see:
So here’s the portrait hanging up in our always-changing hallway frame gallery. We hung it nice and low (using the same affixed-to-the-wall-so-it’s-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’s this page from a hand-me-down Boden catalog that my BFF left at my house. I loved the playful riff on “seize the day” so I just cut it out (following the imperfect background rectangle) and popped it into that frame. Can’t wait until Clara starts learning to read, since it’s 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’s right, the green leafy mass on the tree trunk next to our upper patio is a vine. It’s actually “hugging” a tall healthy oak tree (we had someone check things out, just to make sure), and apparently the vine down towards the base shouldn’t be invasive enough to do too much damage, but if it continues to grow and starts looking too heavy or the tree starts not-thriving we’ll be on it like white on rice.
And now for the that’s-a-shame thing that we’ve never really pointed out specifically. We love the extra wide reclaimed pine floors in our bedroom, but they desperately need some love. 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 completely 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 usually prevent this from happening). So refinishing it (along with a lot of other damaged areas of hardwood in our house) is definitely on the someday agenda.
We also ironically learned in the very last post about our first house how often 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’m dying to add some sort of wainscoting to the hall, but I’m not sure how I can do it with this beast going on. Maybe just work it in around it and paint it glossy white and hope that it looks semi-seamless?
Ok, and here’s the thing that will probably surprise everyone the most. This is the south-west corner of our house:
Yup, it’s pointy. The entire sunroom actually slants up. Which definitely threw us off during our walk-through since the rest of the house is so mid-century and ranch-ish. This room was added in the 90’s, so that might explain the different look. But it’s actually a really airy and light-filled room from the inside – thanks to that lofted ceiling:
So it has lots of potential and we’re happy to have it – strange slanting-up roof and all. We actually have a few ideas for trying to integrate it down the road when it comes to the exterior, but who knows where we’ll end up. One thing is for sure: we’ll keep you posted. Probably 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. Probably not. I wish we had crazier house secrets (although I do have a recurring dream about discovering a hidden room). Wouldn’t that rock?
Psst- Speaking of dreams, I actually had one about Beyonce last night. But the real one (as opposed to the chicken one that we mentioned yesterday). We bought a tiny horseshoe shaped necklace together (it was $100 so I put in $40 and said “you’re the rich one, so do you mind doing $60?). Ugh, I’m even embarrassingly cheap 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 easy?). So strange.
Wow!!! You are lucky!! love it!!!
I also have dreams about hidden rooms in our house, and I always wake up just before I start to decorate them. And then I can’t remember what I was gonna do to them.
I have a reoccuring dream about discovering hidden rooms, too! But usually in some other house, like my grandparents house.
omg I’ve had the recurring finding a hidden room in the house dream too! I’m always so disappointed when I wake up and remember it’s still not true :D
I love the pantry. If there’s no actual closet-in-the-wall pantry, I love having them hidden in cabinets. You guys hvae crazy amounts of storage that I cannot get over!
With the brown marks on the bedroom floors, does that mean you guys are going to use a rich chocolate brown stain to cover it up? I hope so (I love dark wood floors)!
We have to sand everything down first (which might lift out those dark stains) but either way we’re thinking about going a little more mocha. Nothing too dark or ebony or anything, maybe just a little richer – sort of like a lighter version of our new desk…
xo,
s
Yes, the pointy bit weirded me out! I thought it was photoshop or something!
My boyfriend just asked me “How many times a day do you check Young House Love??” Haha… You guys are great. :)
The pine floors look pretty nice to me, even with the brown spots. We were lucky to find pine (I think) floors under carpet at our house. Now we’ve got lots of nice brown glue marks that will have to stay until we refinish as well.
I LOVE your sunroom! Thanks for sharing!
jaw on floor over the pointy roof!! didn’t see that coming!!
I love tearing Ads out of magagines and framing them as art!
