Episode #50: Moving Updates

Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast, this week’s episode is all about my recent move with lots of details about the first round of projects we’ve got planned and what we’ve already started. We’re chatting about how we’re adjusting and how much a swimming pool has changed our quarantine lives. We’re also sharing our guilty pleasures and diving into why I’m never, ever, ever saying the term forever home ever again.

Emma: I think we might know why. (laughs)

Elsie: Oh, so today was a bad day in our world because Emma’s dog passed away after 14 years are almost 14 years.

Emma: Yeah, he would have been 14 in October. His name was Love Love. We called him Lovers. He was a pug, and I got him when I was twenty one, and I’m thirty four now, so I’ve had him my whole adult life. So it feels like one of my very best friends died. And yeah, he passed away this morning is when we had to let him go. And he’s been dealing with a lot of stuff in the last year. Like I feel like in some ways we have been kind of preparing, but in other ways we also thought, oh, it could be, you know, more years. And he just had some health issues. But no, it was definitely his time. He was very, very out of it at the end. But I’m still really, really, really grateful for all the time that we had together. And I told Elsie before we started recording, I’m kind of cried out. I’ve been crying like all day yesterday and most of this morning, and probably I’ll cry more tonight. So I don’t know, I don’t know what you’re supposed to sound like, but I’m at the moment a little cried out and kind of happy to talk about something else.

Elsie: No one’s judging you for how sad you are or aren’t right now. OK, well, let’s put a picture of you and Lovers in the shownotes, maybe one from my wedding?! How about that? At my wedding, they had a big look, and it was a very special it was a very special couple look they had together. So I will put that picture in there. And yeah, he is definitely an unforgettable, very special good boy.

Emma: Yeah. Best, best dog ever. I’m sure every dog parent thinks that. But you’re wrong and I’m right. This was the best dog ever. It’s my dog and I’m really sad. But I’m happy to talk about something else for a little while because this is all that’s on my mind. So let’s talk about your moving.

Elsie: Yeah. Let’s make this about me. (laughs).

Emma: Yeah. Let’s let’s move this along (laughs).

Elsie: All right. So before we begin, I am sharing some personal pics and a couple of room pictures that I haven’t shared yet in the show notes. So check out the show notes at abeautifulmess.com/podcast, episode fifty is what we’re on today. If you’re curious to see a few pictures and then also we have a blog post coming up pretty soon where I show some more. But yeah, that’s what we’ll be sharing for today. So, yeah, this episode, we’re just kind of going to talk about moving, Emma came to help…I really couldn’t have done it without her, especially in these COVID times. It was so wonderful to have Emma with our girls to help. She also kind of babysat a bunch of times just so I could like put our pots and pans away in the kitchen and things like that. Even after we were done moving and she was there for their first couple swim lessons, it was just really, really sweet. Is there anything you wanted to share about your experience of helping us move?

Emma: Yeah. So I went for, like a whole week and the very first day I was there, we shot something really exciting that you’re going to hear about next week and next week’s episode. And just next week generally is when it will launch. So I’m looking forward to being able to talk more about that because that was really fun. So we had one workday and then after that it was just, um, Aunt Emma babysitter Supreme. It felt like Mary Poppins came in on her umbrella, although not as good. But…(laughs)

Elsie: Emma is Nova’s ultimate hero. So it really was wonderful. We ordered fancy pasta from Rolph and Daughters on our first night in the new house, and I’m pretty sure I drank a whole bottle of tequila. It was spread out. (laughs)

Emma: I think I drank a whole box of rosé… (laughs)

Elsie: We had so much fun! We watched The O.C…

Emma: Mm hmm.

Elsie: We pretty much just talked like stayed up and drank a little and talked every night. It was really wonderful. So anyway, if anyone’s curious how we moved during the pandemic, it’s like one hundred percent Emma, is credited as saving our asses so.

Emma: Well, there were movers involved. All I did was.

Elsie: Oh right. Right. Yeah.

Emma: Because you have little girls and yeah. They’re actually pretty good though about wearing their mask when they needed to wear their mask. When people were around they were actually really good about it. I was surprised even Goldie, I was like wow, you guys are trained!

Elsie: I feel lucky that they really don’t mind it. In fact Goldie. She wants to wear it, if she sees me wearing it, then she wants hers and it’s a problem if she doesn’t get it. So it’s actually really cute.

Emma: Yeah, that is really cute. A little accessory. She’s like, I want a necklace. You have a necklace?

Elsie: Yes.

Emma: Give me my mask! Yeah.

Elsie: She steals everything.

Emma: So Since I left a few days after you had moved, how has it been since then? The girls have just started swim. So it they were two days in.

Elsie: Yes. So we’ve been here about three weeks now, and so they have swimming lessons every day, five days a week. That has been wonderful. I think that was definitely the best decision because obviously moving to a home with a pool and our kids not knowing how to swim yet was a major consideration. So I think it was kind of funny, because the first the first day we were moving in when the movers were still moving in boxes is when our swim teacher arrived for the first time and she thought she was at the wrong house. And we were like, oh, no, no, this is the right house. So, yeah, she was like, wow, you guys are really serious about swim lessons.

