So it begins,

I'd like to make this blog a tad bit more meaningful by giving you a history of how it became to be. In 2012 my husband and I packed up the family and headed west to Dallas. My husband was originally from here and the economy has always stayed good for most industries. Like a child I was kicking and screaming the entire way. We settled on a rental house until our home sold in Tennessee. We looked for years for a home here in the Dallas suburbs, resale's, new builds, lots and builders, I found a reason it wasn't perfect. My husband was okay with anything as long as I was happy with our new found city where he loved and has always wanted to raise a family. We looked at many homes that were above and beyond our home in Tennessee, but to be difficult I was determined to nitpick every detail apart until the perfect house was a "dump." I am not artistic, crafty or handy. My style is generally traditional. I like whites and grays, crisp lines, white trim, clutter makes me uneasy. If I wanted to dress my style up you could throw in a little  of French Colonial, basically the use of classic styling and symmetry to create a calm, orderly decor. My color palette is usually in the mid-tones and fabrics are muted, usually simple solids, stripes or plaids. (Added footnote: I copied that straight from a "find your style" quiz because that's how little I know about home decor) I just know what I like and what makes my head hurt. I generally open the newest edition of Pottery Barn, literally point at a page and piece by piece from the catalog picture, BEHOLD, my bedroom, bathroom, dining room etc. (Not kidding) That's how uncreative and original I am. 

The houses here in the mighty Dallas suburbs (and around Texas in general) are what the locals call "traditional Texas brick and stone," beautiful grandeur stately homes, not just Jerry Jones or Tony Romo homes, the average middle class money goes a long way in real estate here. Rows and rows of middle class neighborhoods filled with pocket parks and walking paths, gated communities and blue ribbon schools all nestled with large brick homes where in most areas would be a million dollars. Nothing for a girl like me to snub her nose at, just not my view of a home compared to what I grew up in or preferred. There's no shortage of options here but as year 3 approached we saw our opinions slowly deminishing considering our kids were getting to know and love the neighborhood and schools of our temporary rental house, oh, and my husband reaching his limit on patience with my indecisiveness we literally walked into a model home on a Saturday and walked out under contract on a spec home, "seven houses down on the left." It had the foundation and dry wall up, so beyond the layout we got to pick every color, wood, trim, cabinets, hardware, everything!!!!

 

And boy oh boy my choices screamed exactly what I was saying, whites, grays, crisp clean lines.

As the weeks went on my home started to come together. The simple tones of grays and whites meshed no better or worse than they did in my head.

 

 

 
 

 The best part of this being the house we finally pulled the trigger on, the comical portion of this being our "final answer," after years of snubbing my nose up at every house we went into  is, next to contemporary style, craftsman style is my second least favorite type of home and ladies and gentlemen, (drum roll please) That's as craftsman as you can get for a new build in North Texas. Like I mentioned, we could pick the colors and trim but not change the elevation or layout due to building permits, so there ya have it. 

My Craftsman Style Home!

Even down to the front door,

 

 

As I mentioned previously I don't know Style, I am not handy nor crafty so maybe that's why "Craftsman" never stood out to me. Dark oak and stained glass is all I really know to classify Craftsman and neither fit my defaulted traditional tastes. Since I know nothing about interior design, handy work or power tools I chalked this up to having a mismatched home filled with stuff that made me happy and comfortable, things that fit my idea of living and matched my family's needs. Basically the whole Pottery Barn method would once again resurface. My home would look like a catalog on the inside with traditional style mismatched with a completely different theme on the outside. 

Who cares right? Exactly my thoughts, until I stumbled upon a weekend marathon on HGTV with Pinterest during commercial breaks and oh my, did I open up a can of hot mess for myself. Suddenly I became convinced I was the next DIY blogger. That I too could research, buy and use power tools and craft things by hammer and nail. Then like someone handed me an interior design degree I became the guru of "new aged craftsman" (yes that's a homemade term)  I thought, "why not Style my home to fit the exterior? I'll probably never ever own a Craftsman Style home again so why not play this up? Why couldn't I buy power tools and research online and read DIY projects? So what if the art teachers of my past always told me I sucked but I'd find my niché, afterall I do know what I like and what I don't and I grew up watching Tim the tool man Taylor, (no that last part is a joke but it shows the severity of my naivety) which brought me to my epiphany, "what if others like me doubt themselves? What if others like me want to try these things but the women on these shows look like pros and use words they don't even know how to pronounce? I can be the one to show them, the pioneer of the artistically challenged. Chances are you'll see how true that is after reading a post or two as I use words  that seem so second nature but foreign in my entries, as I go through steps that should be obvious but to me, it's the first time I've heard them, because it is the first time! Ha! I hope you enjoy my blog and venture off to try some projects yourself. And please don't ever see any project on my blog and think, "oh I can't do that," remember I've been told my whole life politely "art just isn't your strong suit," I don't have any background in construction, design, or  wood working, heck, I've never even taken a highschool shop class.  I've never been called "crafty," I've never owned or used a power tool outside of a drill, (last year.) I'm not a crafty stay at home mommy who can whip up after school snacks that look like Peppa Pig in an hour and I don't have great ideas to help my children's teachers or classroom mothers. In fact the only background I do have is I work medical field, which only gives me the advantage of knowing when to apply pressure to a deep wound and when I should go ahead and head over to the ER for my next tetanus shot after jamming a nail through an appendage. So hold on tight, enjoy my posts, and for us "non-outside-box-thinkers," let's go ahead and make our OWN box to think in.

Nothing to it but to do it!