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New Reaganskopp Homestead: A No Filter Home Tour

You might have noticed that it has been a little quiet around here but we are going to change that with a new home tour.  Well it all started with the decision to do a little yard sale shopping which ended up with us shopping for a yard.  Yep!  We have moved! A whole 1.8 miles down the road from our previous locale.  We have been known for our impulsiveness from time to time, but I am pretty sure this move takes the cake.  Our process in a nutshell: see a house you are interested in, go put your house on the market, and boom under contract in 19 hours.  The whole shebang set in motion in less than a week, which certainly did cause some scrambling since we hadn’t even put in an offer on another property.  As luck would have it we were able to work everything out so that life and Craft Thyme can continue on.

BUT the houses are oh so different this time.  We have gone from new and modern to old and well…old?  Oh yes, we have decided to plunge into the land of old home ownership with the purchase of a 1927 brick combined duplex.  Fun fact, when I (Brianna) was a kid I spent a lot of time in this house.  I loved all the pass throughs, strange staircases, fireplaces, nooks, crannies, and built ins. Seeing as this house is double the heated space and three times the yard size with an attic, two basements, and a garage?  What’s not to love?

But every fairy tale has to have the heroes triumph over adversity.  Our adversity? Tenants.  This home has had tenants for a long time and they have been well… tenants…  You really need someone who loves an older home to keep it up in style!  And guess what?  We are going to love this older home to renovation death.  The bones are amazing with hardwood floors, huge rooms, and built ins galore. But being us means we have huge plans.  Of course the huge plans have to happen after some basic changes.  We are currently in those first stages.  The ones where you get moved in, clean, clean, clean, paint, hang blinds, paint some more, try not to kill each other, and paint some more and clean again.  We will provide you with lots of before and afters but for right now we are going to do the tour AS IS.  Oh yes!  You get to see the new homestead in complete un-retouched glory.  #nofilter!

Let the Home Tour Begin:

The First Floor

The first floor contains an entryway that serves to combine the two sides, two living rooms, two dining rooms, a three quarter bath, and combined galley kitchen.  We are just going with pictures from here on out for the first floor of the home tour.  BUT take special note of those awesome fireplaces, built-ins, and staircases.  They are the bones of what will be AWESOME.

Home Tour Dining Room: We re-homed the piano. Best story from the previous tenants: No one knew where the piano came from. It just appeared one day.
We re-homed the piano. Best story from the previous tenants: No one knew where the piano came from. It just appeared one day.
Home Tour Living Room:You can't help but fall in love with these fireplaces and staircases! One for each side!
You can’t help but fall in love with these fireplaces and staircases! One for each side!
Just don't ask Adam his opinion of the kitchen.
Just don’t ask Adam his opinion of the kitchen.
The entry and sun-porch is pretty inviting.
The entry and sun-porch is pretty inviting.
Tiniest sink ever.
Tiniest sink ever.

The Second Floor

There are two ways to reach the second floor.  Matching winding staircases flank the fireplaces in both living rooms.  Both sides are mirrored making for two modest bedrooms, two gargantuan bedrooms with sitting areas, and two extremely modest (read that as tiny) bathrooms by today’s standards.  There is a pass through in the hallways that leads across to either side and up to the attic (Not pictured in the home tour).

Home Tour Bedroom:There are two of these smaller, yet still generous sized bedrooms. Needs new plaster and paint in both cases.
There are two of these smaller, yet still generous sized bedrooms. Needs new plaster and paint in both cases.
Tile. Lots of colorful tile.
Tile. Lots of colorful tile.
Questionable stains... :P
Questionable stains… :P
Both master and shared boy bedrooms have neat bumpouts and a large reading nook. One bedroom contains stains the other eggplant paint. A real toss up on what to tackle first.
Both master and shared boy bedrooms have neat bumpouts and a large reading nook. One bedroom contains stains the other eggplant paint. A real toss up on what to tackle first.