Emma: Yeah, I feel like she was starting her speech about, you know, young children, you know, statistically higher chance of dying in the pool. And it was kind of movers were still like moving in your things. So I feel like it was kind of like, yeah, she’s very concerned about exactly what you’re talking about right now.

Elsie: And we kind of had no choice because of covid. And, you know, I don’t even think they have lessons at our YMCA this summer. But yeah, it really has been wonderful for their self-esteem. And we’re just we’re so grateful. Also, It’s like gotten us into the habit of using the pool every single day because that was one of my fears, moving to a home with a pool, is like I didn’t want to waste it.

Emma: Yeah, well, and it’s such great exercise for kids and adults. And then, yeah, I hope they feel very proud because swimming, when you’re first learning is very scary. When you first have to go underwater and you first have to swim without your life jacket, it’s very like, you know, terrifying in a way. And so it’s really cool how much they’ve already learned because they were both just like fully not like always in their life jacket when I was there, like, yeah. So now to hear that Nova just can swim without it, I’m like, wow, we’re going to race to the deep end. No life jacket.

Elsie: Yeah. So incredible. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve watched. So we’re definitely feeling settled in which is awesome. I feel like we’ve settled in here a lot faster. I feel more settled now than I did when we lived our previous home for five whole months. And I think it’s because just having like, the right rooms set up, you know?

Emma: Yeah the space.

Elsie: I think that’s really all it is. Also just knowing in our mind that we’re here to stay. Definitely no question about that. Things have just been clicking. And that is a really good feeling. Becuase I know quite a few people were like, how do you not know you’re going to move again this year? And I was like, Oh my God. (laughs) But I don’t know. You just know. We just know. So in our previous home, we rushed really fast to get it ready to list. And it was super fun. It was like almost like a high. But then in some parts of it, I didn’t feel like we really got to enjoy it because it was so fast. We were painting on the nights and the weekends and every single naptime. It was a very aggressive schedule. So now that we’re here in this big house with plenty of projects, every room, I just can, like, sit in there and stare and like look around and think of projects and ideas. It’s just like projects coming out of our ears, you know, it just feels very therapeutic. It feels like I have a quarantine hobby that no matter how long COVID lasts, I will not be able to finish this renovation before it’s over. So that feels kind of good to just kind of feel occupied. It does feel like the ultimate nesting time. I know some people think you’re not supposed to say nesting unless you’re planning to or you’re pregnant or whatever, planning to add a child to your family.

Emma: I think you should use it when you’re putting those little dolls into the other dolls, nesting dolls. (laughs)

Elsie: (laughs) That’s funny.

Emma: Oh, maybe there are different ways you can use the word.

Elsie: Well, right. I definitely feel like I’m nesting however you want to say it. I just think, you know, making a cozy space for my family is how I think of it. But it feels so right. So this is kind of been like a continual theme through twenty twenty. But I am like one hundred percent obsessed about autumn and Christmas and I kind of have been since March, but now it’s starting to be a little more socially acceptable because, you know, some stores have put out their Halloween pajamas and et cetera, et cetera. I’m feeling…

Emma: I’ve seen a few bloggers. Not that the new content’s not coming out yet, but they’re starting to kind of re feature some of their past, like Halloween and fall time, you know, stuff. And I’m here for it. It is not too soon for me. I love it.

Elsie: Yeah. I think that even though we just moved to a house with a swimming pool and in one respect, I wish for an eternal summer and it feels like summer can last as long as it wants because I love it, this year I’m hoping to become more of a summer person. But Autumn, I mean, it can’t come soon enough. I mean, I’ll take some of both, if that’s an option.

Emma: Yeah. Endless summer endless autumn.

Elsie: Yeah. Yeah. And then very, very magical holiday season. Very short winter.

Emma: Very short winter. And spring? Very functional. Functional spring is fine by me. No need to spread that out. Summer, autumn, and Christmas. (laughs)

Elsie: We can keep spring the same. (laughs)

Elsie: So in the podcast show notes we’re going to link to the video tour on Instagram. So I only made a video tour this time for Instagram. It’s going to live on there forever. I didn’t film it for YouTube because we did a little poll actually, and more people said they would like to watch it on Instagram. So I am going to link to that. And I wanted to just say real quickly, the comments got a little bit intense on that video, although Emma was trying to spin it to me like, look how great the engagement is. (laughs)

Emma: I mean, the engagement is high.

Elsie: Engagement is very high. OK…

Emma: For a few different reasons, but still high engagement.

