All the things

September 16, 2019September 16, 2019 - jodimichelle Leave a comment

This Fall has been so full, fun and it seems like time has sped up. Like, I feel it in my bones – maybe I’m going faster than I usually do, or the faucet turned on inside of me and there’s no slowing my roll when it comes to ideas or gumption or enthusiasm.

I have so much to share with you, offer you, and tell you.

First – in August I did something new called “Tour of Homes” which started out as an idea I shared on Instagram.

It quickly turned into an event but more of an evening with friends. Here’s a blurb about it:

Tour of Homes is a way to see inside the lives of every day people that decided to redo some or all of their home. Often these updates are only seen by a select few but after getting a chance to see and be inspired by so many ourselves, we asked a few friends and brave souls if they’d be willing to show others what they’ve been working on.

The evening ended in the Glass House and magic happened.

More about that soon! But right now, down to what I have to share with you … we’re doing it again! Another Tour of Homes is happening in October and you can get your tickets here.

Before that, on Sunday, October 6th, I’m offering Fall Mini-Shoots and have a handful of open spots yet. It’s a photoshoot within a 30 minute time slot and guaranteed 15-20 images/digital files for you to use as you please. More info here. (And because I’m super good at technology (that’s a joke) you’ll likely have to request to gain access to the form, I’m sorry, I don’t understand google forms)

There will be a number of different fall vignettes to choose from, including one like the truck above. I am so excited!

If October 6th doesn’t work for you – a few photographer friends are also offering Fall Mini-sessions.

BeeTree Studios has some availability on Thursday, October 17th and Friday, October 18th. Follow this link for more information. (There’s a pony!)

Expression Studios is another option, with details coming soon. Like their facebook page for details later today. They’re thinking of offering them on October 26th or 27th.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

I mentioned the Glass House earlier … you’ll want to sign up for their newsletter to be the first to know when they have events. One of their first events is going to be October 5th and I’m going!! I cannot wait to learn how to make sourdough bread from Becky. It’s definitely a workshop type class, and a good half day one at that. If you’re as curious in the kitchen as I am and have the time to invest in this – check out the details here.

In summary – here’s what’s going on this Fall:

OCTOBER 5TH – Sourdough for the people $150
OCTOBER 6TH – Fall Mini-shoots with me $100
OCTOBER 17TH/18TH – Fall mini-sessions with BeeTree Studios $125
OCTOBER 20TH – Tour of Homes // October Edition $10
OCTOBER 26TH/27TH – Fall mini-sessions with Expression Studios (details coming soon)

What else is going on around town/Where are you spending time this fall? Leave your ideas in the comments!

** No affiliate links have been used, I’m just really excited and like to share.

Welcome to my home

April 26, 2016 - jodimichelle 2 Comments

I’ve shown you around a bit over the years. We bought our house in 2012 (April 21, actually: HBD house!) and this past fall we completed our last over haul of a space inside. First we finished our basement and added a functional bathroom down there. Next we lived in the basement while the main floor was brought to the studs and rebuilt (save for the kitchen), lastly … we finished the kitchen and added a mudroom (which was originally a 3 season porch).

This is what I saw the first time I walked into our house when it was listed:

I loved it. There was counter space and for the age of the home – there was a lot of space. Sure there was carpet in what was supposed to be the dining room, and paneling every where. We had cedar shingles in. our. kitchen. And a hole in the roof that was once a skylight. And carpet on the walls, and no shower upstairs and, later we discovered that our master bedroom was the previous owners laundry room at one point … it had it’s quirks.

This is that same view from above.

It still has it’s quirks. We have plywood floors and an exposed beam in the middle of our house.

Anyway – here’s some of the before and after shots of our main floor. Specifically our kitchen/living/dining area.

BEFORE: Entrance off the 3 season porch, built-in hutch, breakfast nook, this is what was supposed to be a dining room (we think) under the light fixture.

AFTER: Entrance off the (now) mudroom, behind those hanging doors (painted with chalk paint) is our pantry and hidden toaster oven, our island with storage. We removed a large wall in the middle of this big room where our tiny little fridge was built in, otherwise it was closet space … makes the whole space feel more open.

BEFORE: Looking in FROM the entrance off the 3 season porch into the living room. A fireplace, skylight, lots of paneling and carpet and a wall dividing spaces.

AFTER: Looking in FROM the entrance off the (now) mudroom into the living room. We replaced the fireplace with french doors leading out to a new deck off the house. Wall is gone, more open concept space. No more hole in the ceiling!

BEFORE: Looking into the kitchen you can see the breakfast nook, our fridge built into the wall and a hallway with lots of openings – looking towards our front door and the front room.

AFTER: Looking into the kitchen, wall is gone and fridge is now next to the stove (we swapped the stove and dishwasher when we remodeled), no more little corridors as a hallway. We reconfigured the bathroom in size and a bit in location to make room for a closet in our master bedroom. We also exposed the chimney and made a doorway off of the “front room” (now office) to our bedroom. By doing this we eliminated wasted square footage that was just a labyrinth of walls and doors and passage ways.

