Tuesday 4...Home Sweet Home

a 1939 Living Room

 http://tuesdaysplace.blogspot.com/2023/01/home-sweet-home.html

Home Sweet Home

Welcome once again to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4, where we hope you will stretch your mind, your imagination and your friendships online by sharing a bit of yourself with others.

This week the subject is Your Home .

1. What kind of home do you have and does it need repair or improvements this year?

We have a manufactured home, which has its advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is that it sits up fairly high off the ground, and one has to go up several steps to get to the porch and inside the house. The older we get, the more we realize that soon we will need a ramp to access our home rather than steps. Already we are limited in who we can invite over to visit, as we have some friends who use walkers or canes or have difficulty climbing steps.  I would love to go ahead and add a ramp before we get any older, but it is rather expensive to do so as it needs to be quite long based on the height of the steps.  The ramp needs to be one foot long for every inch in height of the steps. Our steps are at least 48" high, so that means the ramp needs to be at least 48 feet long! That's a lot of ramp to build!

Advantages are that once you are inside, everything is very convenient and we do enjoy the floor plan of our home. We have three bedrooms, and actually there are three bathrooms, because our Master Bath is divided into two separate bathrooms! One has a sink, toilet and a shower. The other has a sink, toilet and a garden tub! Very handy for hubby and I to each have our own bathroom in our bedroom! That was a bonus we did not expect when we looked at this home! The other bathroom is on the other side of the house where the guest bedroom and our son Scott's bedroom is (although he no longer lives here). Our house also has a great room (living/dining combo), and a little den, a.k.a. "My Room with a View".  The kitchen is large and has an island with a breakfast bar top, which never gets used for breakfast. LOL.

   As far as improvements go, we just did the most major improvement we can manage for now...replacing the carpet with vinyl plank flooring in the great room, den, and master bedroom. We are enjoying that very much, as the carpet really needed to be replaced.

Master Bedroom

Living room (Great Room)

Den (My Room With A View)

2. How do you accessorize your home inside and out? Plants, art, books, wall hangings, maybe music in the background?

Oh jeepers,  my home is a mixture of old and older, family heirlooms...yes, there are books, wall hangings...not many plants in the house...This is the extent of the current plants inside...a blooming amaryllis, an amaryllis plant from last year that might decide to grow but I probably need to take it outside and plant it in the spring, and a Christmas cactus that has stopped blooming for the season.

I have posted many photos throughout the years of the furnishings and items in our home that have meaning to me.  Most everything we have came from someone special to us and so therefore we keep it. I teasingly but lovingly call our home the family "museum". 

3. What objects reside on your coffee table? Night stand? Side tables? Kitchen/Dining table?

Our coffee table currently.

My bedside table currently has an alarm clock, a box of kleenex, a fingernail file, some eye drops and a flashlight. There is a lamp that doesn't work, but it's too pretty not to keep it. Just needs a new electrical fixture for the lightbulb...one of those "projects" on the to do list.  Baby Elva's cradle is close by my bed. Lily Grace also sleeps there at night, but she's off playing with her friends right now. LOL.

This is the table in the foyer. (below) There is a guest book under that basket. If you come to visit, I would love for you to sign my guest book. I think I forgot to ask the last few visitors, so you need to come back and sign it! LOL. (Terri, Linda, you know who you are). The basket has cards in it that are waiting to be mailed out to church members for their birthdays. I write them all out at the beginning of the month, but don't mail them until a few days before the actual birthdate, so they wait their turn in the basket. This is a little ministry that I volunteer to do for our church.  

Our son painted the sign for our last home that was in the woods, but it still works for this home. It says: "Welcome to our neck of the woods...where life is good. Fresh Air, Star Gazing, Quiet Spaces".  I wanted him to paint a new one when we moved here that said "Welcome to Still Waters Pond...Where life is good, etc...."  He said someday when he has some time...LOL. I guess I'll stick with this sign and be thankful.

