HomeHome cleaning tipsHome repairInterior DesignLopez IslandOrcas IslandSan Juan Island February 11, 2021

Love your home!

The world seems to brace itself for February; the burnished silver skies seem to nearly sigh with stoic beauty, this quiet time.  But, February is, without a doubt, all about love.

Knowing what you love should be fairly straightforward, but it seldom really is.  After decades of allowing other people to influence us – the media, the magazines, our parents, our friends – one might consider going cold turkey.  The only opinion that truly counts from now on is your own.

There is nothing worse than walking into your home and feeling stressed out and overwhelmed.  You want to love your home, but all you might see is chaos.  Perhaps you considered moving, but it may not make sense financially.  At the same time, the environment in your home generally affects everything else in your world.  If you don’t love your home, it is going to reflect itself in the rest of your life.  If you want to love your home, it might be time to get intentional.

Start by being clear on what you want from your home.  It does not have to be perfect, but it should be a reflection of you and a place that inspires all who enter.  By making a few simple changes you can easily transform the entire atmosphere of your home as well as your attitude and mood. 

It might be something as simple as de-cluttering and organizing, making your bed every day, keeping floor space clear, painting a room, or bringing a bit of nature indoors like a houseplant or fresh-cut flowers.  Maybe display a framed inspirational quote or remove things that don’t make you happy.  Or, regularly open your curtains to let the light shine in!

If minor repairs are the issue for you, think baby steps – one item at a time.  One of the benefits of working with Greg King & Co. is we know who to call and how to get them there in a timely fashion!

This might be the year for asking questions.  The most essential one we can ask is:  what is it I truly love?  Be patient.  No need to totally overhaul your entire world in a week.  Trust that your authentic life will unfold naturally and with grace.

HomeHome repairInterior DesignLifestyleSan Juan Island November 18, 2019

The Barn – Saving a Part of the Past

The word barn derives from combining the word barley with the Old English ern, which meant place of.  For centuries the word was bern; it has been barn since the Late Middle Ages.  Over the centuries a barn’s uses have expanded way beyond barley storage.  Today, a barn can also be a place of tools and seedling, cars and carpentry, hay and animals, play and puttering.  Or, once you clean them up, sheathe them, and add a few comforts for creatures of a very different kind, barns can actually make great houses.

 

Renovating a barn to a living space may not be all that complicated, but creating modern homes from fallow barns involves a lot more than just hauling out the rusty junk, brushing aside some cobwebs and cow manure, and hanging drywall.  Still, despite their often derelict condition, there is truly a romance to these rustic structures that makes one yearn to reinvent them as habitable homes.

 

It is not difficult to see why old barns inspire the imagination.  The high-peaked timber shaped beams and the rich patina of centuries-old boards have a quintessentially American feeling, connecting us to our pioneer roots.  The appeal of soaring spaces.  

 

Whether you plan to use your barn to keep animals, make a work-shop, or just add storage space for the stuff that has been accumulating in your yard, one general-purpose design can fit many of these varied uses.

 

An elaborate and rather rigid system for building structures has evolved in our society.  All of us who would build are almost obliged to adopt this system as our own. The more obedient to the system we become, the less variety is available, the less creativity is expressed, the less we are able to change with changing times.

 

Break from the system — use your brains and not your billfolds to create structures that are affordable, individual, and even safer and more efficient than the mass-produced mundanities of the established construction industry.

 

Take one old barn and call it home!