The Third Floor

What?!  There is a third floor?  You bet your sweet aspercreme there is!  Head up an oddly shaped and unfinished wood staircase to a large wooden floored attic.  Currently, it is not heated or plumbed but the kids adore running around up there and we have very awesome, secret plans for 5+ years in the future.  Right now I have lots of winter clothes and fine china stashed up there till I straighten out the closet situation and paint the beautiful builtins.

Color, color everywhere!
Color, color everywhere!

The Ground Floor

WTH? There is more!  Oh yes, there are two concrete basements down below.  The access to the basement is solely outside, which, is going to be fun in the winter.  Because guess what?!  That’s where the laundry is located.  We have more of those secret plans to handle that, but we will get to that later.  I really don’t have any pictures of dark, concrete areas to share.  You should thank me for saving you from that.

The Yard

Well what can I say about the yard…  It is extremely large, especially, for a city lot, but the tenants were N.O.T. into gardening.  Underneath the over growth there are tons of interesting plants, jack in the pulpits, day lilies in spades, and a host of other plants (including a run in with poison ivy twice now).  We won’t be doing much in the gardening area till next spring, but there is so much potential there it is exciting and a little overwhelming.  Kind of welcome to the jungle meets English cottage garden.

There is a pond out there... Somewhere....
There is a pond out there… Somewhere….
Under the tree cover we put a new mailbox.
Under the tree cover we put a new mailbox.
We found a buried dog lot that housed the chickens for a short stint.
We found a buried dog lot that housed the chickens for a short stint.

 

And that concludes our before tour.  We will be posting additional room details as we work to renovate our new home.  Expect to see a new style as we go for a more laid back bohemian mix of modern and classic.  Should be entertaining for both you and us!

 

 

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#SoMe2 Pinterest Party

We are so excited to be the feature of this week’s party!  Find some great Pinterest accounts to follow and please join the fun by linking up below!
Thanks for joining us for 
this week’s #SoMe2 Pinterest party!

 

We want you to get lots of repins and comments, so please be sure you link up a Pin and not a blog post or your Pinterest profile!

 

 For this week’s party:
**You should link up 
the URL of a PINTEREST PIN**

 

It's time for the #SoMe2 #Pinterest Party!
But first, let’s take a minute to meet your #SoMe2 hostesses…

 

Meet your #SoMe2 hostesses!

Image Map

 

We are pleased to introduce our #SoMe2 featured blogger of the week…
Brianna from Craft Thyme!

 

Brianna & Adam from Craft Thyme blog!

 

Brianna has shared this with us:
Craft Thyme is a husband and wife craft blog (Adam & Brianna). We
spend countless hours crafting, gardening, and DIYing so you don’t have
to! Each tutorial is guaranteed to come with detailed instructions,
pictures, and an occasional behind the scenes fight about who is holding
the level straight.
 Thanks, Brianna!

 

Would you like to be a #SoMe2 featured blogger?
Everyone who enters the Rafflecopter below each week will have a
chance to win a spot as our featured blogger. We will feature your blog,
and links to your social media. Your links will be inserted into the
Rafflecopter for that week – gaining you more followers.

 

So be sure to enter to win the weekly featured blogger spot!

 

 

Note: Please be sure to fill out the Rafflecopter form accurately. Entries are verified.

The rules are simple!  

Please follow your hostesses and featured blogger. (first 4 links)

 Please add the #SoMe2 button (found at the bottom of the post) to your sidebar or link page.

 Tweet about the party! More partiers = More followers! All you have to do is click the “tweet” button!  

Use our hashtag #SoMe2 when tagging or posting so we can find each other!

You will automatically be entered into our email reminder list by entering a link. You may remove yourself from the list by using the un-subscribe option.

If you need help adding your Pinterest post to the party,
this infographic explains how to do it with step-by-step photos. Just
click the photo to enlarge it!