BEFORE: Looking into what WAS a second bedroom on the main floor in the original blueprints of the house (previous owners did an addition on the home and eliminated this bedroom as a part of that … it’s now part of our bathroom and part of our dining area) you see built-ins! So many, you guys. More doors and little hallways, and that wall we removed. Also, all the carpet.

AFTER: Our dining area with a wine cabinet built-in with some shelves, no more wall! And less little doorways and hallways.

Small pivot, same room:

Different angle:

And looking opposite into the space: You can see the french doors here.

BEFORE: Looking into the wall that we removed.

AFTER: Looking into the rest of the house once the wall was removed.

BEFORE: Here’s a fun shot of after we painted the original cabinets and took the cedar shingles off the bulkhead. Baby-steps towards our finale. Looking from all those little doorway/hallways into the kitchen/would-be dining space and breakfast nook. Built-ins and all the carpet.

AFTER: Looking into the kitchen, hidden pantry behind chalkboard barn doors, and the island.

This side of the island is exposed for cookbook and glassware/platter storage. I store props for photography here now but they double as usable items in my kitchen. This entire island is a constant work in progress as a storage solution.

I think we covered all the major views of the kitchen, here’s a few detail shots and different angles of the space. We love it, I mean it’s a house and a kitchen but we live life around the table in community with each other and others so this space is our most used. It feels good to come home, just like it felt good to have one four years ago. I’m constantly thankful for the way this turned out. For the patience it took, for the planning and waiting.

A place to call my own, a place called home.

July 6, 2015July 26, 2021 - jodimichelle 5 Comments

It’s been more than three years now that we’ve lived in our house, almost completely transformed from the house we bought. I saw through all the rotted wood, chipping paint, and overgrown landscaping and I could imagine serenity. I could see twinkly lights and flowers and I envisioned a sense of welcome, of light, I wanted to feel embraced by this place, I even added some cameras and other cctv installation system for security

I was smitten with this little pigeon loft in the backyard daydreaming of owning chickens and watching more babies learn to walk while we made a life, wild in love and careful in purpose.

Before and After, on the left is the pigeon loft as it sat on the property when we bought the home. On the right is the aftermath of our dreaming, scheming, sweating, painting, planting and going for it.

This is what I do. I create spaces for souls to unwind. I haven’t always known how to say that out-loud. That *this* is what I do. I tell stories and I love houses and when those two things collide? It’s the storytelling of the life we live, where we live it. And I’m honored to share this with you, to do this for you.

xox
Jodi

Let’s go! Another house …

March 18, 2015March 23, 2015 - jodimichelle Leave a comment

Hey guys,

I wasn’t going to let you in on this until it was a sure thing. Which would happen when we potentially close on this little house in a few weeks. But I was listening to something this morning and it just dawned on me that maybe I need to let you in right now, while things are still huge question marks and we don’t have any answers. I can’t be sure what was more motivating to keep this a secret – the fact that we’re doing this and we’re scared and excited or that this ties very closely to this ember of a dream I’ve let out and saying this out-loud is fanning it to a flame and, that, honestly, scares me more.

Any way we slice it, it looks and feels like fear.

This little house is ours if we follow through with the purchase. Our bid was accepted, we’re ready to go. The entire process to get this house has been an easy, door opening, experience – and yet leaves us constantly gut-checking and learning how to trust the process, the bigger picture, and each other more and more with each small hurdle.

You see, we were interested in a different house, ready to pull the trigger and DO THIS THING when I called to arrange a showing and was told that the house we were interested in was under contract. I was already sitting in the driveway, sure of the opportunity. A little crushed but not defeated, this part of the process has happened so often in the last year it’s second nature at this point. I’ve learned not to get my hopes up, not to get attached, or become overly emotional or sold on a house until we know that we know that we know that we know and the bank says yes.

I started driving around some side streets and saw this house. I couldn’t find information on Trulia (the app I keep handy on my phone while out driving and noticing For Sale signs) so I took note of the street and just kept going. Something about this house wouldn’t leave me alone. I pulled over and looked in earnest to find out more about it. A quick call to the agent, then to Terry, and 20 minutes later I was inside.

24 hours after I went through this house we submitted a bid, which was rejected, which we resubmitted for $893 more dollars and 24 hours after that … it was accepted.

Get excited right? I mean!!! Wow. Yes. All of those things and then crushing fear because now this idea had a heartbeat and here we go. I was able to meet our contractor at the house to assess some of the issues we knew we’d run into – we’ll be gutting the home, but there were some substantial foundation issues as well. His suggestion is that we replace the foundation entirely. Eating up half of our budget for the entire scope of the remodel.

Which, understandable. We’re still game but this changes how we go into the purchase. It changes the timeline of the finished product, it changes our math as we figure out how to make a return on this investment. It changes our plans.

The idea for this house is two-fold. As mentioned on the About Me page, I have a desire to own additional properties to rent out via airbnb.com for destination type vacationers. This space would serve dual purpose as being our first OZ event space to hold workshops, small events, and mini conferences as well as being a vacation rental.

