Joanna Gaines Interior Design 43 Simple Home Interior Design Ideas For Your New House

this on Third Street that ship owned when we got married were really small and not the most attractive homes I wouldn't have chosen to live in any one of them if I could avoid it thankfully though the nicest one of the bunch happened to open up at the end of the spring semester and chip hadn't put any summer renters into it yet it was a yellow ranch-style with a nice white porch on the front and a pair of huge magnolia trees in the yard and it was bigger than the rest maybe 1,200 square feet or so it was just pretty enough that I was excited to live there and fix it up to make it feel like our very own home Chip and I were both exhausted when we finally pulled up in front of that house but we were still riding the glow of her honeymoon and I was so excited as he carried me over the threshold until the smell nearly knocked us over oh my word I said pinching my nose and trying to hold my breath so I wouldn't gag what is that chip flick the light switch and the light didn't come on he flicked it up and down a few times then felt his way forward in the darkness and tried another switch the electricity is off he said the girls must have had it shut off when they moved out didn't you transfer it back into your name I asked I guess not I'm sorry babe chip said chip what is that smell it was the middle of June in Waco Texas the temperature had been up over a hundred degrees for days on end and the humidity was stifling amplifying whatever that rotten smell was coming from the kitchen chip always carries a knife in a flashlight and it sure came in handy that night chip made his way back there and found that the fridge still had a bunch of food left in it including a bunch of ground beef that had just sat there rotting since whenever the electricity went out the food was literally just smoldering in this hunter degree house so we went from living in this swanky hotel room off Park Avenue in New York City to this disgusting humid stink of a place that felt more like the site of a crime scene than a home at this point honestly I hadn't thought it through very well but it was late and we were tired and I just focused on making the most out of this awful situation so we opened some windows and brought our bags in I told Joe we just tough it out sleep on the floor clean this place up in the morning and that's when she started to cry I lay down on the floor thinking is this what my life is gonna look like now that I'm married a chip is this my new normal that's when another smell hit me it was in the carpet chip did these girls have a dog here I asked they had a couple of dogs he answered why you could smell it in the carpet it was nasty I was just lying there with my head next to some old dog urine stain that had been heated by the Texas summer heat microwave dog pee it was it was awful it was 3:00 in the morning and I finally said chip I'm not sleeping in this house we were broke we couldn't go to a hotel there was no way we were gonna knock on my parents door at this time of night that's when I got an idea we happen to have chips parents old RV parked in a vacant lot a few blocks down we had some of our things in there and had been using it basically a storage until we moved in let's get in the RV we'll go find somewhere to plug it in and we'll have a/c I said as we stepped outside the skies opened up it started pouring rain when we finally got into the RV soaking wet we pulled down the road aways and chip said I know where we can go it was raining so hard we could barely see through the windshield and all of a sudden chip turned the RV into a cemetery why are you pulling into a cemetery I asked him we're not going to the cemetery chip said it's just next to a cemetery there's an RV park back there are you kidding me could this get any worse oh quit it Joe you're gonna love it once I get this a/c fired up chip decided to go flying through the medium between the two rows of RV parking not realizing it was set up like a culvert for drainage and rain runoff that RV bounced so hard that had it not been for our seatbelts we would have both been catapulted through the roof of that vehicle what was that I don't know chip said I tried to put it in reverse and then forward and then reverse again and the thing literally wouldn't move I hopped out to take a look and I could not believe it there was this movie a few years ago the main character gets in this RV and he gets caught in his fulcrum and it's sitting there teetering on both sides of the wheels just spinning in the air well we sort of did the exact opposite we went across that Valley and because the RV was so long the butt end of it was stuck on the little hill behind us and the front end was stuck on a little hill in front of us and the wheels were just sort of hanging there in thin air I crawled back into the RV soaking wet and gave Joe the bad news we had no place to go no place to plug in so we could run the AC it was pouring rain so we couldn't really walk anywhere to get help and at that point I was just done we wound up toughing it out and spending the first night after a honeymoon in a hot old RV packed full of our belongings suspended between two bumps in the road the next morning someone from the RV park spotted us and was kind enough to call a tow truck the first truck they sent wasn't big enough so they had to call in a semi tow truck one of the big ones we were freaking out and of course we were completely broke are you starting to pick up on the theme here we stayed flat broke a lot of the time early on we didn't know how we were gonna pay this guy but then our very last little honeymooners miracle came through that truck driver said well guys looks like the honeymoons over this one's on us this was just the way things were with chip he was always going out on the limb but God always had a way of looking out for him actually God seemed to always be out on the limb with him taking care of him we should have been more careful not to spend every last dollar on our honeymoon with that favor from that sweet man made us feel as if maybe some things were just meant to be by the light of day we went back to the yellow house full of hot stink and I made up my mind right then and there to make the best of it I pulled myself together and rolled up my sleeves as people say and I said to chip okay let's do this what else could I do this was our home now we didn't have any other options I covered my nose and mouth and started cleaning once the two of us got the worst of it out chip went off and took care of some business there were rent checks in from his other houses that needed to be cashed and as soon we had a few dollars in hand we hit the hardware store I had never done anything designed related at that point but there was something very liberating about starting from scratch we knew every room needed to be painted all the carpet needed to come out and all the hardwood floors needed to be