This is another little coffee table, a.k.a. a bench. Our son built this for me a few years ago. Our sweet DIL made the sign for me that says "He leads me beside the still waters" for Christmas last year. The chess board was built by my father many years ago for my hubby.  There are puzzles to put together when anyone wants to stay around awhile...and there is a game of Yahtzee and some Dominoes on this table...because we just played those with our kids the other evening when they brought some pulled pork over for dinner and stayed to play games!

When it comes to the dining table, it depends on the season/holiday/occasion as to what might be found there, but what I like to find there most of all is my precious family, gathered round the table for any kind of meal. This picture was last Father's Day, I think...hence the hamburgers, corn on the cob,  etc.,  We were very casual with paper plates.  But I can dress it it on occasion as well...

(another view from last year Father's day...)

Christmas Dinner 2022 (below)

4. Do you like your kitchen organized and with counters cleared off or do you prefer to have the things you use often out on counters? Do you mind what some might see as clutter or do you hate having to dig out tools and appliances when it comes time to use them? and prefer to have them within easy reach?




above : a 1940's Kitchen.   Oh, I love the look of that 1940's kitchen above! I actually once lived in a house that had the white metal cabinets like that, with a large farmhouse sink. I loved it so much!

There is a picture of it in  THIS LINK https://pamelasopenwindow.blogspot.com/2017/04/interesting-places-ive-lived-story-of.html That is a fun story that I think you will enjoy reading if you haven't before.

To answer the questions in #4 above, 

a. Do you like your kitchen organized and with counters cleared off or do you prefer to have the things you use often out on counters?  This is my main kitchen counter beside the stove. As you can see, I have the toaster oven, coffee pot and hot water pot, a crock of cooking utensils and knives all sitting out on the counter.  I won't show you the other side by the sink, because it needs to be cleaned off first. LOL. 

B.  Do you mind what some might see as clutter or do you hate having to dig out tools and appliances when it comes time to use them? and prefer to have them within easy reach?

Well, I really don't mind what others might see as clutter. This is my kitchen, and I have it arranged to what works best for me. I do have things like my mixer and crock pot and other big items stashed away in a cabinet. What you see above is pretty much what I leave out, plus on the other side is my electric can opener. My kitchen is organized for my use. Spices and baking things and cooking utensils are near the stove in cupboards. Serving dishes and plates and glasses are kept in another area. Coffee/Tea mugs are kept above the coffee pot. Pots and pans are in cupboards below and beside the stove.  

This is my favorite counter/cabinet, where I can decorate for each season. Dishes are all stored in the cabinets above and below.

This is an old picture below from last year, but it is a glimpse at the island counter, where the sink is...and the dish drainer because we no longer have a dishwasher. I do keep the dish drainer on the counter because we use it for every meal. 

This is also an old picture, but the island is where the Memorial Garden Rose is displayed when it blooms, next to the picture of our son Matthew.  The rosebush hasn't bloomed in a while, I guess I need to trim it back and fertilize it, when the cold weather goes away.  

And so thus ends another episode of Tuesday 4.  Every week is a group of four different questions about different topics. I hope you enjoyed this week! 

Oh, and regarding our home, one of the BEST parts of it is our Still Waters Pond. We enjoy so much the views we see from the back porch overlooking the pond. It's never exactly the same. There are all kinds of birds, as I've shown you frequently. And then there are the sunsets.  

This was the view last night: (Sunday night)

And here's the view from tonight, same time and place. (Monday night).

God is the Master Designer of our beautiful world around us. He loves to display His masterpieces for us each night. No two are ever the same.

And He is the Master Designer of our home as well. Not just the physical house itself, but the love that dwells within the walls of this home. 

Here's some thoughts from God's Word about our homes...

"For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God."

Hebrews 3:4

Matthew 7:24-27

24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Proverbs 24:3-4

"3 Through wisdom a house is built,

And by understanding it is established;

4 By knowledge the rooms are filled

With all precious and pleasant riches."

So dear friends, from my house to yours,

Y'all come!

Good night and God bless you all.

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