Okay…I thought I was the only one that had dreams about discovering new rooms in my house! I’m glad that I’m not alone! In my “hidden room” dream, I always go through a door and realize that my home goes on and on and on into a never-ending house full of beautiful rooms that I hadn’t discovered until then. I blame it on the fact that I read The Secret Garden too many times to count when I was a little girl. I always wished I could find a secret garden or secret space in my house to be all mine! I loved reading about Mary Lennox exploring the mansion and discovering new things! ;)
I also have re-occurring dreams (nightmares?) that I’m on American Idol and no one will vote me off! I’m forced to sing every week and I can’t carry a tune, but somehow I stay on the show…I’m guessing I’m all alone on this one though! :)
Hahah, your American Idol nightmare is hilarious!
xo,
s
Ahhhhh hahahahaha! That Beyonce dream story was just the pick-me-up I needed on a slow moving friday morning… You’re blog is always so cheery that I constantly check it for new posts. It’s a real picker-upper! I’m a young graphic designer still trying to figure out my own decorating style, I mostly just want to copy yours, lol! Have a great weekend!
p.s. I have insanely strange dreams too….most recently I made my bf and I get matching polka dot tattoos behind our ears…just one dot. so goofy!
I had a dream about Beyonce last night too. We were shrunk to the size ants and being attacked by giant flies. Odd. Love the house rendering :)
So weird! Beyonce’s in our heads. What can it mean? Haha.
xo,
s
Ooh la la I like your pantry shelves! That pointy roof must have been disconcerting when you first walked through of the house – it’s funny what gets stuck onto houses in the name of renovation (though your sunroom is glorious on the inside :). I often dream about an extra room in our home – better grab that dream analysis guide. Thanks for the link to chicken Beyonce – snort laughs all round.
Oh I want that pantry. And I am seriously floored about the shape of that sunroom – would have never guessed it! I think it’s great that you showed some of the quirks and never-before-seen angles in this post :)
love the frame idea…I am SO doing that. I have the perfect spot too.
PS. Currently in progress is my daughter’s Photo Project {your idea}. I am on week 13 and having so much fun! Thanks again for sharing your GORGEOUSly fun idea with us.
When I was 12 I started ripping up the carpet in my bedroom (yes, without asking) because I wanted to have a wood floor. What I found below was SEVERAL layers of ancient linoleum, including one at the very bottom that was designed to look like a “rug” and covered just part of the floor. When it came up, there was discoloration of the wood just like on your floor. We eventually stripped and sanded and stained it all to match (well, that part was my dad) and it still looks great in my parents’ guest room today!
Things YHL reminds me on a daily basis:
1. We definitely do want kids (Clara is just too cute!)
2. Just because it looks ugly now, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Just spray paint it!
3. TAKE MORE PICTURES!
Thanks.
GASP!! I audibly gasped when I saw the back shot of the sunroom. You’ve done a remarkable job concealing it from your readership lol. That would be the FIRST thing I’d take a picture of! “hey look at this different shaped room!”. I enjoyed this post!
The title of this post should be Never Before Seen (Square) Footage.
Haha, funny.
xo,
s
I loove the sunroom! The pointiness is odd compared to the rest of your house, but i’d kill for a room that airy! :)
For the sprinklers – when you need to run them, its best to do it in the evening so that the water actually soaks in overnight as opposed to evaporating in the sunshine. (A tip I learned out in Cali and have called home to Florida to tell my family who had no clue since we never had a water crisis).
Is it really the section of wood that was covered that faded? In the photo it looks more like the rest of the area faded with the sunlight and the area that was covered is more the warm/bright original wood color.
LOOOOOVE the pantry!!
Oh that’s true about the floors! You’re right! As for the sprinklers, we try to run them in the evening whenever we do flick them on. Love that tip!
xo
s
Maybe it’s a regional difference, but ’round these here parts (Texas) it’s the opposite advice — water in the morning so water can evaporate from leaves within a couple of hours so mildew/fungus/whatever doesn’t grow and lead to disease.
Ooh, never heard that one!
xo,
s
I’ve heard the mildew thing, too and I grew up in Ohio – closer to VA. I was always told that the absolute BEST time to water your grass is at like 4am so that the water can seep into the ground and dry up just in time for morning. Haha! Betcha never thought you’d get so many opinions on water grass, eh??