Elsie: So, yeah, I feel like just because this very rarely happens, but it got to the point that night that the video was up, that all my friends started texting me, making sure I was OK. I was like, OK, this is a little bit, you know, over the edge of intense I guess. So anyway, I want to just quickly address it and basically just say my case for the house. I understand if you think it’s a ridiculously large house. It is. It’s true. And I understand if you think that I should have maybe bought a more modest house, I probably could have. That’s true, too. But this is the house we picked. I’m still just a blogger redoing a house. So if you zoom out, my only thing I would say is just give it a chance. You know, just see if it’s fun to follow, because I promise you, it’s going to be fun to follow.

Emma: I’m excited to see what you do in all the spaces. I mean, I like that there’s a lot of spaces because if there is only three rooms, I’d only get to see you do three rooms. So me selfishly, I’m like, oh, this is fun. I get to see all these different rooms. Can’t wait to see what you do with the guest bedroom that I’m calling my bedroom. So yeah. And then also, me personally, everybody’s different, but I like to see houses that I could never afford. Like I love to see tours of like multimillion dollar mansions in Malibu, California, which I too I love this organization. It doesn’t make me feel anything other than, wow, that’s cool. But I and again, that’s it’s totally fine if you feel differently that and that’s totally fine and it’s totally OK to express that. But me personally, I love to see houses that I can’t afford. I mean, I love it when a celebrity shows, like I love seeing Kim Kardashian’s house. I thought it was fascinating and beautiful. I loved the minimalism of it, anyway. So I’m into stuff like that. But not everyone is. And I think it’s totally OK to have different opinions.

Elsie: Yeah, it’s all good. And then for the people who were very kindly sliding into my DMS, making sure that I wasn’t heartbroken or that I was still going to share the house, listen, it’s fine. I really understand a lot of the feedback. I, I totally get it. I just hope that we can kind of move past that now and people can enjoy it for what it is because it’s still the house that we live in and we’re going to live here a long time. I’m going to be decorating it a long time and it’s going to be really fun to follow. So, yeah, give it a chance if you want to. And I really don’t actually think probably anyone’s listening to this podcast who’s like, I’m not going to give you a chance, so I’ll move on to the next. I’ll move on to the next point.

Emma: Ok. (laughs)

Elsie: The podcast is all the nice people we know. We know this because you guys, all the e-mails are so nice.

Emma: They’re so nice. I was reading them yesterday as my dog seemed like he was about to die. And I was like, I was seriously like, I need something that’s going to make me feel a little bit happier. And so that’s what I did is I went and read all the emails from the podcast inbox. And I was just like writing people back. And because they’re so nice and they just tell, like, just little stories, they share little things with us and it’s incredibly nice.

Elsie: Yeah. I really feel like we have a special community with our podcast listeners.

Emma: Yes, I agree.

Elsie: OK, so I’m going to answer a few common questions, I’m going to share the first projects we started working on. I’m going to share the unsexy projects because there always are some and then I’m going to share the sexy projects because that’s more exciting. So, OK, common questions. So the first question that we got so many times is, are we keeping the travertine tile downstairs? And the answer’s yes. And I think that in the video, a lot of people felt that it was so echoey. But I want to point out, we did film that with an iPhone, which is like a shit camera to record audio on, like the picture camera is getting pretty good, the video camera, but the audio not too much. So normally when we make videos, I’m wearing a microphone. And that’s part of why it sounded like that, it doesn’t sound bad like that in real life. And then another thing is that we record it before we brought in any furniture, any rugs. So it’s actually already starting to feel pretty cozy and the tile is heated through the whole floor. So we also just want to, like, experience that and try it and give it a chance because somebody at some point spent a lot of money putting that in. And I don’t know. If we ever were going to rip it out, I would at least want to give it a chance first.

Emma: Yeah, I liked the tile, too. I mean, I totally get how it could go a very different style from what I would envision you’re going to want to do. But I could also see it being really pretty neutral and working in a lot of different ways. So I thought it was really. Once you open your heart…

Elsie: Yes. I think once people see it…yes. I think when people see it with furniture, they’ll feel like it’s a little bit more normal because when you just see a giant room and also the iPhone camera we were filming with, you know, it was kind of wide angle. So it was kind of like crazy looking. The next question is, are we going to paint the exterior brick white? The answer is hard yes, I love other colors of painted brick, but for my own heart, my own soul, in my own house, it’s just going to be white. That’s just my fantasy. And I’m going to live it out again. And I do think that it really updates. This home was built in the nineties. I think it really will update it as well and modernize it.

Emma: I also think white can be very timeless, just for the record. And I think it looks beautiful in all the seasons. We actually just painted our house a very, very dark gray, almost black. So I, I totally am also a white is not the only color for exteriors, but, I do think your house is going to look really beautiful with white. Plus you have those white columns in the back by the pool. I just think it’ll look really, really beautiful.

Elsie: I love super dark exteriors for like a cabin-y vibe, which Emma’s house has a little bit of that. It’s kind of nestled…

Emma: Our vibe was I was going for Bond villain.