Infographic explaining how to link up to the #SoMe #Pinterest party!

 

It's time for the #SoMe2 #Pinterest Party!

 

PLEASE READ & FOLLOW DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY

1) Link up 1 recent Pinterest Post. That’s a PIN – not your Pinterest account or a direct link to your blog post!!

(How? Go to your Pinterest profile page, click on “pins” in the navigation bar below your profile picture, then click on the pin you want to share, copy the URL of that pin, click on the blue “add your link” button, and paste that URL into the link party.)

2) Re-pin, like, and comment on your HOSTESSES’ and FEATURED BLOGGER’S links (first 4 links)

3) Re-pin, like, and comment on at least the 2 links in front of yours. This way everyone will get Pinterest Love! One of hostesses will make sure the last two links get comments.


Thanks for joining our SOcial MEdia link party!
See you next week – same time, same place!

DeDe,  Kim, & Sarah V.

Grab a #SoMe2 Party button!

<div class=”SoMe2-button” style=”width: 250px; margin: 0 auto;”>
<a href=”http://www.enjoytheviewblog.com/search/label/some2″ rel=”nofollow”>
<img src=”http://i59.tinypic.com/o5cj13.jpg” alt=”SoMe2″ width=”250″ height=”250″ />
</a>
</div>

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Love Wins

Marriage equality photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/gazeronly/8592147315/

We do not often write posts of a personal nature, but we just feel so amazing that the USA has come through for all of her citizens.  Every family deserves love, respect, and protection under the law no matter your personal feelings about their life choices.  It makes us happier to raise our family in a country that respects individual’s right to choose their life, on their terms.

 

Marriage equality photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/gazeronly/8592147315/
Photo from Torbakhopper on Flickr

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August Package Pals: Why I Can’t Be Trusted

I have a thing for craft supplies.  So, when I saw the chance to sign up for Package Pals hosted by C.R.A.F.T  and Stars & Sunshine I jumped at the chance.  What is it?

August 2013 package pals button

It is a sign up where you and another crafty person get matched together to send each other crafty items.  Unknown Craft Items?  Don’t mind if I do.

Do Not Trust Me

Here is where I can’t be trusted.  Laura, the awesome person behind Experimental Home was matched with me.  Having just made a huge move from my state of North Carolina to Texas she was still able to get it together, send a wonderful package, take pictures of her package to me, blog about her package, obviously take pictures of what I sent her, probably blog about that too, and most likely making something clever and amazing with what I sent her.  While, probably throwing together a perfect graphic to explain the whole process.  Yeah I’m SOOOO jealous of how she has it together, but in a good way. :)

What did I do?  Immediately rip into my package like a kid on Christmas morning!  Did I take photos of her lovely orange twine packaging? No.  Did I stop to find the card? No.

August Package Pals: Picture of opening my craft package
Note the torn paper and twine… I may, or may not have used my teeth to remove the twine since finding scissors would take to long.

In the presence of unknown craft supplies I turn into some sort of ravaging craft animal.  Incapable of thinking about things like blog posts and photos.  I ripped it open and ran my fingers over the journal yelling to my husband, “Oh shit, she hand-embroidered this journal I bet!”  To which I believe he may have made some non-committal grunt and/or reminded me to watch my language in front of the kids (A sailor mouth is a hard habit to break).  However, I don’t know because I was flipping through patterned paper, caressing fresh bunting , and marveling over a matching clipboard.

August Package Pals: Detail of the package
Look at this journal! Look! She crafted me a craft item. It is like Craftception.

Then, and only then, it dawned on me.  Oh crap, I should have taken pictures.

Luck Would Have It

Luckily, Laura has saved the day again by nicely documenting the items she sent me.  You can read all about her thoughtful and awesome choices over at Experimental Home.