Woah- never heard of that one either! Hah.
xo,
s
where I grew up, the city watering policy was “before 7 am” or “after 7 pm”. And also, generally, not watering lawns at all. Lawns suck up a lot of water and this can put a strain on already limited water resources. Plus, lawns are designed to go ‘dormant’ and can easily recover with a few bouts of rain. Important things to consider given that water, too, is a relatively finite resource.
I love how organized the pantry looks. It has a lot of shelving. Love shelving btw, if you haven’t noticed ;)
What about raised-panel wainscoting?
It’s definitely something I’d love- just can’t block the vent so I’d have to work around it I think.
xo,
s
When you said “And Burger jumps off the couch/out of the bed and runs to the window if they turn on.” I read it as – “And Burger jumps off the crotch/out of the bed…” I was like wow they really are into sharing today ; ) The only reason I thought this was because you showed the picture of Burger cuddled up on your lap during thunderstorms. Weird? Maybe. Funny? To me, yes! : )
Happy Friday!
Hahahahaha, hilarious.
xo,
s
Oh, and can I say “thank you” that the speed of your blog does seemed improved!! Yay!
Oh so glad! Sorry it was glitchy there for a moment!
xo,
s
I’m so jealous of your pantry cabinet :( I don’t have a pantry at all, and use two top cabinets as our pantry. My sister in law has a pantry cabinet just like yours though, so awesome!
Sherry!I have hidden room dreams, too!! According to my dreams, there’s an entire extra condo connected to mine! Cool, right? It is interesting if you have a few extra minutes, to check out what finding new rooms in your house means! Happy room-hunting to you!:)
I have these hidden room dreams, but it’s an extra house or hidden attic apartment connected to our house, and it’s kind of dark and grungy but not totally unappealing like the safe house in Harry Potter, and there are strangers living there. A bit unnerving.
Apparently, finding a closed door in a dream symbolizes the end of a phase or project… which seems pretty accurate, since you guys are always up to something! I don’t think this website will have anything about sharing a necklace with Beyonce, though.
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamthemes/house.htm
Loved the pictures, the sun-room roof looks a little nautical… and I’m writing this under duress because I left the front door open this morning while I cleaned and didn’t realize there is a gigantic wasps nest in the corner of the door that is creeping through a tiny gap in the screen door which means I came up from the basement laundry room and my kitchen was full of wasps and I am in full on panic mode hiding in the basement with the dogs and laptop.
Oh noooo! Good luck with the wasps!
xo,
s
i LOVE the vine on the tree. we did a walk about of our lake home property last night (we do this every so often because we keep motion sensing digital cameras out there that photograph the wildlife). its eight acres & weve let all but a couple of it grow wild (we have lots of wildlife like bear, deer, bobcat, bald eagles, wolves etc.. that call it home). its mostly cedar trees, firs & norway pines. most of them 70-100 feet tall & hundreds of years old & i was really bummed out when i saw that one had died & fallen. i somehow feel responsible. i just love the gorgeousness of trees & their no two alike qaulities.
That pantry threw me for a loop! Cooool. Are sprinkler systems not common in the east? Almost every house out west (where we live) has them.
I think older ranchers don’t have them very often. At least in our first and current neighborhoods. Of course none of our neighbors probably even know that we have them since we use them so rarely. Haha.
xo,
s
I love your pantry! We have a small closet pantry in our kitchen that had a curtain covering it when we bought the place. I love curtains over closets, but not in a kitchen (we also have a curtain covering the opening to our crawlspace, not thrilled about that either). I’ve been telling my husband that we should put a door on our pantry that has shelving built in and I’m totally using this post to show him what I mean! By the way, I was very surprised by the south west corner of your house! Something I did not expect to see on a ranch home!