Elsie: Yeah. (laughs)

Emma: I think I nailed it. (laughs)

Elsie: For this house, white’s just the only choice. So wait till you see it’s going to be amazing because I don’t think I’ve totally shown pictures of the outside yet besides the back part right off the porch where the pool is. Another question that this is going to kind of be the question for the next couple of years…and if you’re a podcast listener, you probably do know the answer. But I feel like on Instagram, it’s like every single post for the rest of my life is like, why did you move two times? So if you’re curious about that, I would just point you to episode forty two, because we really explain it for like an hour. And if you don’t want to listen to that and you just want a one word answer, then the answers COVID. Ok, (laughs) and the last question is, are you still decorating with a mid century feel, which I love this question. I do feel like mid century is one of the two or three styles that will always be at my core. But it’s not the only style. And I think if you really look at my other, at any of the other houses or rooms that I’ve designed, it’s not strictly mid century like that Mad Men time capsule look, it really is mixed with more than one style, usually bohemian, sometimes transitional. You know, sometimes I even had like a little bit of farmhouse in one of the AirBnBs, but that was a phase.

Emma: I was going to say you got kind of into farmhouse for a little bit.

Elsie: It is so easy to shop for. I’ll say that when I was doing the AirBnB.

Emma: Yeah, it’s very popular.

Elsie: It was just so easy compared to like trying to do everything brass…is expensive and takes forever. And if you’re trying to do everything black metal, it’s just like bam bam bam. Like so easy peasy. Yeah. So much of it to choose from. So this home was built in the nineties and I want to make it feel like it was built in the seventies. I know I can do it, and if you listen to last week, Jonathan Adler was sort of questioning my future and I was reassuring him 100 times, don’t worry about it, these ceilings are not going to have eight thousand can lights forever. It’s going to be amazing.

Emma: I loved his…I loved that interview generally. By the way, I told you in real life, but just telling you on the podcast, I loved that episode, but I did love how he was trolling you about your can light karma. Basically, I loved it. I was like, I feel like that’s what I’m usually doing, trolling you. So he really filled in great for me. (laughs)

Elsie: It’s true. This home has so many things about it that are amazing. And then it has a few things that are like so bad. And the lighting is one of the things that’s so bad. So it’s going to be fun to work on it over time.

Emma: You know, some people like can lights.

Elsie: That’s true. And if I’ve offended you, it’s very like…it’s too late for me to to even give an effective apology. So I’m just going to lean into it and say, agree to disagree.

Emma: You’re just really, really polarizing. I mean, we’re not going to get we’re not going to get those votes because can light lovers now so we’ve gotta…

Elsie: I love a clean ceiling with a chandelier. That’s just where my where my passion lies. (laughs)

Emma: No I get it. That’s very classic. And I don’t know, just a nice blank canvas for a pretty chandelier. I get it. But I just have to troll you. Just like Jonathan Adler did. (laughs)

Elsie: No, no, it’s it’s all good. I actually am really enjoying the the nineties-ness of this home. It’s very weird and I feel like I would love to meet the people who built it whoever had a vision for it, because it’s also kind of strange for our area and I’ve never seen another one like it. So it’s kind of fun.

Emma: It’s a little like the Clueless house. A little bit.

Elsie: Yes.

Emma: Not like all the way or anything, but a little bit. It reminds me of the house from Clueless that Cher lived in with her lawyer dad.

Elsie: Because it has columns. So first projects. The very, very first project. Do you remember Emma? What was our very first project because it was on moving day that Collin and I started something.

Emma: Yeah, yes. Because I was like, oh, it’s time to put everything from the boxes away. But you two were already just ripping down wallpaper in the TV/movie room.

Elsie: Yes. (laughs) Ok, so the house mostly came with all white walls, which I very much appreciate in a real estate listing. Thank you. So I guess I have some good karma from a past life, but this movie room had wallpaper on it. That was blue and blue curtains and it just looked, you know, and also the wallpaper I could just tell like it was fabric. It was wallpapered with fabric, which is a unique choice. And it was kind of fraying on the edges of each piece. So I had a feeling it would be easy to pull off. And it was it was very easy. We started ripping it down. It was very gratifying. I’ll put a picture from this is like before the movers even arrived with a single box and, like, we had gotten this wallpaper down. But we…once it came down, the glue, you know, just older wallpaper frequently has a glue residue problem.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: And now we’re going to have to get the room skim coated. And I’m heartbroken. It’s either skim coating or more wallpaper. And I’m pretty sure we’re going to go with the skim coating just because we want to do like a tone on tone thing. So anyway, it’s coming along. It’s going to be a moody room. So this room was the only room in the whole house that my husband, even out of the music studio, he had so much bigger feelings for this movie room than anything else. And he just did not want it to be white. That was his one thing. He didn’t want to be bright and he didn’t want to be white. And I kept being like, but what about pink? And he was like, uhh, you know. And finally we settled on a color together. And I think it’s going to be so cool. And it’s definitely moody. It’s definitely the moodiest room I’ve ever done before.

Emma: I’m excited for that because I, I sort of love a moody interior, like I love Chris Loves Julia. Like their style is, certainly they have white walls in their home too. But they also will do very like dark, moody rooms. And I just love…I love it. It’s fun to look at.