In the next couple of weeks I’ll be documenting what I made with all of her awesome supplies.  I’ll give you a hint and it starts with ‘Halloween Mantel’.  Until then I have to thank Laura for making Package Pals a fun, and in her case, professional blogging experience.  I hope to sign up again and keep in touch with my new Package Pal!

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Exciting Changes Ahead!

You might notice that the bi-weekly posting schedule has dropped to weekly.  Don’t worry I’m not going away.  I am just taking time to make some fresh changes.

A Little History

I started Craft Thyme in February as a hobby, though you may see some older material I moved from a personal blog.  Because I am crazy motivated I thought it was good time to start that, while finishing a degree in computer information technology, trying to find a new job, etc.  Craft Thyme languished unloved and somewhat haphazardly posted.

I really think of June as the true start date for Craft Thyme and since that time I have put steady part-time hours each week towards creating tutorials and networking this website. And guess what?  I have seen steady growth from just a few page views to regularly close to 200 hundred a day.

While that isn’t a lot of views, that increased traffic coupled with the fact some regular readers have taken the time to comment, pin pictures and email, has given me the motivation to create a better, more professional website with better pictures, tutorials and projects.

Where We Are Headed

Here is a list of things I have in the works with hilariously impossible aggressive timelines.

Redesign Website: Jan 2014

Write First Ebook: Nov 2013 (always wanted to try that, so that’s more a personal goal that relates to crafting than something that will intrinsically change Craft Thyme)

Develop a Biweekly Newsletter: Oct 2013

Add a sub blog on Crafting a wordpress blog: Oct 2013

Marketing Plan for Craft Thyme: Dec 2013

Some of these items require a lot of substeps.  For example, I am learning PHP to better control the design of my website.  The ebook will have brand new tutorials on garland making for the Christmas season.  Marketing is going to take a lot of research…

The sub blog is my answer to annoyance.  I have spent the last couple of weeks reading about how to make a professional blog and website that is useful/fun for readers and allows me to make a little income to offset this time consuming hobby and pay for all those lovely craft supplies.  There is great information out there, but from a technical stand point there is some crazy or outdated shit that people keep posting.  For example: Facebook no longer penalizes posts from third party API, there is no need to go hand edit every link out of your comments because Google offers tags and tools like (nofollow attributes) to handle these types of content, plugins and why they aren’t so great technically (why I am learning PHP)…  The list goes on and on!

Since I spend a lot of time reading up on technical items like jquery, PHP, SEO, etc I figured sharing that info for the less technically inclined would be a good way to document my website tests and growth, as well as, make notes of my research.  Plus it just drives me bonkers when I read advice I know is just technically bullshit and internet marketeering witchcraft.

So Why The Lack of New Tutorials?

Yeah, well all the above items will set the stage for easier to read and better tutorials. Plus other things like practicing better photography, working on my writing style, and coming up with fresh ideas happen without timelines and are part of the day to day work that needs to occur behind the scenes in the coming months.

All these items take time. Lots of time.  As we say in Western North Carolina ‘Shit Tons’ of time. You’d be amazed the time and think I am cray-cray for doing this as a hobby.

I currently work full time outside the home in a brand new field AT a brand new job (So nightly reading of technical concepts has become my defacto existence), have two children ages (3 & 1), a husband back in school, plus I like to sleep.  I’m not Martha Stewart.  I literally can not function without sleep, though, I sooooo wish I could.

I’d rather give one good and useful post a week as opposed to slapping some crap up in a haze of sleeplessness and I think readers would prefer that too. If not, I am sure I can ramble on like today’s post :).  Just let me know!

So while I am embarking on these changes please let me know if I can offer anything in the way of readability, tutorials, or other things you might want to see!  My door is always open:

Email: Brianna @ CraftThyme.com

Facebook

Pinterest

Or the comment section below

Thanks in advance for everyone’s support!

Oh and while you are ‘supporting’ sign up for that biweekly email by clicking here.  It will start soon and hopefully offer tidbits beyond what simply shows up on the Craft Thyme.