refinished and chip gave me free reign to make that home whatever I wanted to make it to be honest I didn't know what I wanted to make it so I started with one basic idea I have like six favorite colors so I'm gonna paint every room one of those colors once I got going I decided that using different colors in every room wasn't enough for me I wanted to make every room a different theme I went with a nautical theme in the front room and decorated with a bunch of cheap sailboats and netting that I bought at a hobby store the kitchen was French inspired so it was mustard yellow our bedroom was hotel inspired so all-white the back room was Chip inspires it was cedar and horns and cow hides every room was completely different we did every part of this renovation together with our bare hands trip restored all of the hardwood floors all the tile work everything I was learning as we went but I definitely did my part that house was gorgeous Joe did an awesome job helping fix it up and our ideas were great there was a moment in the kitchen when I smarted off them I don't even remember what I said to be honest but Joe got real mad and started yelling she was carrying this 5-gallon bucket of primer she slammed it down on the ground to make a point and it splashed right back up in her face it was dripping off her eyelashes her nose whenever something like that happen in my family we'd all just laugh you know so I laughed even though she was mad at me and that made her even angrier she started yelling again and the primer dripped all over and at that moment when I looked at her and everything just seemed to go in slow motion I thought I love this woman she is tough I think this is gonna work that was our real first fight and even now we both agree it was our biggest chip had smarted off about something so my blood was already boiling but when I slammed that bucket down chip says I became a ninja the kind you don't want to mess with yet he still laughed against his better judgment we joke about it now like well I'm mad but I'm not primer in the face mad it would take us a few months to get everything in livable condition in that house even though we were living there full-time looking back I don't know how we did it but I guess you have a lot more time and energy before they're kids in the picture we were newlyweds we had our whole lives ahead of us and despite the rough start we were still writing the excitement of our honeymoon and feeding off of that energy we seemed to have whenever we were together which is basically all the time chip never said no to any of my ideas he was a hundred percent onboard for my various themed rooms he spoiled me in that way but it was more than that chip supported everything I wanted to do he even supported my dreams the two of us would dream together all the time just lying in bed at night imagining where we could go in life talking about things we always wanted to do or see or accomplish until I left home and went to do my internship in New York City I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do at some point in my teen years I told my father that I wanted to take over a spire stone shop when he retired I thought that was the right thing to do I thought it would make him proud as if I were the son he'd never had who would step into his shoes and carry on the successful business he'd created then I went to Baylor and got interested in broadcast journalism I loved the storytelling and the editing process and I managed to get two years worth of internships under my belt at our local CBS station kW TX everyone said that if you wanted to make it in TV news you had to go to New York City to do it so I went out on a limb and applied to the Today Show Good Morning America and 48 hours those shows didn't have internship affiliations with Baylor at the time so it was a long shot to say the least I just went in and did it on my own at a blind naive ambition I guess I had lived a pretty sheltered life up until then so when 48-hours selected me I was worried my parents might fight it how could they let their little girl go to the big city all by herself but I was wrong my protective parents not only supported my ambition they paid for my apartment for the six a good thing too because it was $1,500 a month for a room and a shared apartment two other people as amazing as it was to live on West 57th Street and to work under a man as esteemed as Ian rather I quickly fell out of love with a news business while working that job my job as an intern was to read the papers to find salacious stories cold cases or horrible crime stories to pitch to the senior editors it was heavy why I fell out of love with TV news I did fall in love with New York City it was more than just wandering in and out of those lovely boutiques that I mentioned before I was pretty homesick during those six months and I especially miss my mother so it was eye-opening and beautiful to see so many people in that big city who looked like my mom and me it seemed that everywhere I looked there was a woman walking down the street who reminded me of her it was so unlike growing up in Kansas in Texas New York is where I finally began to appreciate all the different cultures and truly began to fall in love with my Korean heritage it's difficult to put into words but there was something about that experience that helped me find myself I would go home every night and write about my experiences what I'd seen what I'd done and sometimes just about whatever I was thinking or feeling and as I did that something shifted in me I started owning Who I am realizing that I was unique and that God had a unique purpose for me I spent my whole life worrying about what people thought about me or whether I was good enough or thinking about what I should be doing instead of really digging down to find what I really wanted to do I had always been a religious person I was brought up in the church and my parents were very committed to getting the family there every Sunday without fail so from the age of five to about 20 religion to me was a matter of you do this and you don't do that and you do your best to walk a straight line I was good at that I'm good at following the rules most of the time but once I was on my own in New York my faith became something very personal it was no longer about what my parents knew or what my pastor knew I came to think of God as more of a gracious friend who was accompanying me on this journey a friend who wanted to carry my burdens and speak my life and shaped me into who I really was and who I would become when I got back to Waco I had a very different perspective I went back to work at my father's Firestone shop knowing that I didn't want to do broadcast journalism but also doubting whether or not I wanted to take over the tire business I spent a good part of my days in that back office daydreaming and sketching ideas out on a yellow steno pad I wasn't sure I wanted to run my dad's business but I definitely liked the idea of owning my