Elsie: Definitely I, I definitely think that those deep colored paint colors are coming back into style, which is very cool. And yeah, I’m so excited. So the color that we’re painting the walls matches the sofa, and we’re doing all four walls, all the wood, all the trim and the ceiling, so it’s going to be like a look.

Emma: I love it.

Elsie: Yeah, I’m so excited. So other things we’ve checked off, we have our pink front door. That was a top priority. Cuz our five year old asked for it? (laughs)

Emma: She’s like I need that pink for a door momma.

Elsie: And yeah, it feels so cozy. So that’ll be on the blog. Coming up, I think this week or maybe next week, very soon. And then so far, what we’ve been doing for the most part is hanging curtains and painting little spots that were just bugging me or, you know, finding homes for things. So all of the furniture translated. We were trying to not waste anything because I already had like a humongous amount of guilt for moving two times in a year. And we had just bought a bunch of new furniture. So I was really hoping that we could use all of it and not waste anything. But I thought, what are the odds? And we actually ended up keeping every single thing except for two pieces. One was really 60s and we sold it. And one was something that the people who bought our last home wanted to buy and it didn’t fit anyway. It was just one sofa. So yeah. So I’m so happy that at all that we could keep it all and not waste anything. And it kind of was just magical that it all fit. You never know with that stuff, like a dining room table, you know, like when you take it to a new home, it might have looked so good. And then all of a sudden it looks horrible, but everything pretty much looks like it should. And so we’re just like shocked and so thankful.

Emma: Rugs, too. That’s a big one, I think is like when you buy a rug for a certain space, not that there’s an infinite number of rug sizes. There are kind of standard sizes. But still, I feel like if I have to like, move a rug from one place to another, I’m always like, oh, I don’t know if this is going to work because I kind of bought it with that space in mind, you know, the size and whatnot.

Elsie: It’s true. Yes. Oh, so, yeah, we’re focusing mainly on the living spaces first, just because, you know, I feel like that makes it feel like a home. And then when we’re getting kind of wrapped up on a few of those, then we’ll start our kids shared room, which I’ll go into in a minute. OK, so you want to talk about unsexy projects?

Emma: Oh, always.

Elsie: The things that are expensive, but that don’t give you this big, gratifying moment. It’s not like buying a sofa or getting new floors or a new countertop. It’s more like mold remediation…(laughs) Anyway. All right. So unsexy list. I’ll just go through it quickly. Get this over with. Right. Pool repairs: So when we first moved in, like when Emma was still with us, the pool was very murky and a little bit swampy looking. We also had a gigantic mosquito problem, but we learned that the pool was so murky looking and not clear because it was just leaking a ton of water. So once the leak was yeah, I was losing a lot of chlorine. So the P.H. was off. Yeah. Just like all of this chemistry. It’s kind of cool, actually. I like hearing. I like learning about it. Anyway, the pool got repaired and now it’s really clear and really nice. And actually that’s kind of sexy. It’s not, not horrible, but it’s, it’s not exciting. We’re…

Emma: Chemistry is very sexy.

Elsie: It’s true. (laughs) We’re getting some mold and some leaks fixed, which that’s super gross and super not fun. Nobody likes that…

Emma: That is not sexy.

Elsie: Yeah. We definitely knew that it was a thing in our inspection prior, so we’re not shocked or anything. We’re just kind of like going through with it, fixing one thing at a time. The light switch is and the tech on this 90s house is bananas. Someone went does Trey say went hog? Went HAM? How do you say it? (laughs)

Emma: Went HAM!

Elsie: Well someone went HAM on this tech in the nineties and it’s very confusing, like they left us like eleven remotes for the movie room and not one of them brings down the projector. It’s very…

Emma: Oh gosh.

Elsie: It’s like actually I’m going to post a picture of the closet with all the cords just for entertainment in the show notes because it’s so intense. And when you see that you’ll be like OK, I totally get what you’re dealing with. So yeah, just dealing with all the tech, trying to like there’s speakers on the ceilings throughout the whole house. But we have to, you know, figure out if it’s possible to make those work, not with the one hundred and fifty CD player that’s in the living room closet, you know, with new technology. (laughs) So. Getting all that updated is definitely a big undertaking, but I guess I am kind of excited about it.

