THE PORCH AND A TOTALLY TUBULAR LOVE STORY

I know a few people that don't like their husbands. (I mean, I am a divorce mediator...). I don't know why this is or what to do about it, but I get a little teasing because not only do I love my husband, I really like that guy. I gush about him even. When I tell you our story, if you're rooting for me, you'll be a little on the fence about him but hold on until the end, it gets better. 

And by the way, the pics in the story are of my back porch, where Hubby strung lights as a surprise for me a couple of weeks ago, after we saw them at a resort and I casually mentioned that would look pretty on our porch.

Who does that? Isn't he dreamy? I'm still waiting on his permission to post his picture. He's cute stuff.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN...

There he was, in his green and yellow tank top, white Puma tennis shoes and his brown, curly hair cut as close to a mullet as curly hair could get. I saw him across the crowded pizza place/arcade. It was the 80s and hair was a BIG thing. I'm not sure how he missed me with my huge Aquanet helmet of hair, I could've knocked someone out with my 'wings'  but he didn't notice me at first.  Oh yeah, it could have been because he was on a date with someone else.

Not cool. 

We had mutual friends and did finally get introduced. I was a little taken with him at the ripe old age of 14 and have never forgotten the day we met 31 years ago. He doesn't remember the day we met at Pepperoni's Playhouse. Not even a little bit.

Totally not cool, Mr. Right.

Apparently, my braces and huge bangs did not get his attention later either. I threw a going away party for my friend who was moving and invited him. Turns out my friend's older sister, ahem, age 17, also liked him, was it the curly mullet??, so we decided to let him pick whomever he liked better, if either of us, and we'd be fine with whatever happened. At the party, we sat on either side of him, and I'm sure he felt like man of the hour. In reality, he was a quiet, humble guy who probably felt a little uncomfortable with all this attention. But then...

That dude picked her. Even kissed her on my front porch!!

I know!!!

How was I going to eventually marry this guy if he keeps forgetting me and kissing other people on my porch??

So I admitted defeat and a few months went by. We became good friends and he'd tell me his girlfriend woes over school lunch. I didn't have any dating troubles at fourteen, so I was pretty interested in hearing about his. 

Finally, the day came when he realized the girl of his dreams was sitting right in front of him, in some cute, black stirrup pants. We'd laughed and shared enough lunches to become the best of friends. He needed a date to a Halloween party, and finally, it was me.  On our first date, he picked me up in a ratty gray Blazer, so rusty that you could see straight through to the ground in some spots of the floorboard. He drove a few minutes, then promptly ran out of gas, LOL., thankfully beside a gas station. On our next date, again a Halloween theme, we went to a haunted house where his little brother got hit in the eye with a rubber snake, so the date ended abruptly to take his brother to the hospital.

 It was a date with his little brother?? Yes, yes, it was, I took what I could get. 

Thankfully, he didn't view me as a curse, because really, we were pretty nervous about what could happen on date #3, but eventually, we made it to our third, uneventful, romantic date.

The back porch, the night of the surprise...before the fall flowers were added. Bear popped in the pic, reminding me that he also helped with the secret light surprise. He still reminds me every other day.

Eight years later (come on, folks, I was only 14 when this story started)...I walked down the aisle to the man who would become my husband, the father of my children and my everything. I knew many years before what it took him eight years to realize. I should've put on those stirrup pants a long time ago.

Very cool. 

Don't give up on your dreams, sometimes they are right in front of you.

And always wear cute pants.

Love,

Elizabeth 

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: If you see Elizabeth out in public wearing stirrup pants, or any type of stretchy material of any sort, kindly return her to her home unharmed. She doesn't mean to hurt you in anyway, she just doesn't always understand that the 1980s are over and so is her ability to wear said items. Thank you. Love to all.

The Old Homeplace (House Exterior)

So I'm singing, 'Welcome to My House' by Flo-Rida really badly right now, but I can't help it (at least my other half can sing).  When the hubs and I planned to build this house, I wanted it to be what my dad always described as the old homestead.  Not physically like Dad's old home but the kind of place family gathers for generations.  I pictured family mulling around everywhere, eating meals of fried chicken and homegrown green beans, homemade pies and cakes.  Hmmmmmm, gotta love the South, there goes that diet.........and plenty of room for kids to roam and play outside, maybe even a pool someday?  An old homeplace, you know? 

We agreed upon a French style home, although a departure from the house in the movie, 'Something's Gotta Give' that I had first envisioned (Ohmygoodness if you've never seen it, google it, it's the best!), it turned out to be the perfect choice for us.  It's fun to have pops of elegance here and there but still be casual enough for old vintage worn rugs and chippy paint.  In almost all design decisions I make, I try to have an inspiration photo.  Along with the help of a wonderful designer/friend, we choose the color of the exterior of the home based on the home pictured below. 

Source unknown, please advise if you can give credit for the photo

Our climate here in Kentucky could not accommodate the treatment on the brick which I assume is a mortar wash.  Oh, how I would have loved to do that! (But that's another post).  I love the old world look of this house.  We have yet to add our shutters but this is probably the look and color we will go for, along with similar landscaping.

 We took a houseplan that was as close to what we wanted as we could find, and by the end of it had reworked at least half of the house. It was great after years of searching to have the exact house we were looking for:

1. One story, although we ended up with storage and a bonus room upstairs.  I hurt my back a few years ago and stairs are not my friend.
2. Tall ceilings - The ceilings are 10' - 12'.
3. Room for the baby grand piano that I was given as a teenager.  I never thought I'd design a whole house around a piano, but it's a space sucker for sure.
4. Three bedrooms with their own baths.
5. Large dining room (for all that food, right???)  Ok, I'd admit I have a problem, but let's move on.
6. Character, as much as we could afford.  Turns out character is expensive.  Boooo.

Front steps after the rain.

Our driveway is gravel.  We plan to pave it but I really enjoy the sound of driving home on gravel right now for some reason.  (I'm sure it has nothing to do with not having to pay for the driveway). Plus I can tell myself that's a French style driveway, right??

Ellie and the bad hair day.

I LOVE looking at houses and getting ideas, which is one reason I started the blog.  I have lived in apartments, a duplex and several houses and I can honestly say there were aspects of each one of them that I loved, no matter how small or large, simple or fancy.  Any house can become a home with your own touch on it.  And it doesn't have to be perfect, mine certainly isn't!  What's your style?  Are you into the vintage look?  French? Or a huge wrap around porch like the house in 'Something's Gotta Give?' I'd love to see your house sometime!