Home Improvement Project and Houseplants

 We had one room left in this house with carpet and I wanted it gone many years ago. However, you have to time your spending with the many things that come up that take precedence, such as new decks and just plain and simply time to take care of the project.

We made the decision to pull it out and put something different down. We waited too long to put the tile that I have in most of the upstairs. It was discontinued. That knocked me back a few months mulling over what to choose. Tyler came to the rescue with his suggestion of luxury vinyl tile. He is in the construction business and has seen and used it so we went with his recommendation. It is waterproof which is good for our location. It looks like wood and I mean really looks like wood. I am loving it. 

Of course, as with any home improvement project there are snags. One, the workers are slow to come. They have no shortage of work and then when they do come they find some water damage. I wasn't really surprised by that and fortunately it was an easy fix. It all took so long and things were out of place for way longer than I would have liked, but those are really small things. I mean really small inconveniences. I was just happy to get the very yucky carpet out. 

Without further ado, I will share what we picked out. It came from Home Depot.

You may have noticed the walls are a different color. You know how that rolls. One project leads to another. After the floors were down, there was a whole lot of tan going on, so Jeff suggested we paint the walls green. Arggghhh.

I knew he was right,  but I didn't want to paint and I also didn't want it to snowball and have to need new bedding. It all worked out. We both remembered how much we loved the green that was in our old Lake Martin cabin. We went in search of that look. It took a bit of time to find a similar look, but I think we achieved it. It is called Svelte Sage by Sherwin Williams. It matches the window blinds and cornice boards well and the bedding is just fine. I was playing around with some pillows, but I am not buying new bedding. I like what I have. I am thinking I might get a bedskirt though.

There will be no rugs for a good while if ever. I am just enjoying the tile. It is easy to care for and clean up. I do think I am going to pass the baby swing up. I don't use it enough to have it there.

Below is looking back towards the closet and bathroom. I painted the bathroom as well.

I loved how well the pictures all looked against the green wall.

Houseplants

You know I wrote a while back that I was downsizing my plants. I did a bit more of that. 

When do you have too many? My answer is when you are tired of caring for them. 

I took one out of the bedroom. I only have the two on the stands by the window. I did reverse the order of them and they are both doing very well since the pictures. 

I also realize houseplants are very hard to have in MOST homes. There is just simply not enough light even for those plants that say low light.

My mother always had one room that she would grow plants in. She would find that one room that had enough light and that would be it. I really adopted that as well not knowing that was out of just pure common sense. You just can't have plants in a room with that doesn't pretty much get a lot of morning light. 

Then I moved into my present house which has the entire back side getting a lot of morning light and I went nuts because along with cross stitching and reading, I REALLY love to grow things. BUT, I have grown tired of the upkeep and have slowly whittled them down. 

I have 4 in our living room. Two in the area where the Christmas tree grows.

Plants have a life cycle and I am quite surprised at how long this fern has held up. She is happy and even bounced back last year after being moved to the bedroom for the month of December. The mother-in-law's tongue is really old too.

I have 2 other plants in the living room. One is on the coffee table. It is a redo of one that just got tired looking. 

I have finally taught Palmer to leave it alone.

The final plant in that room is on top of the shelves. After trying for nearly 20 years to grow one in each corner of that top shelf unsuccessfully, I gave up and took one down. I replaced the one by the fireplace with a vase that my mother-in-law made. It had been in a closet. 

The right side of that shelf gets lots of morning light, but the left side doesn't so I am just tired of moving them around and trying.

If you are counting, we are at 6. Let's move too the kitchen where I have 4 and they are the more exotic plants.

For the most part you can only see one above the table and that is the pider plant which I have nearly given up on 3 times. The kitchen is like the hospital for plants. It gets wonderful morning light. 

Not too long ago, I just thought it was beginning to look junky and I let several go and just really thought about how much looked good and what needed to go. 

What was left was these 4. I have philodendron, a newer Christmas cactus, a dolphin plant and the spider plant. This leaves one window with nothing and gives Palmer a place to walk to the window. All 4 of these are thriving here. I must admit I don't love the spider plant. It is a bit crazy, but it is so healthy that I am letting it remain. If it gets to doing poorly, I am not sure I will replace it with anything. I will just move one of the others to that window.

That brings the total to 10 and all of those are on the back side of the house. I have one more spot in the house with plants. 

My foyer gets pure Tee hot evening sun. It is home to only 2 plants. It has been home to many others but as I said this past year or so I have just been in a mood to slim them down. I once had a fern in there but it made such a mess. Then I had a very large angel wing begonia. It too was wearing me out with the mess it dropped. 

I was going to just have one in there. IT was the Christmas cactus that I have had for years. You may remember it fell over Christmas before last and broke. It really hasn't been very special since then. It was magnificent before that disastrous fall. It is still one sided and just will not fill out to the other side. I am afraid it will fall over again. If it does I am just going to start over with a new one. 

This one sided plant is messing with my symmetrical loving self. I don't know. 

Anywho...it was really going to be down to 11 and if the spider plant got on my nerves it was going to be 10. I mean after all 10 is still a lot to water.

Then I had these 2 little poinsettias that I bought for a 50 cents each a week before last Christmas at Lowe's. I had them on the table at Christmas and figured they would go ahead and be done. I stuck them up there in the foyer in the pots they came in and waited for the final departure. Those little boogers just kept on going. I decided to put them in a pot since they were outgrowing their original plastic pots. 

They are loving life. They even some new leaves since I took this photo of them. I can't throw them out now.  I do love growing things but I am also just realizing I can't keep up with as much as I once did and I have to have some moderation in things.

I hope to give one more glimpse of decorating in August as I talk about my lack of seasonal decor. My heart is just leaning towards less...NEVER minimalism. I like stuff too much.

I also love seasonal, but I am honestly being more true to me and not being so heavily influenced by all the influencers out there.

One last note to all those that think I have a green thumb. You should see some of the outdoor plants that are just so tired of the hot by this time. You wouldn't think I have a green thumb at all. It is all about light, water and all the right conditions.