Emma: It’s yeah, I really don’t feel like…I know Elsie exaggerates. She’s truly not on this one, like the technology in that house is. It’s cool how much they got into it. But, you know, any time switches owners, I feel like, you know, something gets lost in the translation a little bit and it’s wacky. And then one day Nova and I were playing upstairs and we found an old landline phone. I told her it was ancient technology. She loved that. And it had like it clearly had been in use in that room at some point. And it had like you could call like on the speed dial, one of the kids…it was like kids den? And like, I don’t know, it was just weird. I was like, do they have an intercom system that you could use this landline phone and like, you know, over the whole house, be like, dinner’s ready at 6:00, you know? I don’t even know what you would say. (laughs)

Elsie: I heard that intercoms were really a thing in the nineties. So, yeah, we’re trying to, we’re trying to update it so that some of it, like some of it’s still cool and useful, like having speakers right throughout the home. A lot of it isn’t. And so, yeah, we’re trying to figure all that out like a big puzzle. It’s kind of exciting in a brainteaser kind of way. OK, so I want to talk a little bit about the mosquitoes before we move on to sexy. So when we first moved in, the mosquitoes were insane. We were like all…like we had so many mosquito bites all over us and we were like, OK, this is a big problem. But…

Emma: I got one on my face, you remember that? We were out there, like, not very long. And I was just, oh, my gosh, I have a huge mosquito bite on my face. (laughs)

Elsie: Yes. So, yeah, we noticed right away that it was a big problem and we did a bunch of stuff and it actually worked. I’m not sure which of the things was the most important. And so I’ll just tell you everything we did. So the first thing was just getting the yard cleaned up and mowed because it hadn’t been for a long time and the grass was very tall and there was a lot of bushes and, you know, whatever. So we got that done. And I think that that had a significant impact. The next one was there was a lot of places in the pool area that had standing water. I’m not talking about the pool water because that wouldn’t attract mosquitoes, that’s different it’s chlorine. This is like a planter with a dish on the bottom that’s been sitting out in the rain and there’s a ton of water sitting in it for like months. Or there’s a couple of places on the porch where there was just a little bit of a dip in the pavement and it was kind of filled up and pooling with water. And it was just sitting there for like weeks. So we got all that cleaned up. And that, I think, was a part of what helped. And then the last thing we did was we got quite a few citronella plants and lavender plants and put them all around the pool area, also a little bit in the front of the house. And, yeah, whatever combination it was of all those things, the mosquitoes are a very, very small problem now. And it was a very, very big problem two weeks ago.

Emma: Yes. And I heard Sherri from Young House Love Has a Podcast talking about this a little bit because they moved. to Florida. She said some of the same things, but she said it first, but also…just kidding. (laughs) But also she, one tip she had was that I had never thought of this. And it was so obvious when she said it, but it just never occurred to me for our backyard. And I was like, genius. She was like, just get a big fan. It could be like a nice piece of decor or it could just be a box fan. But just get a fan. You don’t have to put it right by your face or anything. But just moving er mosquitoes, you know, it’s hard to fly against the current or you know, they don’t really love the moving air. And I was like, oh I mean who doesn’t want a fan going anyway. Like of course because mosquito season is usually the hot season. So anyway. Yeah but she had some of the same, other same tips too. But that was one I just never thought of. And then it was so obvious. I was like, oh right. Good point Sherri.

Elsie: That’s a great one. I love that. OK, so we’re moving on to sexy now. So this fall we’re getting the exterior brick painted. And so in the last home I really wanted to do this kind of paint that is it’s like mineral paint. It’s natural, it’s nontoxic. It’s better for the environment, it’s better for your brick. It doesn’t…it has a longer lifetime. Just a lot of cool things about it. I was mostly interested that it’s environmentally friendly. So, yeah, this dude from Kentucky who actually painted John and Sherri’s last house, he is going to paint it. So he was actually I started booking him for our previous house before I knew we were moving and then once I knew we were moving, we didn’t have time. So I kind of just moved him along. And so now he’s still going to come this fall, and we will definitely be sharing that on the blog, because it’s just kind of different, we’ve been in quite a few houses, but never with this kind of paint. I did paint our fireplace in our previous home with it, though, so I kind of know what it’s like. It’s very thick. You have to water it down to be able to use it. So it’s interesting. Also, we’re going to get wood floors just in the upstairs, just where there’s carpet at some point soon, I’m not exactly sure. But sometime after Labor Day, we’re going to get those wood floors. Our wood guy’s name is Flavio, by the way. If I haven’t talked about him on the podcast before, I will link in the show notes to his company. If you’re local in Nashville, he’s the greatest. And OK, we’re going to build a fireplace in our bedroom. I’m so excited about this. I’ve been dreaming about a fireplace in the bedroom for forever. You guys know I made a really big deal about the seven fireplaces house a while back, which maybe was like excessive because the house had one in the main bedroom and the main bathroom and both kids rooms. It was it was insane. And the dining room and the living room and the entryway anyway.

Emma: So is this one. It’s obviously going to be faux if you’re just building it and not like building it in or adding, I don’t know. I don’t even know how you would add one, I guess add a chimney to the outside? How is it going to be? Is it going to have anything that adds warmth like temperature, warmth to the room, or is it more of a cozy vibes and lighting type?

Elsie: So we could very easily add a vented, is called vintage or ventless. If it’s…

Emma: I’m not sure.