OMG, I have the recurring dream about previously-unknown rooms in my house all. the. time. I also dream about secret passageways to those rooms. And the rooms always have awesome things like hot tubs. I hope someone who is good at dream analysis posts something in the comments about what those dreams mean so we can both learn from it. In fact, that would be a fun post in itself. Sherry’s house dreams and what they mean…
Enjoy your weekend! :)
I love that pantry cabinet, brand new or not. It sure puts space to good use. I would love to have a pantry “room” if you know what I mean. No such luck!
i once lived in an ENORMOUS house in Massachusetts that was built in the 1770s. it was owned by a famous writer, and other writers used to summer with him on the ocean (like edgar allan poe– creeptastic!). we used to go around knocking on the walls hoping to find an empty chamber or tunnel (like dawn’s house in the babysitter’s club books– i hope you know what i’m referencing!) but sadly- no dice.
i want your pantry, by the way. my kitchen has 2 upper cabinets for food storage– that’s it!
Had to comment! HUGE (embarrassingly so) 30 year old BSC fan here. I was always so jealous of Dawn’s secret passage.
I have a pantry similar to this, and it comes in handy to have all that hidden space!
Thanks for sharing!!
I was totally surprised by the sun room! How do you like that pantry system? Do you feel like it is pretty functional? I have a client trying to decide between that system, pull out shelves like in your office cabinets or an entire pull out system where the shelves are all attached to the doors, like something IKEA has used for some time. You are the first people I “know” who have that swing out system so I’m curious if you like it.
We like it although the one con is that all of the shelves are really narrow, and since there are so many “rows” and “layers” of them, sometimes it’s hard to find stuff (and we rebuy stuff we don’t need since it’s hiding somewhere). But overall we love that it’s not just a few deep shelves because it would be harder to get back to that stuff (although pull outs would solve that issue too).
xo,
s
Malissa, We had the pull out shelves in our pantry and hated them. Everything toppled over when we pulled out the shelf so we couldn’t stack thinks (2 cans on top of each other kind of thing). We found it was a LOT of wasted space. Just my input. :)
Thanks for your input ladies! I think someone needs to invent the perfect pantry system…I see a niche market here, Haha.
Love the Beyonce dream!
Yup, this post definitely inspired me to start tackling my white frame wall collage this weekend! Wish me luck!
I had a dream about Beyonce too…. unfortunately it was the chicken …. she came to life and was pissed off about something and chasing me everywhere … I kept screaming I’m Cheryl …. I think you want Sherry! LOL ha ha……
great pantry area!
Haha, don’t send that crazy chicken after me!
xo,
s
Laughed out loud at your Beyonce dream. You are too funny.
OMG!! I haven’t even finished reading the post yet but had to comment – I ripped that same ad out of our Boden catalogue (across the pond, even!) JUST today, for exactly the same purpose!! Squeeeeeeze the day indeed! Nice to know I’m in good company :) xx
I did the same thing and thought I might be a little crazy for doing thinking it might turn out cute. Glad I’m not the only one! I love the ha ha-ness of it.
So funny, most all the other blogs I read are healthy living, so always have food pictures, and seeing your pantry pic made me realize I have no idea what kind of foods you guys eat, which then make me feel like a stalker because why would I even care what kind of foods you guys eat? But ha! The funny things about blog reading… thinking you should know people’s food habits, so silly!
Haha, that’s too funny. I’d say we’re pretty boring/average/not-at-all-advanced chefs. John does most of the cooking, and Clara eats what we eat (we did Baby Led Weaning with her so we never pureed anything or bought jars of babyfood, but everything that she eats is something we make/eat). We do try to eat organic whenever we can, but we also cave in and eat oreos (and John’s a soda fan at times). Last night we had spaghetti with ground turkey meat sauce and a salad. Kinda boring, but I’m just happy Clara eats salad. The girl even likes kale! Haha.
xo,
s
Is there a baby center (or YHL) post about Clara’s eating habits? I don’t have children, but I always assumed they all go through the jars of baby food phase. That’s so interesting that you went from breast milk to real food – so much less wasteful, even if the jars are recycled! I love that you guys make me feel like having a baby won’t be as insanely expensive as most people make it.