own business I thought about what kind of businesses I'd like to own a spa a bakery or a home store whatever I chose I wanted it to be as beautiful and welcoming as those boutiques in New York I drew pictures of what the shops might look like I design logos I never share those ideas with anybody and there were times when I thought I was just being foolish in fact I started thinking about my degree and the fact that I'd worked at one of the top evening news programs in all of television and I wondered if maybe I had given up on TV news too soon I wondered if maybe I should go back to New York and go for it I was actually in the middle of pulling up all the old contacts I've made during my internship on the very day I met chip at the tire shop and so I stayed in Waco and my life took a sharp turn down a path I could have never imagined we'd only been living in the yellow house for about a month when I flipped open that yellow pad and showed chip some of my ideas remodeling and redecorating that house had filled me with all sorts of new inspiration so I showed him the sketches and plans I had made for a little home decor shop I told him I wanted to apply everything I'd learn from this house and my days wandering around Manhattan to a business idea I'd been playing around with someday I said why not right now chip replied what do you mean you go drive around and find a building you like and let's do it we'll fix it up just like we're fixing up this house and you can open your business right now are you serious of course I'm serious go find a building and let's do it why not chip had this way of turning far-off dreams into something that seemed real and achievable in an instant he filled me up with a confidence I've never known he made me believe I could actually do it so I did I drove around Waco with new eyes searching around every corner and strip mall for something that I could turn into my vision one day I spotted this building on Bosque Boulevard it was sunburnt orange a bit like chip on our first date and it was all boarded up but it looked more like a little house than a cookie-cutter strip mall type of business it backed up to a residential neighborhood it had its own little parking lot and it was right next door to a church there was something cute and quirky about that place that just caught my eye it wasn't for sale it basically looked abandoned but I took a picture on my phone and sent it to chip I love this building I told him his response was Joe that thing is ugly but I love all the windows I can imagine these pretty displays I picked up some dumb some buildings that weren't pretty either but this place seemed like it was on the wrong side of town for a retail location it looked more like a place that you'd turn into a little gas station or a used-car lot or something like that chip didn't feel good about it but he did some research anyway and found out the property was owned by a woman named Maybelle who was probably in her 70s at the time we reached out to her and she agreed to meet us at the building she told us the whole history of the place her son had been renovating it for years but he had gotten very sick and had never been able to finish she had received a couple of offers on the property but she just wasn't ready to part with it yet especially since those bidders wanted to turn it in to a used-car lot or something else she didn't want to see in the neighborhood she and her son had been looking to open up a tuxedo shop and she was hoping for something along those lines we had a good talk with Maybelle and she loved the idea that I'd be opening a shop I would run myself that I had no interest in tearing down that little building her son had worked on for so long before we left we told her we'd like to make an offer too and she said that when the time came she'd rather sell to ask than the other folks so we got all excited thinking back maybe we got excited a little too quickly because we'd never thought through exactly how we'd finance the place I had a line of credit that worked really well for flipping houses it was a short-term thing but I didn't really have the credit needed for this long term commercial purchase like this even though this was gonna be Joe's business it really made sense to both of us that it'd be in both of our names I had a tiny bit of savings tucked away that I decide I could use for a downpayment I'd never thought I would touch that money but chip inspired me to do something more with it than just to let it sit in the bank earning next to nothing in interest I also knew that if I filled out a loan application I'd still be able to show the income I've been making at my dad's shop I might even be able to qualify for some kind of small business loan available to women we decided to go for it and we're excited to hear about some financing options chip hadn't used before the bottom line is that I love Jo and she loved me and we really loved working together working together energized us it just worked out best and no matter what it took I was going to make this little shop work for her when she shared that little yellow notepad of sketches with me I knew this was like Jo sharing her diary or something these were her innermost thoughts and dreams I couldn't help but push her towards him and the quicker I thought the better no time to chicken out like that first date after doing all the paperwork and scraping together as much as I could I offered me about $45,000 for her property and she said oh my I've already had two offers for considerably more than that she had thought we could come closer to those other offers and she'd been sure she'd pick us over them even if we came in a little under simply because she liked us but 45 thousand was just too low I am so sorry I thought you guys were going to be a little closer she said I am so sorry if I offended you Mabel that's just what I have I said well if you could come up with a little more call me she replied if not I'm gonna have to move on with those other people I knew we couldn't come up with more putting together the financing on that forty five thousand dollars was a stretch as it was that was that I was really sad about it of course I'd managed to get all excited imagining the possibilities for what I could do with it in that location I'd envisioned that shot from top to bottom I swear I could smell the candles burning inside and see the looks on my customers faces when they found that perfectly unique item that would fit in that perfect spot in their home I wasn't ready to give up I knew we could probably find another location somewhere but it was very hard to let go of the store I'd envisioned in that corky old building I'm boss so that night and just about every night after that I prayed Lord that's the building that spoke to me and if it's meant to be please make it come

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Id: KSJe9u7u8mQ

Length: 19min 4sec (1144 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 07 2020