Elsie: I’m not sure which one, but we could very easily add a gas insert into this fireplace. But the reason we’re not is because I honestly don’t want a gas fireplace in my bedroom. It’s just not something I would use. I know myself really well and I’m very into my little LED, I’m going to use the light candles in it, I think, for the most part. But I also might put some little pieces of wood in it and put those little led twinkle lights. I kind of just want it for the vibe and I’m a little bit like on the edge of paranoid about gas stuff anyway. I just don’t want it in my bedroom. It’s like a thing that I inherited from my grandma and it’s just not something that is important to me. Maybe it would be to other people, but not me…

Emma: I’m sure you could get a monitor if you really wanted it. But since you don’t even really want it, I mean, no point going to the trouble. But I’m sure, you know, you can get like carbon monoxide monitors.

Elsie: One hundred percent. So just to clarify, I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t want, like, even a little bit of gas smell ever.

Emma: Oh we’re all afraid of dying, what are we even doing now?! (laughs).

Elsie: I am afraid of dying always. But like I think with modern technology, we could have a safe gas fireplace for sure. Like there’s one downstairs. And I don’t think gas fireplaces are scary. I just they just smell a little bit like gas and I just don’t want that.

Emma: Right. No I get it.

Elsie: So I have a kitche, living room, but not in the bedroom. So yeah, it’s just going to be like a cozy thing. I think I’m going to do tile, a tile fireplace. So ther will definitely be a DIY that I’ll fully share. I’m so excited about it. And then the other project on the sexy list that I’m really excited about to do before Christmas is the girls shared bedroom. So Nova recently said to me this week, she said, Mama, don’t you think it’s time that you make my bedroom into a music room?

Emma: Oh!

Elsie: Isn’t that so cute?

Emma: Don’t you think it’s time?

Elsie: She’s very into her spookulele.

Emma: Yes.

Elsie: Which is a spooky ukulele. If you didn’t watch Vampirina…

Emma: It’s fang-tastic! (laughs)

Elsie: (laughs) So anyway, that is going to be pure magic. And that’s probably like the number one thing as far as just like being a mom that I’m excited about doing in this next season. And then one last thing on the sexy list. This is very Elsie specific, sexy, I think. But so our pool guy just explained to us our pool because I was like, is it going to be covered all winter? That can be ugly. And so I know nothing about pools. So if you’re a pool expert, you’re going to be eye rolling me right now. But I didn’t know that some pools don’t have to be covered. And so our pool is year round four seasons pool. And even in the wintertime, even on Christmas Day, it could be like beautifully blue out there. And it’ll be treated. I mean, obviously it will be cold and some parts of the year you would maybe only use the hot tub part of it, but it will be beautiful all year round. And he said it’s actually gorgeous when it’s snowing. And I was like, imagining it, you know, I was like, oh, my God, that sounds amazing. Like a snowy wwimming pool scene, and then I realized that all the way around our backyard and around the pool area are essentially Christmas trees and that I can decorate a Christmas tree themed swimming pool.

Emma: I love it. You’ve got to deck it out for Halloween, too. I got a lot of ideas of where you could hang the skeletons, you know me a lot of skeleton ideas.

Elsie: OK, I love it. Yeah, Emma loves her skeletons.

Emma: I do. I wonder if there’s any kind of like led floating light things you could put in it that time of year, like Halloween or Christmasy.

Elsie: There totally are.

Emma: And then you I guess, get that big net thing to fish them out later when you’re done. But, you know, not to swim in just to look at just for the cozy vibes and such.

Elsie: Yeah. Yeah, that sounds magical. Ok, so now we’re going to move on to guilty pleasure treasure. And I’m so excited about this too, because I have the best one this week.

Emma: Go ahead and start because I want to hear you…I can see what you’ve written on the outline, but I want to hear you describe this because I cannot picture it.

Elsie: OK, so on the outline it says so I bought myself the most un-2020 shoes and they’re sparking so much joy. So I left off what they are so that it would be a surprise for Emma. Here’s what I got. OK, because I feel like what 2020 shoes is basically like what? Crocs or house slippers. It’s definitely not heels. It’s definitely not anything that you would wear mostly to go out in public. Right. Because where are we really going right now. But I do have to say that there are you know, I do have a case for the occasional just for fun clothing purchase and maybe you don’t really have a good place to wear it, but it’s bringing you a lot of joy in this really confusing year. Whatever. This is what I bought: Pink Doc Marten boots.

Emma: Oh!!

Elsie: They’re classic Doc Martin boots, but they’re pink. And I had these exact boots in junior high, so it’s giving me a lot of nostalgia from my own nineties teenager years. And also they’re pink and they’re really cute. I wore them yesterday in a photo. So that’s like my little loophole that I can use is like, oh, I need to wear these in a blog photo. That’s probably the only time a good loophole really get to wear them. Maybe if we come and visit for Christmas, then I’ll get some. That’s awesome. And then leaving my home like once a week, so.

Emma: Yeah. Yeah. Ok, well mine is way less, uh, mine’s way more dorky. So my guilty pleasure treasure is two things that are in my freezer right now. Oh yeah. One is York peppermint patties.I just love Peppermint Patty.

