a peek inside the fishbowl

1 | Krista R

March 10th, 2011 at 9:25 am

Thanks for sharing – your house has a TON of charm but I can see why you desire more space. I love all of your unique personal touches – your beautiful artwork, door stopper and the cutest door knocker EVER. Good Luck with the reno – you have a beautiful place to start from.

2 | Stefania

March 10th, 2011 at 9:38 am

OMG! Piper’s so cute.

Love these reno posts. I’m somewhat additced to renos and real estate.

As a wise person once said (Jeff Lewis), “I’m addicted to real estate like some people are addicted to porn”. So true.

3 | Javamom

March 10th, 2011 at 9:48 am

Well how interesting…our house looks very very similar! Our house too is small and I would like to think it has charm, although the never-ending clutter, no matter how cute and original, does sometimes make me feel like I’m drowning.

Your house is a home. A wonderful, warm, inviting home.

I love the look and feel and smell of books (like you do, obviously). I love bookshelves and art work. Here one thing that has worked for me with regards to making a space look cleaner and bigger and neater without removing the books and art work – glass doors on shelving. That’s easier than renovating, and helps keep dust out too. The Billy Bookcases from IKEA do the trick, and my extended family, including some in Europe, have them. They have solid doors, half doors, and full doors, and we use a variety of combinations just to hide the stuff we call possessions.

One thing I love about your kitchen is the window facing the back yard. Ours faces the wall of the house next door…you get to look at the bird feeder!

I look forward to seeing the improvements you are making in your home.

4 | Valerie

March 10th, 2011 at 12:08 pm

it’s a very sweet, albeit small, house. I had to laugh at what you call clutter – our piles are twice as high (but we have twice the room). I was actually relieved to see the laundry – it made me feel better about my own, LOL.

5 | coffee with julie

March 10th, 2011 at 5:54 pm

Oh this video totally cracked me up! For so many reasons, but mostly because of the laundry on your bed and because how almost identical your home is to ours!! (including of course the piles of books and magazines) While you have more space on ground floor (office and powder room), we have a larger bathroom upstairs. But all in all, the square footage looks similar.

As you know, my dear friend, we too have been endlessly considering a renovation. But I come to these stumbling blocks: (1) If I extend my home outwards with an extension, all the rooms in the front of the house will still be small. So my question is … are you taking down walls in the existing portion to make rooms bigger or just extending out into the backyard? Do tell! (2) I worry how long it will actually take to complete the reno and the stress of living in it. Do you have contingency plans for any of that (i.e. an alternate living space, etc.)

p.s. LOVE that bird knocker on the front! Good memories.

6 | Rae

March 10th, 2011 at 6:16 pm

As a house keeper, I’m going to tell you right now, you have some loose things lying about and could use some organization or purging, but not an issue with clutter overall. I’ve been into some pretty terrible clutter issues!

Also, your bed full of laundry, is my papasan chair!

7 | Sara

March 10th, 2011 at 6:31 pm

Fun!!! Thanks for sharing. I can’t wait to see how the renovation unfolds

8 | Amy

March 10th, 2011 at 11:57 pm

so excited to see the after now that I’ve seen the before! Yay! thanks for the tour!

9 | Mandy from Nova Scotia

March 11th, 2011 at 9:16 am

Good Luck, just know that it’s going to get way worse until it gets better, nothing generates clutter like a renovation! lol!

10 | Alison p-h

March 13th, 2011 at 8:30 pm

Great video. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the renovation updates and “after” photos. I noticed you are reading the Alan Bradley book “Sweetness…Pie”. I really liked it!

11 | Alicia

April 25th, 2011 at 1:18 pm

Thanks for sharing! I completely feel your storage pains – we have all of two clothes closets in our house. Not much at all.

12 | Lorrie Douthwright

July 31st, 2011 at 9:44 am

Who let you into my house!!!??? …and with a camera!?

13 | Reno post #30: Empty house, well, almost empty >> a peek inside the fishbowl

May 31st, 2012 at 1:07 pm

[…] was there I thought it might be interesting to post a quick walkthrough (this is MUCH shorter than the last one), right before demolition […]