This space would live and breathe, it would cradle those it held, it would feed those who came and were hungry. It would, hopefully, help put it’s town on the map. It would be something to come back to, it would also be a home for our family to enjoy in addition to our main residence.

Is that asking too much out of 1,000 square feet that looks like broken limbs and tired eyes, but has the soul of a gentle healer?

I 100% humanized this house. It’s a person. They all are, to me. And like our home and the story to finding her … it’s not that we save homes, it’s that they keep saving us.

As we sit today we’re still on the fence. Do we do this? With what seems to be so many unknowns, do we take this on? We can’t have all the answers and being outside of the comfort zone is exactly where we flourish.

So is this step one?

** UPDATE 3/23/15 **

So we got our answer, this isn’t the house for us. We are not going to be purchasing this home, but we know the right one is out there somewhere. Incredibly, we feel really at peace with this decision which is just confirmation that it’s the right one and have learned that this process isn’t always what you think it will be, but that’s ok too. We’re excited to keep looking, we will keep dreaming. Until the next one!

It’s about time!

July 11, 2014 - jodimichelle Leave a comment

The last update on the 34th St Project home was almost 2 months ago. You guys are patient. There was a while there where not much was happening – which is how it always goes. Longer than you anticipated (and then add 4 more weeks to that estimate). Definitely a practice in patience but we’re getting there. And the house continues to look more and more like a home, not a construction zone.

If you’re new to this story – here’s the beginning. Soon after the dream was released we started demo. From there I kept the progress updated as much as I could. Things happened so fast in the beginning – and from what we planned to what we are actually able to execute – we’ve been trying to keep you up to date on how that organically happens with list updates as well.

Now, it’s been a while since we tackled this in writing so we have a lot to catch up on. The next time I’ll write about this home it’ll be the full monty reveal. It’s getting so close, but if you’re desperate for an update: check instagram and facebook periodically as I tend to give snip-it’s more often on those platforms.

The house already is more progressed from these update photos with paint, trim, and beautiful refinished floors but let’s dive in.

Above is the 4th bedroom we opened up into the living area on the main floor. We gutted the closet and under the stairs, we exposed the chimney and plugged the doorway from the hall. A couple weeks ago, thick in the drywall stage – this is the same wall below …

The main floor bathroom wasn’t in the original plan to touch at all but I plead my case for the floors and a wall treatment with an updated vanity and it’s taking shape … here’s the bathroom before.

and after new tile flooring was put in, along with the beginnings of the board and batten wall treatment. The vanity, new light fixtures and mirror are just waiting to be installed.

I handed in a list of colors to the painters – the upstairs is finished (Bonus room and 2 bedrooms plus hallways and stairway.) There’s a main color for most of the first floor to flow easily with the newly opened space, the master bedroom and master bath have a coordinating grey, and the main bath (above) has the board and batten in the trim color (Decorator white) with a coordinating color to the vanity above that and the ceiling will be a tinted white to lift the room because there’s no natural light in that space.

This bathroom, the mudroom and the laundry room are my favorites in the whole house. OK, and the bonus room. Inexpensive and small touches up the drama of the room without spending too much. The bathroom board and batten as well as the bonus room trim detail are all done with trim pieces and paint. The mudroom boot box with the crown molding was much less expensive than having actual lockers built in that space.

The master bedroom wasn’t connected to the 2nd bathroom (originally the laundry was) but we closed the doorway from the laundry room and made a doorway from the bedroom to the bathroom for a Master Suite.

To this:

And a peak at the first coat of paint in the master …

It’s happening! The drama of the space with little details and the integrity this home already possessed is all coming together. When the home is completed we’ll be listing it at $159,900.

For that you get a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in a great neighborhood with updated electrical, all new windows, main floor completely renovated, a brand new kitchen, fresh paint, updated lighting and new fixtures throughout. You get original hardwood floors throughout the entire home freshly refinished. New carpet in the Master Suite and on the stairs, new flooring in the laundry room. A full unfinished basement with room to grow (I see another bathroom and an office or additional bedroom in the basement plus a rec room for the family). You get added storage, an updated mudroom with boot box and hooks. A clean slate for landscaping, new grass, newly paved driveway to street and an amazing lot in the Maplewood area of Holland. Plus a renovated bonus room on the second floor with new electrical run.

The home is on well water, tested and cleared by inspection. Gutters for the home, and new front door 🙂 Because a little jewelry to her dress is just the thing she needs to sparkle.

It’s been a dream come true, a labor of love, a learning experience, and a pleasure to work on this home and take you along for the ride. I can’t wait to show you the finished home full of soul.

You won’t be the first to ask about her, but maybe you’ll be the one to keep her. Give Terry Brinks a call (616-836-1258) or email and as always, you can leave a comment here or email me for more information or to set up a private viewing of the home.

It’ll be like unwrapping the best kind of present when the home finds her new owners and we get to hand the keys over. I hope it’s one of you.