We’re actually planning on posting about our experience tomorrow on BabyCenter! We’ll have a little heads up in the p.s. of tomorrow morning’s post over here to direct you over there!
xo,
s
Thanks! Great timing! :)
You guys who have the dreams about previously-undiscovered rooms are so lucky they’re fun! I have them, too, but they always end that I’ve found my way into the secret room, but when I turn around, the door is too narrow to get back out. I get them so often that, in the dreams, I now think, “How funny, this always happens to me in dreams, but never in real life like this!”
You don’t want to find a hidden room. When I sold insurance, we had a client that found just that…a hidden room, but it was filled with toxic mold. The realtors, appraisers, and inspectors all doctored information showing less square footage and built out the walls in a way to make it look legit. Scary for them, but the recurring sickness of their daughter tipped them off, and they started tearing down walls. :-) We only want FUN secret rooms and passages for you guys!
Wow- that’s a nightmare!
xo,
s
I’m jealous of your pantry. Love the sunroom!
Thanks for showing us the “never before seen footage”. I never would have guessed that the sunroom looks like that from outside. I have to tell you that thanks to you, I have finally found THE finish…ORB. Now anytime I look at my old brass lamps, door knobs, outside faded light fixtures, picture frames, etc..I think to myself, “Hey, this would look so much better sprayed w/ORB, just like Sherry would do!!” Thank you Sherry for introducing me to ORB and for helping me to FINALLY find the perfect finish!!
I’m looking at remodeling my kitchen & adding a pantry. I was wondering how you liked your pantry w/all the swinging shelves vs a pantry w/roll out shelving? Do you think that you have adequate storage or do you sometimes wish that you had deeper shelves?? Would love to hear your thoughts. Also wondering how wide & deep the cabinet is…so I can compare it w/the space/area that will be my new pantry.
Thanks for all your DIY help & info!!!
Sometimes we lose things in the back and we definitely pine for thicker shelves sometimes, but we definitely love how efficient our pantry is for the most part (we can fit tons of stuff in there, and we can see it all, it just might take some flipping and opening and swinging to get to it! As for roll out shelves, those are amazing. My sister in law has those, and I might be odd to say this, but I love hers even better.
xo,
s
Love the pantry! Food storage is SO hard, so consider yourselves lucky :)
I’ll keep my eye out for the floor refinishing. We need to do that someday, and I’d love to see your methods.
p.s. the Beyonce dream cracked me up!
You guys sure do love you some granola bars (it’s ok, I do too) haha. I loved seeing the drawing of your first house. Look at you guys being all fancy smancy with that sprinkler system! I think that is what I was most shocked about.
Haha, I know right? Those are DIY fuel.
xo,
s
Hey! Thought I’d share since I just got my own tutorial from our contractor on refinishing old hardwood with lots of faded marks and stains. I rented him a big sander but he barely used that since those don’t work as well. He got down on hands and knees and sanded our whole LR and DR (which isn’t huge – maybe 10×10 and 12×10) with a hand sander – the kind similar to what you used to sand your (awesome) 13 ft. desktop. He said handsander has the be the oribital kind of hand sander — not the vibrating one (which I use to said tabletops and such). Oribtal hand sander – then use wood bleach on the stubborn stained areas. And buy loads of medium grit paper (100 sheets for our size), then about 30 fine grit to smooth it out. We didn’t stain them – left them natural (it’s a beach bunglaow) and just polyied (sp?) over and they look beautiful. Still some minor imperfections but that’s part of the charm, right?
Woah- that’s amazing!
xo,
s
Your dream? Was hilarious. Especially the 60/40 split, “because you’re rich and all.” Love.
I wasn’t shocked by the roof per say, but my first thought was “that would be a nightmare to get snow off of” hahaha. Perpetually worried about roof collapses.
Ok so my husband would probably kill me for saying this but I have to. lol He had a dream about Beyonce once and I only know because I had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I come back in the room and start crawling across the bed and he is reaching out in his sleep saying “Beyonce you ain’t ready for this jelly.” hahahaha I about died it was so funny. Anyhow on another note I love the pantry and the slanted roof, very cool.
Hahaha, hilarious!
xo,
s