KITCHEN COUNTER BLOCKING FENG SHUI OF LANDSCAPE

For my landscape ( & sanity) the Feng Shui of the kitchen must change. Kitchen counters form an 'L' blocking easy access to the backdoor & garden. Disliked, strongly, for years it's now unbearable. Changing the kitchen will change my life. Bold? No. Energy must flow easily, vanishing threshold.
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The stupid kitchen counter can't block me from my garden anymore. How's that for a mission statement?
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It's ridiculous what's involved removing 4.5' of kitchen counter:
* Replacing the floor
* Replacing old appliances
* New counter tops
* New sink (I like the one above)
* Reconfiguring the ceiling
* Painting
* New light fixtures
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Timeline for action is winter. I've begun getting quotes & sourcing materials.
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Garden clubs, occasionally, meet in my garden for a lecture, tour & box lunch. But I haven't sought greater numbers. Why? The ridiculous kitchen.
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It's time to live my vanishing threshold; house, garden, life.
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Sink, above, from House Beautiful magazine, I think.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

DESIRE FOR LANDSCAPE LIGHT

Designing landscapes to light interiors came later. Not in college, or studies abroad. Simply living. Realizing garden light throughout any day, any weather became necessary to serenity. Adoring how the light of sunny days, rainy days, sunrise, humid late afternoons, fall sunsets, and 100's more configurations touch my furniture, art, books, cats and me. Natural morning light, no camera flash, above. Thought you would like to peep inside my home.

Afternoon light streaming into my office landing on Laskett.

Petunia in my office by lamplight before a winter's sunrise. I adore the transition from dark to dawn to sunrise to daylight. Dark, when lamps are on in the morning knowing, soon, my garden will awaken around me.

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Some days seeing the landscape, from inside, as chiaroscuro. Walking outside in my gown during those few seconds of magic. Being greedy, wanting a magical gloaming on the same day.

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Nobody tells you these things about a landscape. They imbue you with a desire for its light.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

LUSH PATIO TEMPLATE

Does your patio, or deck, answer the question:
IS THIS PATIO SO WONDERFUL I MUST SEE THE LANDSCAPE AND IS THIS PATIO SO WONDERFUL I MUST SEE INSIDE THE HOUSE?

If you're not answering YES the patio isn't finished.
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PATIO-DECK TEMPLATE: Lush plantings, privacy, easy to move furnishings, comfort, color choices for furnishings-home-accents to match interior design, lighting choices, detailing choices on house for 3-D effects, above, it's the shutters, large pots, area for conversation-reading-napping, area for eating, outdoor ceiling fans. Is the patio an extension of the room/s it is viewed from?

The template doesn't waver for the value of your real estate. Starter home or Madoff golf course community, the template remains the same.

Thank you Cote de Texas for posting this picture, from Ernesto Buch, on your blog

Garden & Be Well XO T

SHOOTING HIPPIE CHICK

Hippie Chick is the real deal. Dusting it up in the 1960's she's still advocating for nature, children, reading, fixing government, pollution.... She's one of those rare people with children that has left a chunk of land, major chunk, to a preserve. Hippie Chick is wicked fun. We share secrets but that's another blog.

Shooting her porch was easy though it had a huge problem. The light fixture and screen door shout 1970's yuck. Shooting to avoid ugliness, the offending door/light fixture are to the left.

Hippie Chick has other porches. We've sat and gossiped on the others but not here. Why? There to design we start working the moment my foot hits her property.

I'll find the pics of her backyard we did last year. It has a new cistern, clothesline and vegetable garden.......... Will get shots of her new frontdoor/light fixture soon.