Elsie: That’s a classic Emma thing. She’s always been into the frozen peppermint patties.

Emma: I do. I do. I just love it’s like a good end of the day little treat. Just get one out and it’s delicious and refreshing. So that and then also when I left Nashville, like on my journey home, I popped in to a Trader Joe’s because we don’t have Trader Joe’s in Springfield, Missouri. We we have a number of grocery stores. But the closest thing is probably Altis, which I love. But we don’t have Trader Joe’s. And there’s one thing that I really love, Trader Joe’s, and it’s they’re frozen croissants. So I bought two boxes of chocolate frozen croissants and two boxes of almond. And now I have every Friday. Yeah, every Friday is croissant day, it’s like a grandma thing. And so I have enough croissants to last me almost until Christmas and I’m very happy about that.

Elsie: OK, well that is adorable and I love it.

Emma: Yeah. You have to remember to put them out the night before because they have to rise, you know. So it’s like I put it out Thursday night and I’m just like getting excited for my Friday. So. Yeah, yeah I know. (laughs)

Elsie: I love those croissants as well. They’re so good.

Emma: They’re really good. For a frozen croissant? They’re really, really good.

Elsie: Oh that’s magical. Emma. OK, so before we go, a little word on the forever home subject. So so the idea of forever home, if it’s something that speaks to you, that helps you buy a house or whatever, great for you. But I’m super, super over it and I will give you my list of reasons why. So as we learned from our last home where we only lived five months, you never really know until you live in the home sometimes like you feel like you’ve bought the…I really felt like we had bought the perfect home. And then after living there for a little while, you know, just like a couple of functional things that I wanted to change. Another thing is things can change that are beyond your control, so obviously 2020, COVID, not leaving the house, kids being home for many, many, many months in a row, just lots of things that I didn’t expect. Not really wanting to do renovation projects right now because you don’t want to rip out your kitchen when you’re eating at home for three meals or every meal every day. So, yeah, things beyond your control. I feel like that’s the biggest thing because the word I feel like the term forever home just puts so much pressure on it and maybe it’s not really helpful pressure. Maybe for me it was guilt. So the other thing is for some people and I definitely think it’s people like me, the idea of a forever home can also become in a way where it makes you spend more money on every single renovation or every single room just because it’s, you know, the idea of like, oh, I need to be loving this until I’m 80 or I need to be, you know, still obsessed with this in 20 years. So everything becomes this big artistic project, which, you know, I love a big artistic project. But at the same time, I also love a scrappy DIY renovation where, you know, can’t believe how cheap it was. And you want to brag to every single person who comes in that it wasn’t very expensive. I think that that’s cool, too. So anyway, a lot of you have been asking me if our new home is our forever home. And I feel like I’m just going to pass and say that, you know, ask me again in 10 years or more, hopefully. And I hope that it is. But for right now, I just want to try to enjoy the season and not put too much pressure on it.

Emma: Yeah, I mean, maybe a house is more like a career and not as much like a family member.

Elsie: Oh my god, that is the perfect analogy. You did it, Emma. .

Emma: Thank you. (laughs).

Elsie: I love that. Yeah. Because I think that when you…ahh. You’re right. I was making it like a family member, like I was giving it too much of a soul and really like the soul is your family, not the building.

Emma: Yeah. Family is forever but yeah. Careers and other things too. Maybe, maybe houses. I think that they should serve you. And when they don’t, sometimes it’s time to change, you know.

Elsie: Well I’m never saying forever home ever again, but I can’t think of a hashtag for our new house. So if you have any good hashtag ideas, please send them to me because I really need to start using one. And I feel like an enormous amount of pressure about it and really, really, honestly stupid for having my last, like Elsie forever home hashtag has like eight photos. It it’s kind of funny. (laughs)

Emma: (laughs) That is actually really, really funny. Yeah.

Elsie: If you love to make fun of me, use that joke.

Emma: Hey, we all have things that happened that humble us. It’s just to remind us that the knocks us down a peg. That’s all right. Yeah. We all have them. Not everyone has to do them so publicly but we all have them. (laughs)

Elsie: Yeah you’re right. It’s a beautiful thing. Ok, well we love you all and we can’t believe that this is already episode fifty. We’re really enjoying making these podcasts for you. So thank you so much for listening. And if you’re enjoying the podcast, we would love it if you would come onto our show today on the blog, abeautifulmess.com/podcast. Or you can just, if you’re listening to it in real time, you can just go to the post that’s up today. If not, you need to go to episode fifty and just leave for us a comment: What are your two favorite episodes so far and what subjects would you like to hear more about? That would be extremely helpful because now that we’ve done our first fifty, we’re kind of starting to plan our next fifty.

Emma: Yep, yep. And thank you to everyone who’s written us at Podcast@abeautifulmess.com. Sometimes you write just to say hi and sometimes you write with ideas for future episodes. Minis or episodes and those are always truly appreciated, too. So thank you.